Christmas Unit Study - Math

Math skills come in handy through the holidays! Children and adults will use math in so many practical ways everyday in their preparations. One of my children likes to ask me why we need to study math. Well, here are some suggestions to make math useful and real for everyone! Try the math quiz below for some examples of holiday math word problems!

Beautiful lights shine everywhere for Christmas, and would be hard to plan for without math! Students will enjoy estimating and determining the number of lights needed to create a display. Young children can simply count the amount of lights per string. Middle children can add / subtract / multiply / and divide the number of lights per string, feet per strings, amount of strings. Older children could calculate the perimeter or area of a space and determine how many lights or strings they will need to cover it.
Let them test their calculations!

Examples:
~ Count the number of green lights on this string of light. Add it to the number of red lights.
~ If a 3 foot long string of lights holds 27 lights, how many lights would be on a 6 foot long string? 8 foot? 12 foot?
~ If the height of the front of a building is 35 feet, and the length of the building is 90 feet, what is the perimeter? How many feet of light strings will you need to cover that perimeter? How many 5 foot long strings will cover the perimeter?
~ If possible, you may want students to measure a safe designated space for it's perimeter. Measure the distance from the lights to an electrical outlet to decide how long of an extension cord will be needed. Will you need more than one?

Now that we have lights, we need to think about the electricity bill expenses! Students can use all four mathmatical processes to determine the amount of watts per string or display. Calculate the amount of time the lights will be on each day times the number of days. Multiply the amount of usage times cost per hour. Why not show them real electricity bills? Have them determine watt usage times the rate, and so on. There are so many possibilities for practical word problems here!

As a related science activity, you may want to discuss electricity creation and conservation.

Christmas budgeting is always a difficult issue, especially for children! The price tag is not exactly what they consider when asking for presents from Santa. What a great time to discuss how to budget resources! Discuss ways to make choices and priorities. Give each student a certain amount of money to start with, then let them decide how they should spend (or save) their money. You can give them pre-determined prices for items in a store. Young children love to play with paper money in a pretend store!

Broaden the discussion for older children by having them consider other basic expenses that adults have in addition to spending money on presents. How could their budget include food, rent, gas, and other things?

Earning income is obviously very important for them to understand, also. Discuss ways of earning an income, saving it, and deciding how it should be used.

Examples ~ Store "A" is selling a bike for $300. The same bike went on sale at store "B" for $225. How much money will you save by buying it at store "B"?
~ Figure out the amount of sales tax on an item. ~ Since so many people order items online, have students calculate sales items, taxes, and shipping / handling costs.

Special holiday meals, casseroles, salads, breads, and desserts are very traditional! Measuring in teaspoons, tablespoons, cups, and other measurements is a fantastic way to practice mathmatical skills. Have them convert measurements from teaspoons to tablespoons or liters to gallons. Double or triple a recipe to find out the amount of materials needed. Find some kid friendly recipes to create, and make up some word problems involving measurments.

Other Measurement activities for the season:
~ What is the height, width, or circumference of an ornament?
~ Use candy canes to measure the length of items such as gift boxes, Christmas trees, etc. Can they estimate how many candy canes long an item is then measure to verify?

Other ideas to consider that would be interesting to study about: Roman taxes, wages, percentages of items on sale or taxes, and methods of payments today compared to Biblical times.

Some ideas for practicing estimation during Christmastime:
~ the number of Christmas candy pieces in a bag or jar,
~ how many cookies a recipe will make (they could discuss how the size of the cookie will alter the amount),
~ the cost of a make-believe shopping trip for gifts or for ingredients to a recipe,
~ the length of stockings or their weight when filled,
~ how many items of your naming can fit in a shopping cart,
~ with a toy cash register - how many sale items can be wrung up in one minute (either practice calculator or adding skills).