Counting Down 'til the Big Day {Holiday Themed Math}

I can't believe we have LESS than three weeks for Christmas activities before break!  Where oh where is this month going to go!?!

Today I am excited to bring you some great ideas of things to do for math this month!!


I LOVE all of the great things that you can do during December to practice math skills and bring the Christmas magic to life in your classroom!!  One of my favorite things to do in class is to have a snowball fight!  There is no prep required for this, nothing you need to copy or have ready.  

Snowball fight out of scratch paper using math facts.  Have students throw their snowballs across the room to practice and have fun!

I had my students write a math fact on a sheet of paper.  It could be anything we had learned about, addition, subtraction, and beginning multiplication.  They had to write this in marker so we could tell the problems apart from the answers.  Then they took that sheet of paper and crumbled it into a ball.  On the count of THREE we started throwing the snowballs across the room.  Students then had to grab a snowball, flatten it out and answer the question.  They had to show their work, and write their name to get credit for their team.  I let them play for about 5 - 10 minutes!  Then we went through and quickly checked to see what team had the most points!  It was so much fun, they enjoyed it, and were totally engaged the whole time!


Building Christmas trees out of scrapbook paper and then measuring to the nearest quarter inch.


Another fun and easy activity that we do is create these Christmas trees out of scrapbook paper.  I use these scraps left over from our elves that we make earlier in the week.  They have to make their tree using at least six strips of paper.  They then measure their papers to the nearest quarter inch to practice their measurement skills.

Centers are a great place to have task cards so students can practice different math ideas to stay engaged and practicing

One of my other favorite ways to keep students engaged during these busy weeks is with lots of scoot games or task cards.  I love these because they are moving around, going from place to place, and not just sitting in one seat filling out a worksheet.  I typically will put these in centers or taped around the classroom with washi tape.  The students are able to practice many different skills using these tasks cards, and they can be engaging and fun!

Scoot games or task cards are a great way to keep students engaged during busy times of the year

There are a lot of great task cards that you can use to keep your students engaged, learning and having fun this month!!  You can check out my snowman set here, my growing multiplication and division bundle, lots of awesome math products on TPT like this awesome freebie by Angie from Lucky Little Learners.

You can find more awesome ideas by these wonderful teachers too!!

2 comments

  1. These are all really fun activities. I love that you use student created problems for the snowball fight. This is a great student centered activity...and requires zero prep! I also like your little scrapbook Christmas trees where the students practice measuring. You could even extend this activity to have students compare the different lengths of paper on the tree. Thanks so much for joining our link up and sharing these great ideas!
    Angela
    The Organized Plan Book

    ReplyDelete
  2. My kids snowball fights - nice use of them! Christmas tree idea is awesome! Would be cute to make for parent cards.

    - Evil Math Wizard

    ReplyDelete

Back to Top