If you've been looking for a quick and easy Valentine's Day math activity for kids, then you might want to try making a set of these DIY heart shaped tangram puzzles for kids.
You can make them as simple or as difficult as you like and they even make a great busy bag idea.
What You Need for These DIY Heart Tangram Puzzles
Making your own tangram puzzles for kids is pretty easy to do. You only need two things. Here's what we used:
- Craft foam sheets - Feel free to use whatever colors you want. Try to pick different colors for each puzzle though. That way you can tell which pieces go with which puzzle.
- Scissors - To cut the craft foam into hearts and then puzzle pieces.
First, I cut out four large hearts using a different color for each heart. Then I cut each heart into random pieces. Some are more basic, like the purple one pictured below, but others, like the yellow one, have more pieces and are trickier to put together. Just be sure to tailor the puzzles to your child's skills and age.
You can store these tangram puzzles in little zipper seal bags and keep them as busy bags or present them on a tray like I did for a quick math activity.
Playing with DIY Tangram Puzzles for Valentine's Day
The boys loved putting these puzzles together. The purple one was probably the easiest one to assemble and is really all three year old K could handle independently.
Five year old J, on the other hand, who has "very superior visual-spatial skills" (direct quote from his assessment), excelled at putting these puzzles together, even the ones that were trickier. And here I thought I could stump him...pfft. Of course not!
This activity was part a Valentine's series called Show Me the Love. Here are some other ideas from my co-hosts:
Conversation Heart Sensory Play for Baby from House of Burke
Melt My Heart Valentine's Day Art from Still Playing School
