Valentines Day Math

 

Today is Valentines day and I like offering activities that use Valentine's Day as their focus.  It makes a nice change and allows students to have a bit of fun. I tend to go to Yummy Math for ideas because they always seem to have something.  

For instance, they have one that deals with those sweetheart candies.  Those heart shaped ones that come in pastel colors complete with messages like "I love you."  According to the activity, NECCO, the company that makes them, went bankrupt in 2018.  Within two years, another company bought the machinery, shipped it to Ohio, and began producing the candies again.  The activity has students answering questions about this candy before the company went bankrupt.  Some questions require students to figure out how much is made per month, or a per heart cost. They also ask students to draw conclusions.

Another activity has students reading and interpreting data off of two different infographics.  One infographic looks at where flowers are grown while the other looks at the cost of roses in several different International countries.  In addition, there are questions associated with each infographic that ask student to interpret data.  There are also questions asking students about how many hours must they work at a certain rate to buy a dozen roses in a different county.

Then there is the activity to help students work on estimation by asking students to estimate the number of food cans used in building a 3 dimensional heart.  Students are asked to look at a picture, estimate the number of cans used in the construction before watching a time lapse video showing how it was built. Students are asked to make more estimates after watching the video and they have to explain how they came up with their estimate.

For those who love to cook, there is an activity on creating a heart shaped raspberry flavored cake. They see how a square cake and a round cake are put together to form the heart.  Students are then asked to use information on cake batter to figure out how much cake batter is needed for various sized cakes. The amounts include fractions so they get some practice with real situations.

For chocolate lovers, one of the activities shows a heart shaped, bat shaped, and a turtle shaped chocolates on a grid and students are asked to determine which one is the largest in size.  Students are also asked to explain how they determined the greatest and least volume pieces.  It is a good exercise for students to explain their thinking.

There are several other exercises so teachers have a chance to select the one that works best for their students.  We know something might be rated as 8th grade but due to the pandemic, students may not be quite there.  In addition, the activities have students practicing different skills.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.