Here are a few Christmas maths activities to try with your class - 5 great starting points for investigation and a handful of 10-minute stocking fillers. They will provide children with valuable opportunities for maths learning along with some Christmas festive fun.
These investigations and challenges are taken from articles I have put on this website over the years.
Click on each heading to take you to the relevant page, with details of the mathematics involved. They can be used to match the maths you wish to teach and in the time you have available over this busy festive period.
How many ways can a star be drawn using 2D shapes?
These include questions to ask as they investigate.
KS1 - place 2D shapes on top of each other, rotate and draw round the shape.
KS2 - make dots on each vertex of a regular shape to make internal stars.
How much paper is needed to wrap a parcel?
Use 36 interlocking cubes to make different cuboids and investigate the amount of paper needed to wrap each one.
Teacher prompts are included.
Make a paper star for Christmas
Folding and cutting to make a paper star – with a lot of opportunites to reinforce skills.
Step-by-step instructions and follow up questions included.
Fibonacci numbers shown on a Christmas cone
All cones grow in spirals. Start at the base of the cone and use gold or silver (or any colour) pens and follow the spiral up as far as possible. Now count all the spirals that start round the base, both of these cones have 8 spirals - a Fibonacci number!
Then explore the spirals made by using the numbers in the Fibonacci sequence.
This is another Fibonacci article to take a look at:
Fibonacci numbers in nature - count and draw the spirals
12 days of Christmas - a maths investigation
On the first day one present was sent, on the second day two presents were sent...and the first present was sent again - so that's four presents sent altogether so far.
How many presents will be sent altogether by the end of the 12th day of Christmas?
12 days of Christmas - starting points for different ages.
10-minute Christmas maths fillers
Here are a few short, one-off simple activities that can be done with only paper and crayons - in those spare moments between Christmas rehearsals. They are interesting, fun maths tasks providing an opportunity for exploration and problem solving.
