'Tis the Season for Holiday Fun!
With December right around the corner, it’s time to prepare for a month of holiday festivities! Help spread Christmas cheer by incorporating these holiday-themed math activities into your classroom.
Let’s first acknowledge how CUTE this clipart is…I am obsessed! Your students will also be as they work through these Boom Cards on comparing fractions.
Boom Cards require NO PREP–just send students the link on Google Classroom, Schoology, Boom Learning, or whatever platform you use. Since they are self-checking, students receive immediate feedback after each question. They truly do learn from Boom Cards!
Another option is to use Boom Cards in your whole group lesson or display a few questions for a warm-up activity.
There are more holiday-themed math decks on factor pairs, simplest form, and converting improper fractions and mixed numbers.
Holiday-Themed Math Games
Another way to add a touch of holiday cheer to your classroom is with games. Games work well as a math station or choice board activity. Students love playing them, especially when they are decorated in all things Christmas.
Holiday-Themed Math Crafts
Think Christmas crafts are for primary students only? Think again! These Christmas factor trees reinforce prime and composite numbers and extend into prime factorization.
This festive craft even comes with its very own “O Factor Tree” lyrics! Read this blog post for more info!
Holiday-Themed Math Centers
Finally, incorporate holiday-themed resources into your math centers. Task cards, clip cards, and matching activities are my go-to resources for small group centers.
1. Task cards are extremely versatile, easy to differentiate, and provide meaningful practice for students. Since they only solve one card at a time, task cards don’t feel overwhelming like a worksheet sometimes does.
2. Clip cards are an effective resource because of their self-checking feature. Students can use paper clips, clothes pins, a dry-erase marker, or their fingers to clip and check their answers. They can also be used for quiz-quiz-trade, one of my favorite cooperative learning structures!
3. Matching activities have a game-like feel to them, which students love. This festive activity has students match the fractions on the colored ornaments to their simplest form on the tree.
The level of difficulty varies within the trees (tree #1 is the least difficult and tree #10 is the most challenging), therefore allowing students to work at different levels. For a lower prep activity, use the digital version instead!
Want to know more about these holiday-themed math activities? Shop the Christmas section within my TPT store for detailed descriptions, previews, and teacher testimonials.
Until next time,
Happy Holidays!
P.S. Need holiday party and gift ideas for your upper elementary students? I share all of that and more in Episode 21 of Elementary Math Chat! Episode 21: 10 Holiday Party and Gift Ideas for Upper Elementary Students