Christmas Math Activities for 3rd Grade

It’s the holiday season which means Christmas break is almost here. In the days leading up to break, it’s important to keep reviewing grade level content, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be fun! Christmas-themed activities are an easy way to review grade level standards, while still giving students opportunities to participate in collaborative, hands-on activities that they’re excited about! Keep reading to take a peek at some engaging Christmas math activities for 3rd grade.

How to Set Up Christmas Math Activities for 3rd Grade

These activities can work in a couple of different ways to kick off the holiday season in your classroom. You can use them as:

A Christmas Classroom Transformation – Looking for a way to bring cheer the last week before Christmas break? Consider transforming your classroom into a winter wonderland by hanging up paper streamers or lights. Bring some Christmas decorations from home or have your students create some to help decorate your room. There are many ways to make this classroom transformation magical even on a budget. 

Plan for your classroom transformation to be a week-long affair and introduce a new activity each day of the week. Students will love working in groups to complete these hands-on Christmas math activities. 

Christmas Math Centers – These collaborative activities can also be used as holiday-themed math centers. Have students work with their group to practice essential third grade math standards such as multi-step word problems, elapsed time, multiplication, and more.

A Closer Look at Christmas Math Activities for Third Grade

Setting up holiday math activities is an exciting way to add Christmas fun to your math block this holiday season. Plus, students won’t even realize they’re learning! Take a peek at these Christmas math activities for upper elementary below. 

*Looking for other opportunities for your students to practice real-world learning in math? Check out my blog post on Project Based Learning.

Solving Multi-Step Word Problems

There is a lot of traveling going on during the holidays. This activity brings that to life. Students will start by using directions and a compass to design a map of a Christmas town.

Then, students will use the map that they created to practice solving multi-step word problems. These problems will give students practice with adding and subtracting, 2, 3 and 4-digit numbers. Students will bring their art skills to life as they label their maps and determine how long travel routes take for people this holiday season. 

Elapsed Time Task Cards

3.MD.1 Tell and write time to the nearest minute and measure time intervals in minutes. Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of time intervals in minutes, e.g., by representing the problem on a number line diagram.

This Christmas math activity asks students to take a look at clocks on different task cards and determine the time. Students will then use the time they recorded to solve how long Santa spends traveling around the world. Making it to every house around the world is a long journey!

Students will enjoy determining how long it takes to make this famous trip by using the start time on the clock task cards and solving for the elapsed time based on the scenario in each word problem. Students will record their end time next to each word problem.

Solving Multiplication Word Problems 

Multiplication is a vital skill for third grade students, so what better way to practice it than by incorporating multiplication Christmas activities into your 3rd grade math centers? For this activity, students will be a given Toy Land flyer listing different toys and their prices. They will then use multiplication word problem scenarios to determine the cost of different toy selections from the flyer. These word problems include both multiple choice questions and short answer problems. 

*Not ready to ring in the holiday season just yet? Check out my Fall Multiplication Centers post which features hands-on multiplication activities for 2nd-3rd grade.

Measurement Task Cards

3.MD.4 Generate measurement data by measuring lengths using rulers marked with halves and fourths of an inch. Show the data by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in appropriate units— whole numbers, halves, or quarters.

Santa wants to sort his reindeer by size and he needs your students’ help! Grab some rulers, print off the reindeer task cards, and have students get to measuring. Students will determine how many inches each reindeer is and record it in a table. After, they’ll take their results and graph the measurements onto a line plot. This activity helps students practice understanding measurement and the size of different objects. 

Using Graphs to Analyze Data

One of the best parts of Christmas is the holiday treats! For this activity, students will survey their classmates on their favorite holiday treat. Students will tally up the responses on a graphic organizer and then use that information to create different types of graphs to represent the data. Graphs that students can create include a frequency table, picture graph, and bar graph. Looking to add a little something extra to this activity? Consider bringing in a small holiday treat for students to enjoy while they create their graphs.

Rounding Using Place Value

Santa delivers many toys on Christmas Eve. This year he wants help rounding that number to the nearest thousand. Students will use a table to record each rounded number for popular toys that Santa delivers. This activity gives students additional practice with rounding using place value.

I hope these Christmas math activities for 3rd grade bring some extra holiday cheer and engagement to your classroom this Christmas season. 

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