School holiday activities - Christmas

    I have a confession to make – I love Christmas. It’s my favourite time of year – no contest. I love spending time with family – either driving to see them or having family visit, having too many people in the house and tripping over mattresses in the living room and porta-cots in the hall. I love the nice food we make; picking, wrapping, giving and opening presents and all the decorations. Time with family and joy – I’m hanging out for Christmas time from about the end of February! Here’re some ideas of activities you can do with your kids – plus any nephews, nieces, grandchildren or anyone else who is staying for Christmas! They focus on families spending time together while developing maths skills.  

Firstly – get cracking on that wrapping paper. Kids love making their own paper to wrap gifts with. For babies and toddlers, try red and green hand and foot prints on white paper. (Use either A3 photocopy paper, or butchers’ paper if you have some.) Primary aged kids will love designing their own geometric patterns. Grab a potato, cut it in half and cut out a star or another shape. Make a pattern on the paper with the stamp. Designing and following a pattern is an important mathematical skill.  

Now that you’ve got sheets and sheets of home made paper, get wrapping! Sit down with your kids and wrap the presents – but let them do it. You can help, but let them get in there and do it. Different shaped presents, different sizes, regular shapes and just plain difficult to wrap – help them with them all! They might cut a few bits too short or a bit crooked, but getting in there and ‘playing’ around with the paper and the scissors is the best way. Don’t forget about working out how long to cut the ribbon. Estimating, spatial awareness and trial and error are all mathematical skills being used in every day life as well as in the classroom when they go back to school.  

And finally – the decorations. Get a whole bunch of coloured paper, a stapler and a pair of scissors – it’s time to make those paper chains! If you haven’t done it before, cut paper into strips approximately 3cm by 15cm – no need to be too accurate. Staple the strip into a loop. Then, thread the next strip though the loop you just made and the staple it into a loop. Continue adding strips to make a chain. Encourage your kids to make a pattern with colours. Why don’t you start a pattern of colours, and get them to continue it? Then they can start a pattern for you to work out and continue. Patterns and sequencing are mathematical fundamentals. Now hang those chains on the Christmas tree, the banister, the veranda, and anywhere else you can find!  

School holidays are a great time to do activities with the kids that we’re too busy to do during the hustle and bustle of the year. These are great activities for cousins to do together, and will help get the Christmas cheer going. It’s a good chance to sneak in some maths when the kids are having fun, but it will be the family interactions that the kids remember. Merry Christmas!  

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