5 Free Festive Winter Math Activities

The holiday season is my absolute favorite time of year! I love the magic of the holidays and making memories with my family, friends, and students. However, I know this time of year can be a bit hectic in the classroom. Your students are full of energy and excitement because of the holidays and upcoming winter break. To help make planning your math lessons easier and to bring the fun this winter and holiday season, I’m sharing 5 free festive winter math activities that are perfect for 1st-3rd grade. Read on to take a sneak peek at each of them and learn how to grab these for your classroom!

Winter Holiday Math Activities

During the holiday season, there’s something to be said about grabbing an (extra large) coffee and embracing the chaos. However, sometimes you are just trying to get through the day or fill the gaps in your whacky schedule and you need a quick activity that doesn’t require any prep or a ton of supplies to get you through the day.  

That’s exactly why I created these 5 free festive winter holiday math activities and I’m so excited to share them with you! I don’t just want to help you survive the holiday season, but I want to help you actually enjoy teaching math (during the holidays and all the time!). 

These winter math activities are perfect to use not only during the busy holiday season, but can also be used throughout the winter months. They make the perfect no prep activities to use on those days coming back from winter break too! 

These 5 print and go math activities work great for students in 1st-3rd grade. They include options to differentiate depending on what grade level you teach. Add them to your winter math stations, independent practice, use them as a small group activity, or incorporate them as morning work or early finisher activities.

Geometry 5 in a Row

The first free winter holiday math activity is called Geometry 5 in a Row. This math activity includes 2 game board options, one with gingerbread shapes and one with snow globe shapes. This makes it easy to use both in December and in January. 

To begin, students will need a partner. They will play rock, paper, scissors to see who goes first. The first student will spin a spinner and land on a 2D shape. They’ll read the name of the shape and find a shape that matches on their game board and cover it with a manipulative.

You can use math cubes, holiday mini erasers, pom-pom balls, or any other basic manipulative you have. The first student to get 5 spaces covered in a row wins.

Addition Color by Code

This winter holiday math activity is different from your typical color by code activity. It’s more like color by code with a twist!

Students will solve the addition problems and color the picture according to the code. Once they’ve colored the entire picture and solved all of the math problems, they’ll flip the page over for an extra higher order thinking challenge! 

On the back of the page, students will see all of the math facts from the front. They’ll choose one of the addition facts and write an addition word problem to match it. Bonus points if the word problem matches the picture on the front! If you want to give students even more of a challenge, have them write word problems for a second addition fact.

This winter math activity is great because it combines addition facts up to 20, writing, higher order thinking, and problem solving, all while giving students a little creative outlet.

2-Digit Addition and Subtraction Printable Activities

Next up in our winter math activities are these 2-Digit Addition and Subtraction Printable Activities. They are a quick and no prep way to get in some extra math fact practice during the holidays and winter months. There are 2 versions included, one with a Christmas theme and one with a winter theme.

Students will start by solving the addition or subtraction fact in each ornament or ice cube. Then, they’ll color in the ornament or ice cube based on if the sum or difference is even or odd. This is a fun and quick way to practice 2-digit addition and subtraction.

To cut down on grading time, have students switch pages with a partner and check their work when they’re complete!

Drop and Graph

Drop and Graph may be my favorite out of all of the winter math activities! Not only does it help students practice the skills of graphing and analyzing data, but it has a fun holiday theme with Christmas tree emojis!

To play, each student will need Drop and Graph game board and a pom-pom ball. You can even use the sparkly holiday kind to spice it up and make it more fun!

Students will drop their pom-pom ball on the board, look at the emoji they landed on, and tally their results on they data sheet. They’ll repeat this 20 times.

After completing and tallying their results, they’ll graph their results and answer the questions about their data. There is a bar graph and pictograph version included as well as a version where students write their own question about their graph and a version where they answer pre-made questions. 

Comparing Coins

The last of the winter math activities is a Comparing Coins activity. I love this one because it practices multiple skills at one time, which is always a teacher win, especially when you want to review skills before winter break.

There are 2 versions included, one with pennies, nickels, and dimes, which is perfect for 1st graders. The second version includes quarters as well, which makes it great for 2nd and 3rd graders.

Students will count the value of each given set of coins and write the value at the top of the present. Then, they’ll compare the two values and show the number comparison using the correct symbols in the middle present. Students can use the dot method to compare their numbers.

This holiday math activity reviews counting coins, place value, and comparing numbers all at once!

I hope you enjoyed these 5 winter holiday math activities! If you’d like to get these free activities to use in your classroom this winter and holiday season, simply fill out the form below. Once you sign up, you’ll get one free math activity delivered to your inbox each day for 5 days.

You can also learn more about these festive winter holiday math activities by checking out my YouTube video below!

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