Some of my favorite activities are the ones that I make 2 seconds before teaching a subject. This morning on my way to school I thought to myself… I want to do something Christmasy today! I think I am overcompensating this year because I was out during Christmas last year. I truly missed all of the holiday fun, so we are making up for it in 2013!
So, I dug out an old Christmas tree that I used when I taught first grade, and thought… let’s do some math with this! My students solved addition with/without regrouping problems and made their Christmas trees. And, they are hanging under my white board because I have zero space left 🙂
You can click
HERE to download this activity for free 🙂 I also included some blank ornaments in case you want to do something other than addition. You could use this with spelling words, parts of speech, and several ways in Math!
Can you think of any other ways to use this activity? Let us know by commenting below!
30 Responses
This is great!!! Thanks for sharing.
What a cute idea! I love this! I can't wait to do this with my class!
Brittany
Excelling in Second
Oh, this is an adorable idea! Thanks for sharing, Amy!
~Erin
Mrs. Beattie's Classroom
Make a huge tree for the outside bulletin board. All students put their ornaments on one tree. Instant bulletin board.
Love this! I am addicted to your blog and I look forward to my email that tells me it's been updated!! Thanks for all the inspiration!
Blessings!
Wendy
PS I want to be you when I grow up!! LOL
Love, printed to use on Friday. Exactly the skill we are trying to master before winter break. I'm thinking maybe something with contractions, but I like it the way it is and plan to use it this way. Love your ideas thank you for sharing.
Thanks Amy!!! I think I will use it to have students write about wants and needs. We will make “our needs tree” and “our wants tree” as collaborative groups!
This would be super cute for word families! Write a word family at the top on a star and then words that make up the word families on the ornament! Adaptable for Kindergarten! Love it! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing! I can use this in my lesson plans for next week!
Such a cute idea! I like your idea of using the space under your whiteboard. I have a small classroom with VERY little wall space so I am always trying to think of creative ways to hang things up in the room!
We use the same ornaments to make a sight word Christmas tree!
–Caitlin
The Kinder Garden
Thanks so much for the freebie! Perfect for review before Christmas.
Amy , thank you so much for inspiring us to keep learning fun for our kids:)
This will be great to have them do next week. Thank you so much for sharing them! I am going to use them for multiplication and division as a review.
Marlene
I Heart Teaching Elementary
I love this! Thank you for sharing! I look to your blog when I'm in a rut and need inspiration!
Thank you for sharing!! I just love your blog and all of your creative ideas! I am using this as a review of ordinal numbers! I wrote the ordinal name on the ornaments and the students are going to write the abbreviated version of the number. For example, first is on the ornament and the students will write 1st. I teaching Learning Support for 1st and 2nd! This will be a fun review activity!! 🙂
Thank you for sharing!! I just love your blog and all of your creative ideas! I am using this as a review of ordinal numbers! I wrote the ordinal name on the ornaments and the students are going to write the abbreviated version of the number. For example, first is on the ornament and the students will write 1st. I teaching Learning Support for 1st and 2nd! This will be a fun review activity!! 🙂
Thank you so much for this freebie! It's just what I needed to fill up my hallway with Christmas decorations before our big Christmas Program today! ( I even took a grade on it! ). You are a true inspiration! Your blog has been my “go to” blog since I started teaching 2nd grade in the middle of the year, 2years ago. I can't say Thank You enough!
-Retha
Awesome! I'm totally using this tomorrow! Thanks for sharing! You're great!
Thank you for sharing! I need something like this for next week. I appreciate the blank ornaments. We're doing regrouping in subtraction right now. I think I'll put some subtraction problems and have them color the ornaments themselves. Maybe one color for those that require regrouping to solve, and another color for those that don't.
All of the above! Just the right amount of holiday fun during math that we needed….a spoonful of sugar, right?
And you can bet we'll be taking our spelling test on the page today with 12 blank ornaments!
Thank you Amy.
Thanks, Amy! I plan on using this as ours, but next year, with advance planning, I could definitely see each ornament as a step by step ” bubble” map for how to decorate the tree, or any other holiday tradition expository writing! 🙂
Brooke
Hi Amy
I love to read your blog and hear about the exciting things you do in your classroom. Thank you for the freebie – just the thing to keep my kids going. They are over anything that does not involve cutting and gluing. With hot weather and only two and a half days yet we are dying to get the hours flying.
Keep up the amazing work
from Lisa in New Zealand
Hi Amy!
Such an adorable idea! I did it with my kiddos last week and they LOVED it. Anything to make education fun! Thank you for the cute idea!
Also, I was looking through a lot of your old posts (I am a brand new teacher fresh out of college, so I look for as many ideas as I can!). I was taking a peek at your “emergency sub plans” and I was wondering what your morning centers consisted of when you are there? I know you had said they do not do them when there is a sub.
Thanks!
Kate
That's awesome! I can adapt it to use for number writing, sight words, or Christmas words for my kinders!! Thank you for sharing!
I loved this activity. I changed it to have half addition and half subtraction with regrouping. The kids were so excited to put the ornaments on their trees. HOWEVER, they could only put on the ornaments that were correct! Whew! They worked hard. Thanks again for being so willing to share.
I love this! I put blank clocks on the ornaments and will have the kids put the hour and minute hands on. Super cute! Thank you!
L.O.V.E you!
Thanks so much.
Found this through Pinterest! Love, love, love! I teach a combo first/second – this is perfect for second and I will have my first graders do this with their word sorts so they don't feel left out! Thank you for a great freebie!
Blessings,
Sarah
[email protected]
Mrs. Hankinson's Class
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Thank you Amy. Top notch work as usual.