Winter Mathematics

This resource from the Shropshire Centre for Mathematics education consists of twenty eight winter themed activities. There are a number of investigations, puzzles and games covering a variety of aspects of mathematics. A calendar activity requires students to complete a calendar from jigsaw pieces then spot the patterns created. Winter scenes uses Carroll Diagrams and Venn diagrams to sort and categorise whilst the Christmas trees activity uses Venn diagrams and to categorise trees using their symmetry. The resource contains a number of puzzles and investigations such as Logic crackers, Logic snowmen, Logic christmas cards and a paper chains investigation exploring the different ways links in the chain can be joined. Students can also answer a variety of questions and puzzled based upon the song ‘Twelve days of Christmas’. The Christmas tree game involves fitting different mathematical shapes into a Christmas tree and students can use hexagons to make Christmas tree patterns whilst digit trees help develop adding strategies. There follows a number of investigations exploring the properties of cuboids in parcel activities whilst other special activities include use of tangrams, the Menorah and a game using a four-sided spinner called a Dreidel. The resource concludes with a number of activities based upon stars such as looking at the symmetry of stars and the patterns created when drawing stars on a ten-point circle before looking at patterns on mathematical snowflakes and drawing stars with LOGO.