Teaching support from the UK’s largest provider of in-school maths tuition

blogs read

blogs read

resources downloaded

resources downloaded

one to one lessons

one to one lessons

schools supported

schools supported

Teacher-Trusted Tutoring

Personalised one to one tutoring that boosts confidence and doubles progress

Preview lessons

FREE daily maths challenges

A new KS2 maths challenge every day. Perfect as lesson starters - no prep required!

Teacher-Trusted Tutoring

Personalised one to one tutoring that boosts confidence and doubles progress

Preview lessons

5 Quick And Easy Christmas Maths Lessons For Festive Fun In The Last Weeks Of Term

Christmas maths activities are a great way to learn and enjoy some Christmas themed fun in the classroom before the Christmas holidays. We hope this collection of festive maths resources will bring some joy as you countdown the days of Christmas. 

Judging by the Christmas trees, glitter and tinsel at school, nativities, pantomimes and school trips seem to be our main focus at this time of year but that doesn’t mean that maths should stop. The trick is that as teachers we just need to make it as fun and engaging as the other distractions that take place at Christmas time!

So, the teachers here at Third Space Learning have put their heads together  and made things a little easier for you by listing our five favourite KS1 & KS2 Christmas maths teaching resources and activities that we turn to in this hectic period.

These fun maths lessons are all quick to implement and can be incorporated within whatever else you’re teaching that day just for a bit of Christmas fun, so all that’s left to do is sit back, relax and pick your favourite activity from the list!

Year 3 Christmas Maths Activity:  Christmas Maths Recipes

What would Christmas be like without all the food we enjoy together around this time? Mince pies, Christmas pudding, Yorkshire puddings (and of course, the humble brussels sprout…).

So why not use the abundance of food on offer at this time of year and get your kids researching and creating recipes for their favourite Christmas foods. This can be linked to ratio and proportion, fractions and converting between different units, or whatever else you’d like to use it for! This is a simple Christmas maths activity, but it is one that always goes down extremely well with pupils.

tsl slide ratio proportion visual (with logo)
Example of a Third Space Learning online lesson on adjusting recipe ratios.

Scaffolding tip

Give your pupils this recipe and ask them to re-write this recipe for 8 people, then for 4 people, then 2 people… See if they can then find a link between the numbers.

Mince pie recipe

This recipe makes 16 mince pies

  • 1 jar of mincemeat
  • 2 satsumas
  • 400g plain flour
  • 260g butter
  • 120g caster sugar
  • 1 egg

Year 4 Christmas Maths Activity: Christmas Calculations Shopping List 

Get your pupils to write a letter to Santa explaining what presents they would like to receive for Christmas (maybe a more benevolent task could involve writing a list for a family member, a friend or family pet).

Once they’ve written a list, they can decide prices for their items, either by taking a look at Amazon or similar websites or by making them up, and calculate the total cost of their list.

To extend this activity:

Find the mean, median and mode price of their presents or discuss the appropriateness of their prices with a partner. Practice subtraction by minusing items or the percentage of the budget an item is worth. 

Year 5 Christmas Maths Activity:  Christmas Classroom Fair

Use role play as a tool for getting your pupils to understand the maths of money better and apply it to a real life situation, which in this case is deciding that you are going to run a Christmas classroom fair!

Some pupils can take on the role of stall managers and some can be customers. The stall managers can create posters with prices of their products on and the customers can set themselves a budget for their Christmas shopping list before the Christmas fair begins.

To adapt this activity:

Take your pupils back in history and instead of money, replace their currency with goats, sheep or cows to add an extra layer of difficulty to the maths problem solving.

For a challenge, give the stall managers a different currency to work with and provide the pupils with a conversion rate (to make it easy, you could use $2= £1) to buy/sell goods with.

Key Stage 2 Christmas Maths Quiz

20 Year 5/6 Maths questions for some festive fun that'll keep pupils focused right up till Christmas

Year 6 Christmas Maths Activity: Wrapping Paper Christmas Maths Nets

Ask your pupils to carry out a range of investigations using nets and wrapping paper. They could wrap up different objects and compare their nets, they could design different nets for the same object or they could be given an A3 sheet of paper and could have a competition to be as efficient as possible in order to wrap particular objects.

The nrich website, a great source of inspiration for maths teachers everywhere, has some great suggestions for the approaches you can take with this maths wrapping activity.

Cross-curricular integration:

Link this activity to religious education by investigating the reason behind giving and receiving presents at Christmas or to geography by discussing the environment and recycling.

Year 2 Christmas Maths Activity (Also Suitable For KS2!): Symmetry With Snowflakes And Christmas Baubles

All kids love making snowflakes. Folding the paper, cutting the paper, seeing their designs hung up on the window. This is one Christmas maths activity that will be popular no matter the year group!

How about making this activity into a maths challenge? Your pupils could be challenged to ensure there are four lines of symmetry or have to find the symmetry in their designs once they have created their snowflakes.

A similar idea can be to provide your pupils with outlines of different shaped baubles and to then get them to create symmetrical Christmas designs for their baubles. You could also ensure they use rotational symmetry for an additional challenge.

More Festive Resources

Christmas maths quiz

Looking for more Christmas activities and maths investigations for the end of term? Jump on a sleigh ride to maths fun and take a look at our Christmas maths quiz. With 20, festive themed questions this printable, Christmas maths worksheet will ensure some xmas fun whilst getting your students to practise their word problem solving skills, decimal place addition and strengthening their numeracy. 

Christmas maths activities

 Our collection of Christmas maths activities are great for any KS1 or KS2 classroom around the holidays. Your students will become Christmas code crackers, create maths advent calendars and enjoy free Christmas maths games.

Do you have pupils who need extra support in maths?
Every week Third Space Learning’s maths specialist tutors support thousands of pupils across hundreds of schools with weekly online 1-to-1 lessons and maths interventions designed to address learning gaps and boost progress.

Since 2013 we’ve helped over 162,000 primary and secondary school pupils become more confident, able mathematicians. Learn more or request a personalised quote for your school to speak to us about your school’s needs and how we can help.

Primary school tuition targeted to the needs of each child and closely following the National Curriculum.

Sophie Waterman-Smith
Sophie Waterman-Smith
Third Space Learning
Teacher
Sophie grew up in Brighton and taught Maths in a secondary school. In between working with our schools, she writes about the teachmeets she attends on our blog.
x
Key Stage 2 Christmas Maths Quiz

Key Stage 2 Christmas Maths Quiz

20 Year 5/6 Maths questions for some festive fun that'll keep pupils focused right up till Christmas

Download Now

Key Stage 2 Christmas Maths Quiz

Downloadable resource

20 Year 5/6 Maths questions for some festive fun that'll keep pupils focused right up till Christmas

Download Now
x

FREE 12 Maths Club Activities for Primary Schools (Years 1 to 6)

A collection of games and activities to make maths enjoyable in a primary school maths club!

Minimal resources are needed for each activity.

Download free