Christmas Addition Mats for Preschool
Looking for some addition activities for preschoolers? These Christmas addition mats for preschool are aimed at teaching basic math skills to preschoolers and kindergarteners, in a fun holiday theme. They can also be counting mats for Christmas, too!
Be sure to check out all my best Christmas activities for preschoolers and don’t forget to download your Christmas mats that the end of this post.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means that at no cost to you, I may earn a small sum if you click through and make a purchase.
Addition For Preschool
It might surprise you, but many preschoolers are very capable of completing simple addition tasks by Christmas time. If they have mastered one-to-one correspondence in counting, then they are ready to start solving simple addition problems.
With these Christmas math mats, preschool and kinder students can actually practice both counting and simple addition! They pick a number (or addition) card and then add the corresponding number of poinsettia flowers on the wreath.
What makes this printable a great kindergarten math activity is that the poinsettia cards feature 1-3 blooms on each card, so it teaches more advanced students how to make different combinations in the addition sentences. It makes quick work of learning math facts, too.
We have daily lessons for counting 0-20 and daily lessons for addition and subtraction that are a great place to develop the math foundation in preschool!
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Product on sale* Daily Lessons in Counting Preschool Math Unit BundleOriginal price was: $48.00.$39.00Current price is: $39.00. -
Christmas Math Books for Preschoolers
We’ve selected a few of our favorite and fun counting and math Christmas books for preschoolers. Grab a few today and liven up your circle time or preschool math lessons with this festive picture books!
- Hardcover Book
- Buehner, Caralyn (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- Sobotka, Amanda (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 24 Pages – 10/18/2022 (Publication Date) – Applesauce Press (Publisher)
- Hardcover Book
- Carter, David A. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- Norman, Kim (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 24 Pages – 10/07/2014 (Publication Date) – Union Square Kids (Publisher)
Christmas Addition Activities
When Christmas rolls around, I can’t help but go all out with my Christmas lesson plans. We do Christmas all December long, and sometimes even a little after, too!
And let me tell you, if you’re looking for preschooler math activities for Christmas, you need this activity. Erh, um…activities!
Try out these other Christmas Number Identification and Counting Activities, too!
What You Get
These Christmas addition printables are perfect for developing number sense! This printable includes number mats, addition sentences, and number cards up to 12. This math set can be used for one to one correspondence, addition, and number identification.
Additional Materials
- preschool addition mats (download from the end of this post)
- 2.5 inch circle punch (optional)
The Set Up
Just print this fun Christmas math activity in color on heavy cardstock. Cut out the addition sentences and the number cards, and separate them into piles. You can use a 2.5 inch circle punch to cut out the poinsettia cards, too.
Laminate the wreath mat for added durability. Then invite your preschool or kindergarten students to join you in some fun Christmas counting and addition activities for kids.
How to Use Christmas Addition Mats
There are a couple of ways to use these mats to teach addition to your preschooler or kindergartener. This way, you can add these to your math centers at Christmas time and know that you have a single printable that can serve students at multiple skill levels.
Use these mats as traditional counting mats by using the smaller numbers in the set. Have your student select a number card, and then use the poinsettia cards to create that number.
Your youngest learners are naturally going to select two single poinsettia cards to create the number two, where each card represents a “one” in “one-to-one” correspondence.
But you can challenge your youngest learners by asking your students to figure out another way to use the flower cards to make the same number. See the photo below.
Instead of choosing two individual cards with one poinsettia each, they chose one card with two poinsettias on it. This is a simple example, seeing the the number two only has a few combinations, but students will be challenged even more by attempting larger numbers, like in the activity below.
While this form of counting will take some practice, it’s a fantastic skill for even your preschoolers to try. This is what addition in preschool looks like in the beginning! And preschoolers are 100% capable of this kind of addition.
In the photo above, you can see that the number eight can be made up of 1+1+1+1+2+2. Now, this is not what a student is thinking when they create that combination. Rather, they might just count the flowers until the reach eight.
Christmas Addition Activity for Kindergarten
This activity is perfect for preschoolers and kindergarten students who have a firm grasp on one-to-one correspondence and counting on.
Set aside the number cards and offer the addition sentence cards. Have your student select one for the mat, and then invite them to copy the sentence by using the poinsettia cards to represent the numbers in the addition sentence.
Here is another example.
These mats only feature addition sentences with sums up to six. When children are first learning addition they need to work with quantities with which they are very comfortable and knowledgeable. This helps eliminate possible mistakes that can occur while learning a new math skill.
Christmas Manipulatives for Learning
These winter themed manipulatives for math are a great way to make math time fun and engaging for preschoolers! Perfect for extra practice, math centers, and hands on fun!
- A cool way to learn math
- Reinforce counting, patterning, sorting, operations and base ten
- Features ice bars that hold up to 10 penguins each
- 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚 – The Penguin balance…
- All Kinds of Learning Fun: Kids learn counting, colors, matching, imagination, fine motor skills,…
- Children learn to recognize, count, and compare numbers with soft, plastic Counting Cookies
- The cookies have raised chocolate chips so children can use their sense of touch to count how many…
- Set includes plastic cookie jar containing 11 cookies with numerals 0-10 printed on the bottom and…
Christmas Counting Activities
Use these mats as traditional counting mats. Have your student select a number card, and then use the poinsettia cards to create that number.
You can print multiple copies of the poinsettia cards so that students have plenty of counting options, or you can challenge your students by only offering a single sheet of cards. This means students will have to apply some addition skills to complete some of the higher numbers.
Plus, we have a list of even more preschool appropriate Christmas counting ideas for your math centers, early finishers, and small groups!
- Christmas Counting Cards
- Five Little Gingerbread Counting Booklet
- Christmas Tree Counting Activity
- Gingerbread Ten Frame Counting Mats
Addition Mats for Kindergarten
Looking for more addition mats for Kindergarten? We’ve gathered some more winter themed addition mats and even year round options! You can never have enough opportunities for addition practice in kindergarten!
- Christmas Ten Frame Counting Mats
- Roll and Cover Addition Mats (over 10 different mats!)
- Lego Addition Challenge Mats
- Cold Weather Addition Mats
- Marshmallow Addition Activity and Mats
Get Your Christmas Addition Mats Here
Think these free printable addition mats are something you want to add to your Christmas theme math centers this holiday season? Just fill out the form below and they will be sent to your inbox!
Then, keep reading for even more free Christmas math activities!
More Christmas Math Activities for Preschoolers
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
