Christmas Activities
A list of Christmas themed activities for the mathematics classroom.
Issue 75: Christmas Puzzles
Four Christmas puzzles.
Twelve Mince-Pies: a spatial puzzles where four mince pies have to be moved to make seven straight rows.
Mrs. Smiley's Christmas Present: a puzzle based upon square numbers.
The Christmas Pudding: dissecting a sphere
A calendar puzzle: What day is most likely to be the beginning of a new century.
Solutions are provided.
Data Handling Activities for Students Aged 9-11
Jingle Bells
A simple musical activity for younger students. Could it be extended to other pieces of Christmas music?
Shape Activities for Students Aged 11-13
Christmas Coordinates
Draw a Christmas picture given the coordinates.
Can you make up your own simple picture and write out the coordinates?
What would the coordinates be if the shape was reflected in the y axis? x axis? rotated by 180 degrees about (0,0)?
Task Maths 1
Twelve Days of Christmas
Activity twleve on page 64 of the book (65 of the pdf) gives four pages of activities based upon the song The Twelve Days of Christmas
Shape Activity in the Classroom - Books 8 to 14
Christmas Tangrams
Teacher inspiration for a spacial activity producing Christmas pictures from tangrams.
Fractals
A series of six lessons about fractals leading to the production of a von Koch Snowflake.
Christmas party planning
In this problem solving activity children choose and carry out a range of calculations in order to plan a Christmas event. The party has to suit a particular number of people and fit within a specific budget so they have to make decisions by looking at realistic pricing options such as: per-person, according to group size or related to time. The party theme can also be extended into other curriculum areas such as persuasive writing and poster design.
Winter Mathematics
This resource consists of twenty eight winter themed activities. There are a number of investigations, puzzles and games covering a variety of aspects of mathematics.
A calendar activity requires students to complete a calendar from jigsaw pieces then spot the patterns created. Winter scenes uses Carroll Diagrams and Venn diagrams to sort and categorise whilst the Christmas trees activity uses Venn diagrams and to categorise trees using their symmetry.
The resource contains a number of puzzles and investigations such as Logic crackers, Logic snowmen, Logic christmas cards and a paper chains investigation exploring the different ways links in the chain can be joined. Students can also answer a variety of questions and puzzled based upon the song ‘Twelve days of Christmas’.
The Christmas tree game involves fitting different mathematical shapes into a Christmas tree and students can use hexagons to make Christmas tree patterns whilst digit trees help develop adding strategies.
Speedy Santa
This Bowland assessment task asks students to calculate the average amount of time Santa can spend in each house in the UK on Christmas Eve. Students are presented with facts about the population of the UK and constraints by which Santa must abide. They are then required to make reasonable assumptions and present their arguments in a clear logical manner.
School Fair / Festivals
Festivals links to angles, 3-D modelling, formulae and equations, number patterns, number operations, polygons, scale drawing and symmetry and covers
Paper decorations: making and decorating paper spirals.
Pop-up cards: designing and making 3-D pop-up cards.
Patterns from India: looking at, and making, Rangoli patterns.
The 12 days of Christmas: calculating the number of presents sent in a Jamaican version of the song.
Angels: constructing and making angels.
Menorahs: a puzzle to find the number of candles used in a Menorah during the Jewish festival of Hannukah.
The Star of David: exploring polygons to make a Star of David.
Chinese New Year: solving riddles to discover which Chinese year people are born.
