Christmas Math Ideas

I love the holiday season, but lets face it, teaching in December is HARD! The kids are a little crazy. We get a little crazy (Please tell me that I am not the only one sleeping 5 hours a night?!?) We have to get creative so we all make to winter break. Today, I am sharing some of my favorite Christmas Math Activities (LOTS OF FREEBIES). I am showing some of my favorite Dollar Store finds that will turn any center into hands on holiday fun.

Subitizing is the ability to look at a group and know how many there are. When  you look at a dice showing four dots, kids should know that without counting. Dice patterns are usually the first kids learn, especially if they play board games

 (I know, I know, some kids don’t even know what Candyland is)

Eventually, they should be able to recognize various dot/shape patterns without counting. Maybe they will see the full pattern or maybe they will see two and three and know that is five.

I LOVE these FREE Ornament cards. Not only are they perfect for practicing subitizing, you can also introduce decomposing.

How many ornaments are there? How many are red? How many are green? So____ and ____ make ___.

I found both trees, the pompoms, and the bells at the Dollar Tree. I am all about the hands on learning. Plus, this is a really low prep center (so you don’t have spend you entire break cutting). The cards should be laminated if you want to use them every year, but the can easily be cut on a cutting board. The Dollar Tree trees and “ornaments” don’t involve any prep (WINNING).

How cute are these Christmas Math Crafts ? There is also an elf wreath, not shown. You can teach a variety of skills and standards with these crafts. You can work on decomposing 5 or 10. Plus, each craft has a matching math center for additional independent practice on decomposing 5 and t10.  Also, your working on fine motor skills, and listening to and following directions, which are so important. When I do these crafts, I have a completed one to show kids. Then, I build one with the kids (id you have a document camera, that’s even better). By model, I cut out Santa’s head, then have the kids cut out Santa’s head. Then, I cut out the hat, and they cut out the hat. I won’t wait for of my kids to be done to model the second step. I wait for about 2/3 to be done (we all have that one or two children that take longer).  I only give them one or two pieces at a time so they don’t lose them. I do let them pick out the five or the ten pieces, so every student does not end up with the same number sentence. For kids who really struggle with fine motor, I may help with SOME of the cutting, but never all of it. If students don’t practice cutting, they will never get better. Do they all look perfect? No, but that is half the fun. Follow me on Instagram @myfabulousclass and you can see some that my students have made. They may not be Pinterest perfect, but the kids love them. You can buy these crafts here. (I also have a seasonal bundle here, but it does not include Christmas).

Stamps make everything better. You can usually find stamps at the Dollar Tree or Target Dollar Spot. They have them for every season. If you can’t find stamps, you can alss use Christmas stickers. I have students work on this with a partner. One student stamps, and one writes the number. You can get the template free here.

If you have been following me for awhile, you know I love Sensory Bins. The kids love sensory bins. Now, I do have sensory bins that all play, but I also use these smaller ones for my math and literacy centers. This one includes chickpeas colored red and green (food coloring), and various Dollar Tree items. The Reindeer numbers come from a FREE File Folder game that I have.