Decorating the Christmas tree means something a little different in all families. Usually it involves picking out a tree, somehow getting it home and setting it up in the living room and then pulling out the dusty box of ornaments from the attic so you can begin to hang all of the ornaments on the tree. Some of the ornaments are ones you’ve been collecting for years and there may even be some that have been passed down from previous generations. Some families like to make new decorations for the tree every year, like popcorn garlands and handmade ornaments. This year making decorations can be turned into some neat holiday math activities for kids that involve making new geometric Christmas ornaments.
Holiday math activities for making geometric ornaments
Making geometric Christmas ornaments is a fun project and it will get kids to participate in holiday math activities without even realizing that they are learning something! There are some great online tutorials for geometric paper ornaments, folded paper polyhedrons, Himmeli ornaments made from straws and string and this more difficult wooden diamond ornament that you can refer to in order to make your own geometric ornaments. These holiday math activities can be adapted for various ages according to each child’s understanding of shapes and geometry. You can also give your kids creative license to come up with their own ornament designs out of different geometric shapes.
Making decorations using patterns are simple holiday math activities for kids
Stringing colored beads with popcorn or other craft materials onto a string to make a garland is a simple activity that can be done by children of all ages. It can be turned into a math lesson about making patterns. You can help your child to make a pattern like “2 red beads, 3 popcorn pieces, 2 green beads, 3 popcorn pieces” that repeats over and over again. This will help them to practice their fine motor skills, counting skills and help them start to see simple patterns.
Holiday math activities to do with colored ball ornaments
You can do a number of holiday math activities when hanging basic colored ball ornaments on the tree. For young children you can have them count the number of green balls, red balls, yellow balls etc. You can ask them if there are more green balls than red balls or vice versa. For older children you can practice fractions by asking them what fraction of the colored balls are yellow? These are holiday math activities that can be casually incorporated into your Christmas tree decorating.
These holiday math activities are simple, but they will keep your kids’ brains active while they are out of school during the holidays. If you have any other holiday math activities please share them in the comments! Happy holidays and happy decorating!
