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Top 10 Primary Christmas Maths Activities For KS2 Classrooms

It’s the time of year for Christmas maths activities! We’ve put our elves to work to find you the 10 best Christmas maths activities suitable for your KS2 pupils. Countdown the days of Christmas with these maths resources.

You won’t be surprised to hear that because this is a Third Space blog, our initial focus is around maths. However, given the importance of wellbeing for children receiving our 1-to-1 maths lessons we’ve also included a couple of brilliant wellbeing activities within this list too, not just for your pupils but for teachers as well!

So, in no particular order, take a look at our favourite key stage 2 Christmas activities and resources, guaranteed to give your children some fun maths lessons in the days before the holidays!

1. Christmas Maths Challenge Activities And Christmas Maths Worksheets

The Mathematics Shed, run by Graham Andre, is a great place to find engaging and effective activities across KS1 and KS2 and the Seasonal Maths Shed has fabulous activities to build numeracy for every holiday.

The activities cover multiple strands of maths and are easy to edit, depending on the needs of your pupils, with addition, subtraction, percentages and mental maths being just a few of the topics covered. Each is festive-themed, featuring Christmas presents, snowmen, and snowflakes.

mental subtraction slide
Example of a mental subtraction slide from a Third Space Learning online lesson.

One of our favourite fun Christmas maths activities from the Seasonal Maths Shed is the Xmas Hits Through the Decades worksheet. It’s always the right time for a bit of Wham right?

Link: The Mathematics Shed

Twitter: @grahamandre

2. YoungMinds Wellbeing Advent Calendar

The lead up to the Christmas holidays can be a very exciting but also exhausting time. It is often easy at this time to get caught up in the busy atmosphere and forget to take care of the children’s and your wellbeing.

YoungMinds have created a wellbeing advent calendar to encourage you and your class to take some time out and enjoy the spirit of the season. With past activities ranging from sharing jokes to taking a moment to focus on breathing, there is inspiration for every class. 

Link: YoungMinds Wellbeing Advent Calendar 

Twitter: @YoungMinds

Key Stage 2 Christmas Maths Quiz

20 Year 5 / Year 6 Maths questions for some festive fun, including answer guide to find out their curriculum topic gaps

3. Festive Maths Problems Pack

Even in the last few weeks of the term, you’ll need to keep your pupils learning. But as Christmas approaches your children’s work ethic might start to flag, and it might be tempting to give into the festive spirit.

Luckily, Third Space’s Festive Maths Pack lets you bring the Christmas spirit into the classroom without compromising on learning. This free printable download contains 21 reasoning and word problem-solving activities with a festive bent for you to use with your class.

The activities cover a wide range of topics, making them perfect for some surreptitious revision and consolidation of learning!

They’re designed for upper KS2 – years 5 and 6 – but some of the Christmas maths activities can be easily adapted for years 3 and 4.

Downloadable free resource: Third Space Festive Maths Pack

4. Third Space Learning’s Christmas Maths Activities

And there’s more from Third Space… all available to you for free:

Try them out and let us know what you think.

Looking for more fun maths activities? Here are 19 fun end of term maths activities, some great back to school maths activities and our favourite fun maths lessons.

If you want to send your pupils home with something to do in the holidays they won’t run out of ideas with these fun maths games for kids to do at home.

5. Christmas Maths Primary Advent Calendar

You will either be preparing to, or will have already, tucked into your advent calendar by now (and maybe eaten a few days ahead), so why not use a Maths advent calendar with your pupils? Every year, Nrich prepares a primary maths advent calendar linked to 24 engaging activities to use in the run-up to Christmas.

nrich advent 2019
Enrich snowman Christmas maths activities advent calendar

Each Christmas maths activity encourages Mathematical habits of mind: being curious, being thoughtful, being collaborative and being determined. These activities include Christmas co oridinates and colour by numbers.

The countdown until Christmas has become even more exciting with these fab activities from Nrich Maths.

Link: Nrich Maths

Twitter: @nrichmaths

6. Christmas Maths Colouring Activities

There are so many KS2 Christmas Maths activities available on Emaths, it was difficult to choose just one! Our favourite has to be the 4 x Christmas Maths colouring activities that incorporate addition, subtraction and multiplication. Perfect for struggling lower KS2 pupils, once completed, your pupils end up with a lovely, coloured image that’s perfect to take home to Mum and Dad. Take a look at our Christmas Maths Calculation Colouring Worksheet.

Emaths feature other great activities in Powerpoint, Excel and SmartBoard to use in the lead up to Christmas. If you’re looking for a bunch of KS2 Maths Christmas activities, this is the place to head to.

Link: Emaths

Twitter: @EmathsUK

7. Every Mind Matters Self-Care Tool

Teachers are well renowned for their selfless and caring attitudes but they sometimes forget the importance of their own mental health. We know self-care is always important but as Christmas can be a stressful time for many reasons, now might be a good time to reflect on how you are feeling and what you can do for your own wellbeing.

This tool from Public Health England asks you to complete a short quiz about your wellbeing before suggesting 6 self-care ideas that you could put into action. Make sure to take time for yourself in the lead up to Christmas and during the holidays.

Link: Every Mind Matters self-care tool

8. Christmas Maths Murder Mystery

Mr Barton Maths is probably already on your must read list, but the Maths Christmas Activities and Resources section is a particular lifesaver during this point in the year. The section includes top Maths Christmas resources from the TES Maths website (secondary as well as primary).

Our top pick from Mr Barton’s selection is the Christmas Maths murder mystery, guaranteed to be a crowdpleaser. Pupils are given a set of clue cards which define the task – of finding out who killed Santa – and give them all the necessary information to solve the mystery. This is a tricky but entertaining Christmas maths activity to encourage problem solving skills, and it is best suited to upper KS2.

Link: Mr Barton Maths

Twitter: @mrbartonmaths

9. Putting On A Christmas show?

We couldn’t resist including this one, even if we’ve used it before…

Whether you’re taking the DfE’s advice to ‘hold a live nativity performance’ or not, you’ll find something to laugh at (and cry at after the year we’ve had!) here.

Mr P understands and his video shares the struggles we’ve all experienced when putting on a show.

Remember that Christmas carol you loved before you agreed to organise your school’s nativity? Not anymore after rehearsing it for the thousandth time.

What about props falling midway through? You can handle a Christmas tree tumbling down as long as you’re prepared for it and have accepted it.

Be prepared for the technology to go wrong, half of your cast to be off sick and your Christmas play production to be one of your proudest moments this year.

If you like classroom laughs and learning about technology and you don’t already follow ICT with Mr P on Facebook you’re missing a trick.

Link: Mr P’s ICT Blog

Twitter: @ICT_MrP

10. Christmaths Website Of KS2 Christmas Maths Activities

Christmaths Competition website is a great resource to use  with your Year 6 class. We love just how many activities there are to choose from, including A Cartoon Christmaths, The Breindeer Christmaths and our personal favourite, Christmaths Crackers. These activites include fun ways to practice maths skills like sequencing, times tables practice demicals, counting activities, and code breakers.

If you’re on the hunt for exciting Maths tasks, this website is full of them – almost fuller than Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve! Thank you to the Twinkl KS2 Teaching Group on Facebook for this winner.

Link: The Christmaths Competiton

Here’s to a very relaxing and merry Christmas for all of you from everyone at Third Space Learning!

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 150,000 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.

Anantha Anilkumar
Anantha Anilkumar
Content Editor
Anantha trained as a teacher before becoming an editor for Third Space Learning. He also has experience as a market analyst which proved very useful in writing about Ofsted and the pupil premium.
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Key Stage 2 Christmas Maths Quiz

Key Stage 2 Christmas Maths Quiz

20 Year 5 / Year 6 Maths questions for some festive fun, including answer guide to find out their curriculum topic gaps

Download Now

Key Stage 2 Christmas Maths Quiz

Downloadable resource

20 Year 5 / Year 6 Maths questions for some festive fun, including answer guide to find out their curriculum topic gaps

Download Now
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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