I’m excited to join the Focused on Fifth gang as we count down ’til the big day, Twelve Days of Christmas style! Today’s theme is all about holiday themed MATH! I absolutely love using holidays to incorporate word problems into instruction and spiral review. I have also loved giving my students the opportunity to create and lead our classroom tasks this year.
I began by putting this image up on the board. I told my students that they would be creating their own Christmas word problems for their classmates! These were strictly ideas, and students were not limited to these suggestions.
Then, I gave each student a page for them to use to create their own word problem. I told them that them that the only criteria for their problem is that it be appropriate for their fellow fifth grade classmates. I didn’t want to see problems that included problems like 9-4. I also reminded them that the may want to include math topics that we had recently discussed, such as fractions or decimals. This page does not give specific instructions, so you could use this to cover any topic, grade, or skill that you are working on!
I stacked all of the word problems created by the class, and went to the copier. Each student now has a book full of Christmas themed word problems! We will be working our way through one problem each day this month.
You can grab this fun holiday freebie by clicking the image above! Don’t forget to check out the link below to find more holiday themed math ideas.
Cute idea to have kids create their own word problems. They have to know what they are doing to be successful. You're incorporating some writing tasks too. I like that the activity begins with a word list to get kids started. Thanks for sharing!
I love all of these student centered Math activities…there are a bunch featured on this link up. I think it is a great idea to put these word problems into a book format…then the students each have a little take-home packet. You could even use this concept to send home as a homework book. Thanks so much for joining us on this link up!
Angela
The Organized Plan Book