Try math games that are fun for instant success
Are you looking for ways to help your students learn while maintaining your sanity this season? You should check out some cool math games for Christmas! I know this time of year produces some very excited children in the classroom, so I try to incorporate as many fun games to play at school as I can.
Speaking of math games that are fun… sign up for our free math game with 5 days of activities that will help with pre-assessing, practice and assessing.
Fun Christmas games classroom students will flip for
I know you’re looking for fun Christmas games classroom students will enjoy. I also know how valuable your time is and how important it is for your students to make meaningful connections with their learning.
According to Kristen E. Reed and Jessica Mercer Young of Education Development Center,
“Math games provide a structure and process for children to engage in problem solving in order to reach a particular goal or objective. Reaching that goal might be challenging, but the challenge is also what makes game-playing fun.”(dreme.stanford.edu)
Quality Quest
Quality Quest is a cool math game for the classroom that encourages critical thinking. It can be used in a center or as a game that fosters teamwork. The idea behind our Quality Quest is for students to take a “quest” through the task cards to find the answers to the questions. I like using the color cards in a center and then students play the game.
Students are split up into 2 teams or partners and race to answer questions. Use any number cards and come up with scavenger hunt questions for your students that apply to the numbers and apply to the concepts you’ve taught. Like, order the first three cards from least to greatest. You can also have them find prime numbers, even numbers, a number with 4 tens, etc. We just added a fun cut and paste sheet as well.
Our Quality Quest game cards have Christmas monsters on them, and we know how much kids love monsters! We’ve also included directions for three ways to play. Get it here!
Fun Christmas games to play with a group that will motivate your students
The best way to get your students engaged and collaborating is by using fun Christmas games to play with a group. It just puts a big smile on their faces and helps them practice their critical thinking together. Try using a STEAM activity with a math twist. For example, they have to create a trap for the gingerbread man and they can only use items in 2s, 3s, and 5s, because that’s a fact family. Or they can only use even-numbered or odd-numbered items.
See more details by clicking our Holiday Treats post and scroll to Gingerbread STEM.
Around the World
One math game my students always enjoyed playing was Around the World. I put a holiday spin on it by calling it Christmas Around the World. Each desk had a picture of holiday symbols that we studied during our unit. For example, For Hanukkah, one desk would be a menorah, another desk would be a dreidel, latkes, gelt, night. For St.Lucia, Lucia, cookies, wreath, candle and stars. For Las Posadas, party, pinata, parade and poinsettia. For Christmas, candy cane, ornament, gift, and stocking. For Kwanzaa, family, handmade, kinara, unity and game. Check out this fun I have Who Has game with all these symbols.
Around the World is a strong addition to your games for math class. It is a highly motivational game that provides lots of movement for your students. Here’s how to play:
- The game is played by 2 students at a time.
- To encourage teamwork, you can also have them form teams.
- Before the game starts, explain to your students how they will be traveling from one desk to another. Show them the path you want them to take, like a live board game.
- To begin, tell students that this is a speedy game and they must answer as quickly as possible.
- Display the Boom card on the board and the first student to answer correctly moves to the next desk.
- If using task cards, hold up a card to both students at once.
- The student who moves to the most desks wins.
- If you play as teams, then you will have to keep a tally on how many desks each student traveled to. I keep a running tally on the whiteboard under each team’s name, so that it is easier to score.
- The game is over when every student has had a turn.
If you’re looking to try these games for math facts, we have some amazing sets for you in our Teacherspayteachers store.
Gift Hunt
You can also check out our Christmas Tree Games post to see how your students can work as a group to play Gift Hunt. Students write the answer to a given question on a gift tag and place it on their gift. Afterward, they hide their gifts and give their cards to someone else in the class. Once each student has a card, they have to find their gift with the correct answer on the gift tag.
You can see that the student hiding the gift knows the correct answer and the student finding it has the correct answer. Encourage them to help one another find their gifts! Non-holiday Winter themes could be snow boxes or ice cubes!
Where do the questions come from? Here’s where you get to tailor the activity to your needs.
Any Scoot game would work great. Or, if you have flash cards, task cards, etc. those work well also. I’ve listed some of our seasonal options below:
Christmas Mouse Spiral Math Review
Brilliant spiral math review games deliver guaranteed results
As I mentioned in our previous post about learning with math games, you can make your own math cards, or use our cards. We have holiday math games that are printable, include directions for multiple different math games to play in the classroom, and have manipulatives for interactive center learning.
I like to review math skills that I have already taught right before holiday break. I have found a wonderful way to do this is by playing games like Brain Bounce or Scoot. Trust me, they are a great way to get those holiday wiggles out! Just create fun holiday cards with whatever math skills you want to review.
My kids love this cute Christmas Mouse Spiral Math Game! I start the day by reading If you take a Mouse to the Movies. It’s much like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, but with holiday activities! Jack Hartmann has an adorable song about a Christmas Mouse that is great for your morning meeting time as well.
Another holiday favorite that you can use year round is our bestselling Candy Spiral Math Review. Students love to learn with these all year long and our Blended Learning Bundle has matching Boom cards!
You will love these easy movement games for math facts
One of my students’ favorite games is Scoot. I love it because it channels that holiday energy into an engaging learning opportunity, and it is a great way to assess a math skill or several math skills. They are such cool math games for Christmas! You can create fun holiday cards, or if you are too busy to do that, then grab our Christmas Scoot cards. We have them in addition and subtraction. We also have some cute gingerbread math cards for missing numbers. If you can’t do Christmas in your classroom, then check out our Snowman Scoot games.
Don’t forget to sign up for your free math game and pre-assess, practice and assess in 5 days!
