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Fall Math Activities

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Adding a seasonal spin to classroom learning makes it a little more fun for everyone, so here are some fall math activities to get younger kids engaged in learning the basics.

Make fun fall shapes like an apple, a scarecrow and an acorn using snap cubes, then count the number of each color used in the design. Get the pattern cards from 123 Homeschool 4 Me and kids will get practice following instructions, sorting colors and counting.

Or use cubes to practice one-to-one correspondence with a pumpkin twist with this pumpkin stacking towers activity from Fun Learning for Kids. Here kids match the number of cubes in each stack to the number on the pumpkin. There are printable options with numerals and dots that kids can use to practice addition while they build their towers.

These apple counting printables from Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds are another way to practice one-to-one correspondence while learning to count to 10. Kids can use red pompoms or buttons to cover up each apple on the tree as they count them.

The Keeper of the Memories has a printable pumpkin seed counting clip card activity where kids can count the number of seeds in the pumpkin and clip a clothespin to the correct answer (numbers 0 to 10 are included).

Need some independent math games for first and second graders to do when they complete their work early? Check out this free download from Missing Tooth Grins on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Work on skip counting by twos with these cute apple puzzle printables from Royal Baloo. Just print, cut (and laminate if you want) and kids can reassemble them with the numbers as a guide.

Kindergarten Worksheets and Games has a great collection of fall themed math worksheets, including writing the words for numbers, telling time, greater than and less than, counting by ones, twos and fives, addition and subtraction and more. And they’re all free.

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Christmas STEM Projects

Holidays are a great time to pull in some themed STEM projects. Even kids who aren’t usually into science can get excited about making a reindeer fly or making a Christmas tree out of 3D shapes. Check out these fun Christmas STEM activities to try in your classroom or at home.

Speaking of making reindeer fly, there are lots of different takes on this engineering challenge. In the instructions from The Educator’s Spin on it, kids make a reindeer from recycled materials, then use a string to make it “fly.” You can also do this with a balloon, like in this version from Team Cartwright.

And that Christmas tree project? That one is from Steamsational, and it calls for making a bunch of 3D triangles you then assemble into a tree. The post includes all the tips you’ll need and a printable template for making the triangles.

Another cute idea from Steamsational is making Santa’s sleigh out of an egg carton. Give kids design challenges such as that Santa must stay in the sleigh, it should be able to move and pull weight. It’s so fun to see what kids come up with.

Science Sparks has a printable book full of Christmas-themed experiments with templates kids can cut out and use to make spinning sleighs, shadow puppets, a paper tube to test how much weight it can hold and more. These activities are really low prep beyond the printing, so they’re great when you need to fill a little time at home or at school.

If you have Legos and jingle bells you can make a simple engineering challenge by having kids build mazes that the bells can roll through. Get the details from Innovation Kids Lab. (And check out this fun book of Lego Christmas ornaments!)

Of course you can also put a Christmas spin on classic STEM activities, like making a baking soda volcano in a plastic or glass ball ornament (Little Bins for Little Hands), red and green magic milk (Fun Learning for Kids), Borax crystal ornaments (Go Science Kids) and more!

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