Are you looking for Christmas math activities that would still help target your curriculum?
I’m sure your students are checking out by now. Christmas is just around the corner and I’m sure it’s so easy for them to get off-task.
Certainly, you are getting frustrated in the classroom. To help you out, here are some of my favorite classroom activities to do in my math class during the holiday season.
Do Math Task Card Activities
Task cards are the best! Make them a little bit special by making them Christmas-themed! They are very flexible, especially during this season. Here are some task card activities that you can do in your classroom.
- Use task cards as math centers. I’m sure your students love centers. It gives them some independence to do their work and practice what was taught in the curriculum. Give them a set of task cards to work on and a student recording sheet where they can show their work.
- Play SCOOT. This one is a favorite in my classroom. How do you play scoot? Place one task card on each table or stick them around the classroom. Each student starts at a number. Give them a minute or two to answer the questions on the task cards. Once you say “SCOOT!” tell them to rotate clockwise or counterclockwise. Keep on repeating this until everyone answers all of the task cards.
- Play Scavenger Hunt. Hide the task cards when your students are not looking. After that, give students the answers to the task cards. Let your students go around the room to match the answers to the questions. Make sure they have a clipboard with them to record their answers.
What’s best about using task cards is that they are easy to prep. If you want to keep it simple, you only need a 3 by 5 index card and a pen to write down your questions.
However, I’m sure you don’t have all the time in the world. If you want a spruced-up set of task cards, you can download these multiplication and division task cards from my TPT Store.
Play Games
You can never go wrong with a game. Every once in a while, students need a break from sitting in the classroom too. Let your students enjoy some Christmas-themed games and still learn math.
- Play Bingo. Use a free bingo card generator to help review math facts. It can be addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. Add a Christmas-themed background to spice it up! Here’s how you can play bingo during your math class. Assign a bingo card to each student and give markers. Call out a question and let your students figure out the answer. When they know the answer and it is on their card, have your students mark their cards.
- Play word search. Use this free word search generator and add your vocabulary words. If you want your word search spruced up, you can also go to Canva and use one of their free templates! Just print the word search and give it to your students. Then you can opt to have them do it in pairs or independently.
- Play Hot Potato. Prepare some math questions related to your curriculum in advance. Use a Christmas décor as your hot potato. It can be an ornament that you have at home. Play some Christmas music. In a circle, students pass around the hot potato while the music is playing. Once it stops, the student who is holding the hot potato gets to answer your questions. Do this until all of your students have a chance to answer a question.
- Solve Christmas-themed puzzles or codes. Students love a little bit of mystery. Another fun thing you can do with them is to prepare a simple code-breaker game. Use Christmas emojis or any clip art that you have. Here is a sample of a Christmas-themed code-breaker game.
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As you can see, these activities are pretty quick and easy to prepare. I hope these will help you prepare for the busy Christmas season. However, if you are looking for more Christmas-themed math activities, head on over to my TPT store to check out some math activities in the classroom.
Looking for ways to teach multiplication and division? Click on the links below to check out my other blog posts.