Holiday Activities and Freebies!
As the holiday season approaches, it can be challenging to keep students engaged and on track with so much excitement and anticipation in the air. This is especially true for math practice! I’m going to share some of my favorite Christmas math activities for kindergarten that you can use to keep students motivated until winter break.
These Christmas math activities can be a fun addition to your classroom in many ways! You could use these themed activities for math centers, homework, early finishers, and even for a classroom holiday party!
Students can practice addition with this fun Christmas-themed activity! Each of the trees on the worksheet is missing its star. Students will solve the addition equation on each tree and then find the star with the correct sum to put on the top. Cutting out the stars is great fine motor practice for little hands!
At the beginning of the year, students have worked hard to improve their number sense. By December, they are ready to build a strong foundation for addition practice. This reindeer-themed number line addition practice helps students visualize the process of addition. It’s a great way to review and practice this skill, since number lines will be an important tool for future math concepts.
After practicing addition with reindeer, you can continue the fun with an adorable reindeer addition craft! Students will choose two numbered cards, then write and solve an addition equation using those numbers. Then, they can create a reindeer craft to go with it! Putting together festive crafts as a class is such a fun way to celebrate the holiday season.
If you’re looking for a festive and memorable activity for your holiday celebrations, this candy cane taste test is a great option! Students can try two different flavors of candy canes and then vote for which one is their favorite.
After creating an anchor chart with the votes, students can also complete their own graphing worksheet to practice graphing and interpreting data.
This game is a fun option for math centers or a classroom party station. Students will roll two dice, add up the total number of dots, and then remove the corresponding candy cane from the number line. They will continue to play until they have removed all of the candy canes. Students are always excited to start again after clearing the number line, which makes this a perfect open-ended activity for math centers!
“Mooseltoe” by Margie Palatini is one of my favorite December read alouds for kindergarten! After enjoying the story with your class, students can create their own addition craft inspired by the story. Students will put a combination of ornaments and candy canes on the moose’s mustache. Then they will write an addition sentence to model the total number of decorations.
To continue the Mooseltoe fun, your students can have fun decorating mustaches on this print-and-go addition activity. Students will draw lights or ornaments on each side of the mustache to model each addition equation. Then, they can count the total number of decorations they’ve drawn and write the sum.
For some hands-on addition practice inspired by Mooseltoe, this mustache activity is always a hit! Students will string beads onto each side of the moose’s pipe cleaner mustache in order to model and solve addition equations. This makes a fun Christmas math center!
Solving word problems can be tricky for young mathematicians! You can help them practice with engaging holiday-themed addition story problems.
This booklet of addition stories comes with manipulatives that students can color, cut out, and attach to each page to model and solve addition equations. It’s amazing how a little bit of holiday cheer can boost motivation and engagement in learning activities!
This Christmas-themed addition mini reader is a great way to combine math and literacy practice. For example, students can count and color the Christmas tree ornaments on a page of the mini reader and then fill in the sentence frames with the quantity of ornaments and candy canes. There is also space for them to write the addition sentence at the bottom of the page.
Your students will love creating this stocking lift-the-flap addition practice! Students will cut along the lines of the stocking, then attach the edge to a piece of paper. Students can then solve the addition equation on each flap and write the sum underneath. This is a great way to improve math fluency!
This is another fun stocking-themed addition activity. Students will cover each sum with a stocking that has the matching addition equation. By attaching the stockings just at the top, it will become another lift-the-flap activity.
The holiday season is also a great time to review patterns! Students will color the candy cane stripes based on the type of pattern shown. There is also a candy cane that students can use to create and label their own pattern! This print-and-go activity is perfect for early finishers, emergency sub plans, morning work, and more!
You can find all of the Christmas math activities featured in this post (and more!) in one easy-to-download Christmas unit for kindergarten. This thematic unit includes a variety of themed literacy and math practice that you can use during the busy month of December. These activities are a great way to keep students engaged in learning while also enjoying some seasonal fun together as a class.
If you’d like to take a closer look at everything included in this set of Christmas activities, you can find it in the A Spoonful of Learning shop or in my TPT store.
Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite kindergarten board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find these Christmas math activities when you’re working on your December lesson plans.
