When I was teaching, my classroom went into full Christmas mode upon the first day back after Thanksgiving. My classroom was decorated. A cozy fire was on the smartboard when it was not in use. And Christmas carols playing in the background. Best of all, literacy and math centers for the month are festive too! Christmas Number Puzzles will be the perfect addition to centers in your classroom during this fun and exciting season.
This activity works well with these resources:
Christmas Number Puzzles contains eleven pages of puzzles. This resource will cover numbers one through twenty. It is recommended that you print on cardstock and laminate it so you can use it for years to come.
Doing Christmas Number Puzzles
To begin this center, students will first pick a puzzle piece with the number and identify it.
They will then find the matching puzzle piece by counting how many presents are on each puzzle piece.
Once the matching piece is found, they can place the pieces together to make a match. These steps will be repeated until all of the puzzle pieces have a match or if the time for the center is up.
Differentiating Christmas Number Puzzles
I always love centers that a variety of ages and abilities can use. Here are some ideas to differentiate this center so that it can meet the needs of your students. If some of your students are not able to put together the puzzle pieces, you can leave the puzzle pieces together. Have students trace the number with their finger or a vis-a-vie marker and then count the presents one at a time. One-to-one correspondence can be a tricky concept for many kids, so offering them multiple opportunities to practice is very beneficial for them.
If your students are able to complete the puzzle pieces but will be overwhelmed by the forty pieces, you may want to introduce this activity to them with a smaller number of puzzle pieces. Maybe start with numbers 1-10 at first and then have students work their way up. Forty puzzle pieces might be a little overwhelming and it would be a shame to frustrate or discourage them right from the start.
If putting number puzzles together is a breeze for some of your students, encourage them to create addition or subtraction sentences with each puzzle. This will allow them to take their knowledge of the material one step further.
To get this freebie click on the image below.
I hope that you enjoy Christmas Number Puzzles!