Teaching math during the Christmas holiday does not have to be the same boring old math lessons your students are used to. Add some holiday cheer and spice things up a bit during those last few days of math class before the Christmas break.
Holiday Graphs and Symmetry
Create some holiday themed graphs and teach symmetry with pictures of snowmen and snowflakes. For the symmetry lesson, have the students create the snowmen and snowflakes first, then teach them how to decide if they are symmetrical or not. Students can also make symmetrical Menorahs. Give each student a copy of half of the menorah and have them draw the other half.
Math Calculations for the Holidays
Students can design a simple light display, and then calculate the number of strings of lights they need based on the length of one string of lights. They can also add up all the gifts from the song The Twelve Days of Christmas. As an extension of this idea, students can practice multiplication and division skills with the same song.
Bring in a variety of store ads and have students go shopping in the classroom. Provide them an amount of money they can spend, and have them decide what they can purchase with that amount of money. They can also have a list of people they have to purchase gifts for, which will make them think carefully about what each person would want, and budget accordingly. As an extension on this activity, the more advanced students can figure out how much they could save with coupons.
Estimation Lessons
Fill a jar with candy and leave it out on a shelf in the classroom. Explain to the students that it will sit there for one week, and everyone must decide how much candy they estimate is in the jar. After the week is up, have everyone write down their estimation, and discuss together how they made their decision. Whoever is the closest to the correct answer wins the jar of candy.
Create Christmas Trees
Have students decorate trees with shapes from pattern block templates. Then have them count up how many of each shape they used. This activity can be time consuming because the students will need to trace, cut, and glue on all of their shapes. Expand on the concept of geometric principals and have them design a winter wonderland based on what they learned.
Teaching Rounding on a Sled
Teach students how to round by drawing a wavy number line that looks like a series of hills. At the top of each hill is the next 5. So the hilltops would be 5, 15, 25, 35 and so on. Discuss sledding with the class, finding out who likes sledding, what kind of sled they like, and so on as an introduction. Then teach them that rounding is a lot like sledding. If the number is 5 or higher they will slide down the hill into the next valley. If the number is 0-4 they slide backwards into the previous valley, just like you would if you were sledding on that number.
These ideas are just a few of the math topics that can be made into Christmas lessons. Any math unit can be changed to add some Christmas cheer with just a little creativity.
Related Articles:
- Christmas Bulletin Boards - Creative bulletin board displays for the classroom that encourage students to continue learning while adding some Christmas cheer.
- Teaching about Christmas and Kwanzaa - Lesson ideas that teach the history behind both Christmas and Kwanzaa, two commonly celebrated December holidays.
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