Yes, it’s that time of year again. Sleigh-bells are ringing, Christmas trees are going up, and students around the country are getting more than a little bit hyper.
I know I certainly need all the help I can get during the last few weeks of term, so hopefully this collection of ten festive gems will keep your students engaged, focussed, challenged, and crucially, learning. Perhaps most importantly, they might just help you to make it to the end of the year in one piece.
Enjoy the end of term, and have a happy, restful, well-deserved break when it arrives!
Craig Barton, TES Maths adviser
Christmas maths competition 2015: X-maths Bond II
The smash-hit of last year returns with an eagerly awaited sequel. Six days of top quality puzzles, problems and maths activities await, in what could become a class, year, or even whole school competition.
What could be better than a bit of Christmas constructions? Here is a guide to show students how to create their own snowflakes, using basic construction skills and reflective symmetry. Ideal for Christmas display work.
Everyone loves a Tarsia. Everyone loves Christmas. Put the two together and you are on to a winner!
This rather grimly titled resource is one of TES’ most popular Christmas activities of all time. It is a wonderful mystery, involving loads of areas of maths and problem solving, that any pupil over the age of eight can access.
The carnage continues! Once you have figured out who killed Santa, there is another mystery to be solved, which will call upon even more of your students’ maths skills.
The Christmas pirate game 1 and 2
One of the TES Maths Resources of the Year has had a Christmas make-over! Here you will find two versions of Paul Collins’ original, which has become a firm end-of-term favourite in my classroom and tackles problem solving and metal arithmetic.
11 varied, challenging, fun and engaging activities to kick-start those final few lessons of term. Play individually or in teams to get your students using a whole range of maths skills.
A big collection of Christmas-themed maths problems and puzzles, with something for all ages and abilities.
Maths-themed Christmas quiz lesson
General knowledge, literacy and numeracy are covered in this Christmas quiz, ideal for a bit of final lesson competition.