Your Complete Christmas Maths Toolkit: All The Free Resources, Ideas And Activities Recommended By Primary and Secondary Teachers

Bookmark this Christmas maths toolkit before you forget!

It’s full of all the best Christmas maths ideas, resources and activities you’ll need in the run up to Christmas. All of them have been recommended to us by other teachers and, most importantly, all are free.

We’ve included classroom activities for KS1/KS2 and some ideas for KS3/KS4 so whichever key stage you are teaching, you’re sure to find a few new ways to incorporate some festive fun into your maths lessons this year. 

KS1 and KS2 Christmas maths ideas

Here are the Christmas maths resources and activities recommended by our primary teachers for their KS1 and KS2 maths lessons.

1. Christmas colouring worksheets

These FREE printable colouring maths worksheets can be made suitable for KS1 or KS2 and give the opportunity for children to strengthen their addition and subtraction or times tables skills to colour a festive scene. 

Link: Christmas Maths Calculation Colouring Worksheet 

2. Festive maths problems pack

This selection of maths problems 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 problems can be easily adapted for years 3 and 4.

Link: Third Space Festive Maths Pack

3. Christmas maths activites

Here we’ve brought together a collection of the most fun and engaging Christmas maths activities we could come up with, and, better still, provided you with everything you’ll need to use them in class: imagery, adaptation ideas, downloadables and printables as required. No lesson planning required!

One of favourites is the magic squares activity which will enhance your pupils’ numerical reasoning and problem-solving abilities. Once pupils have grasped the concept, they can be challenged to make their own!

Link: Downloadable Christmas Maths Activities Resource

4. Plan a Christmas party

This activity requires pupils to work in groups to plan and budget an exciting Christmas party. The activity can easily be extended to other curriculum areas such as English and art as students can write an invitation or design a poster to promote their party.

Link: Christmas Party Planning

5. Wellbeing advent calendar

The lead up to the Christmas holidays can be a very exciting but also exhausting time. It’s easy to get caught up in the busy atmosphere and forget to take care of wellbeing – both your own and the pupils!

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: Wellbeing advent calendars

6. Santa maths challenge

Engage your students in a festive riddle and get them to apply their problem solving skills.

Link: Clever Santa | NRICH

7. Christmas coordinates to make a Christmas picture

In this activity, students must create differently coloured 2d shapes using the provided coordinates. These will combine to create Christmas pictures. What will it be – a snowman? A sleigh? A Christmas tree?

Link: Christmas Coordinate Pictures

8. Mr Barton 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.

Our top pick from Mr Barton’s selection is the Christmas Maths murder mystery, guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser. 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

9. Christmaths competitions

The Christmaths Competitions 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 12 days of Christmas, sorry Christmaths, and our personal favourite, Christmaths Crackers. These activities include fun ways to practise maths skills like sequencing, times tables, decimals, counting activities, and code breakers.

Link: The Christmaths Competition

10. Christmas tree baubles fractions

This festive activity is an excellent way to get your pupils’ brains working. This activity is differentiated so you can choose the best level of challenge for your pupils and the answers are provided.

Link: Christmas tree fractions worksheet

11. Christmas maths quiz

Covering a range of Year 5 and 6 maths content, this Christmas maths quiz can be used to assess individual understanding of Year 5 and 6 content or to challenge pupils in pairs or small groups to answer the questions correctly. You can adapt or differentiate the maths questions as need to choose the best level of challenge for your pupils. All answers are provided.

Looking for a Christmas maths quiz for your KS2 learners?

The quiz covers:

• Reading tables
• The four operations
• Calculating with measures
• Calculating with fractions
• Calculating with percentages
• Calculating angles

It’s available as an easily downloadable and printable file with answers included, making it a low prep fun activity.

Link: Downloadable KS2 Maths Quiz for Christmas

KS3 and KS4 Christmas maths ideas

These are, according to teachers, the best Christmas maths activities for KS3 and KS4 (Foundation and Higher) to keep all students engaged until the end of term.

Some involve working against the clock, some working in pairs or teams and others provide opportunities for individual reflection and the application of problem-solving skills. 

1. Christmas tree relay activity

This is a simple and fun maths game, great for the lead-up to Christmas. The resource includes three versions of the relay that build in complexity, making the activity suitable for students working towards a GCSE grades 1-5.

Students work in pairs or groups of three and race against the clock to answer a series of festive questions for the chance to win one of the 12 pieces of the Christmas puzzle! All questions come with answers and hint cards.

Link: Christmas Tree Relay Maths Activities

2. Bearing Christmas activity

Practise bearings with your students by giving Santa a three figure bearing for each stage of his journey.

Link: Andy Lutwyche

3. Maths puzzle race

Get your students up and out of their seats with a relay race. This activity requires students to work in teams to solve number puzzles on a range of topics and race against their fellow classmates while focussing on accuracy.

Link: Maths problem solving puzzles for Christmas

4. Christmas pudding ratios

This resource from TeachIt reinforces students’ knowledge of ratio and builds maths skills while helping students wind down for the Christmas holidays.

Link: Christmas Pudding Ratio Problems

5. Christmas quizzes

It’s time to get into the competitive spirit! Pixi Maths have developed quizzes for KS3, Foundation and Higher Students and provided handy powerpoint and answer sheet downloads.

Link: Pixi Maths quizzes for Christmas

6. Christmas puzzles

These puzzles are based on a publication from 1917, but the ideas are still engaging today and can be a great hook for students. Stem.org offers solutions and ideas for extension.

Link: Issue 75: Christmas Puzzles

7. Christmas revision advent calendars

It’s never too early to start revision! Here, you can find advent calendars for KS3 and GCSE Foundation and Higher students to review key concepts and identify topics for further revision. Consider making it a whole class challenge or ask students to work individually throughout the month. You could even motivate your students with a prize!

Link: Calendar revision resources

8. Fractal Christmas Tree

If you’re looking for something more hands-on and crafty, while developing students’ knowledge of 3D shapes and nets, this activity is a great one. You can build an entire fractal Christmas Tree, complete with a Koch Snowflake star on the top.

Link: Building 3D Fractals

As always, TES, Twinkl, Topmarks, Transum, Mr Barton Maths and Resourceaholic have a great range of curriculum-aligned Christmas maths activities to engage your students this Christmas, so make sure you take a look at their selections.

From everyone here at Third Space Learning, we wish you a happy Christmas and look forward to supporting teachers and students across the country in the new year through one to one online maths tutoring and through our library of resources.

Looking for more? We’ve got lots more maths games and fun maths activities for you, including 19 fun end of term maths activities, some great back to school maths activities and our favourite fun maths lessons.