Heart Roll and Cover Mats

These heart roll and cover mats will make learning math and literacy skills fun and effective this Valentine’s Day. They would be great for winter math and literacy centers or morning work in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade.

Teach letter sounds and letter formation or number sense and number formation in a way that kids love!

I am a little obsessed with roll, cover and write mats right now. The kids are enjoying them so much and my readers are loving them too, so I am going to keep them coming.

If you missed the snowman roll and cover mats or the mitten roll and cover mats, then you should definitely check those out too.

Benefits of the Heart Roll and Cover Mats

They cover a variety of math and literacy skills while also being differentiated to the needs of learners at a variety of levels of ability.

Here are some of the skills covered while using the mats:

Number sense – Number recognition, counting, subitizing, one to one correspondence, writing numbers and number words.

Literacy skills – Letter recognition, letter sounds, beginning sounds recognition, writing uppercase and lowercase letters.

The heart roll and cover mats include all of the letters in the alphabet. There are uppercase tracing letters, lowercase tracing letters and handwriting lines for children who have moved beyond tracing and just need to practice writing the letters on their own. There are also mats for numbers 1-12.

Children can practice number recognition and counting with numbers 1-6 or they can use two dice and add the numbers together for the numbers 7-12.

Not only is this a fun way to develop these very important math and literacy skills, but is also hands-on and engaging for young kids who often lose interest quickly.

Setting up the Heart Roll and Cover Mats

I created these heart roll and cover mats in a way that requires very few supplies and limits the amount of prep you need to do ahead of time.

Supplies Needed:

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Roll and Cover Mats (button to download at the bottom of this post)
Dice (I like these)
Foam blocks (to make alphabet dice)
Pom poms, counting chips, gems or something else to use as manipulatives
Dry-erase markers or wet erase markers
Laminator and laminating pouches or Write and Wipe Pockets

Once you buy these supplies you will be able to use them over and over again for all of the roll and cover mats I make in the future.

Instructions:

Make alphabet dice by writing one letter on each side of a foam block.
Laminate the mats or slip them into write and wipe pockets. I have found that 5 mil laminating sheets work best if you want to use dry-erase markers on them. Otherwise it doesn’t come off. If all you have is 3 mil, then I would use wet erase markers instead. Overall, I prefer write and wipe pockets most.

Using the Heart Roll and Cover Mats this Valentine’s Day

Children will roll either the number dice or alphabet dice, depending on which mat they are using. They can also use two number dice and add the numbers together when using the mats that include numbers 7-12. They will do this by keeping one dice at a 6 then rolling the other and adding it to the 6.

Then they will cover the corresponding number or beginning sound picture on the mat with some type of manipulative. In this case, we used heart table scatter that I picked up at the Dollar Tree. They are great manipulatives for all kinds of Valentine’s Day activities.

Finally, they will write the number or letter or trace it, depending on which mats you are using.

This continues until all of the numbers or pictures have been covered on the mat.

The kids enjoy these roll and cover mats because they engage them in an activity that is a lot like a game. I love them because they give them so much practice with a variety of skills.

I hope your kids enjoy them and learn a lot too!