Are you looking for ideas to keep your students sharp over the holidays? Then, look at these evergreen math activities that will have the kids counting and bonding over the Thanksgiving break right through to the New Year.

Holiday Toys: Children can search to find out where the best buys for toys are on line or in their city. Whether getting packages delivered costs less, more or the same as picking them up at a store. For example, are their shipping charges? Are the taxes the same? How much does it cost to travel to the store? These kinds of questions help students become conscious consumers. Raise curiosity by wondering what the top holiday gifts from the years their parents or other relatives were kids. For example, find out the number one toy from 1975, how much it cost, and find the difference or price increase over the decades. This is a great way to incorporate many different curricula into one activity. Kids can make a report or poster or just chat over dinner to share their findings!

Travel: Many families travel over the holidays. Invite your children to become a part of the travel plans by using MapQuest or other resources to map out the best route to your destination. They can estimate the time it would take to get where you are all going at different speeds. If you travel 60 miles per hour consistently, how long will it take us to get where we are going? What if we travel 30 miles per hour?

Weather: Everyone loves a White Christmas! How many times in the past 10, 20, or 50 years has it snowed on Christmas morning? Children can collect weather data on temperature, precipitation, and/or snowfall levels over the years. Predicting whether it will rain or snow or be a bright sunny Christmas or wondering how often the weather reports are accurate. All of these ways of remaining curious, searching for information, making predictions are part of developing mathematical thinking.

Math Facts: We definitely want to keep children’s math facts fluent even over holiday breaks.  Playing mental math-counting games in the car, guess my number using numbers from 0-100 in which someone thinks of a number and others ask yes/no questions such as, “Is it more than 50?” “Is it even or odd.” Set a limit for the number of questions that can be asked and guesses that can be made. For example, players can ask 5 questions and have 2 guesses before the person who selected the number wins.  Play games like monopoly that involve using money and buying and selling property, paying rent and getting fines or winning the jackpot. 

Create Surveys: Children can survey friends and family to discover what gifts are trending this year; holiday traditions; and favorite places to visit during the holidays.  Once kids have collected the data, they can share their findings online or talk with friends and family about the results.

Adapted from Source: Scholastic