Wintertime is such a magical time! Some of you may live in an area where you get measurable snow, experience frigid temperatures, or maybe you get to enjoy warmer weather for your holiday celebrations. There are plenty of great learning opportunities this time of year if you live in a place where you experience changing seasons. Let’s take a look at some different wintertime math activities that your child can do while he or she is out of school.
Measure Snowfall
This is a great activity to do to practice length and measurement. Have your child practice using both sides of the ruler (centimeters and inches) to measure how much snow accumulated in a given period of time. You also could have your child solve problems such as how many inches of snow have melted. Maybe your child could find places in your yard where the snow depth is greater than others. This can spark a great conversation about why and how this happens!
Charting Temperature
Depending on where you live, the temperatures may get pretty cold, possibly even negative temperatures. Making a line graph is a great way to practice measurement and data concepts. Encourage your child to determine which day was the coldest, which day was the warmest, finding the difference, etc. For older students, consider practicing concepts such as mean, median, and mode with the different temperatures.
Weight
This could be fun if you are in an area with snow! Have your child make a snowball and estimate how much it weighs. How close was your guess? Afterwards, see if your child can make a snowball with a given weight. This could be a fun but challenging task to do!
Angles
Grab some popsicle sticks and let your child create some snowflakes! This is a great way to identify different types of angles! Have your child look for obtuse angles, acute angles, right angles, etc. Even if your child hasn’t learned this yet in school, it could be a fun way to introduce him/her to this concept. If you have a protractor at home, you can help your child measure the different snowflake angles as well!
Image from: www.deceptielyeducational.blogspot.com
We would love to hear what math activities you do with your child in the winter!