Top Winter Math Activities: 10 Exciting Ideas for Kids
reviewed by Maila Caliao
Updated on December 19, 2025
As a teacher and a mom, I rely on winter math activities to keep my kids learning during chilly afternoons and long holiday breaks. When the weather outside is frightful, our winter math lessons are so delightful! Kids stay engaged and even a little excited to explore numbers, patterns, and puzzles while snow swirls (or not) outside.
Key points
- Easy winter math activities can turn cold days into warm and memorable learning moments.
- An online math program includes variations for preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school.
- A tutor can help your child stay on track with winter math using both classical worksheets and also snow, cocoa, marshmallow, mittens, winter animals, and much more.
Winter math activities for preschoolers
#1 Winter math worksheets perfect for winter break
Nothing is more helpful for winter math activity than well-organized math worksheets. I love using worksheets with Christmas-themed visuals: snowflakes, mittens, Christmas trees, and cocoa cups, which provide kids with a winter scenario, and I highly recommend you try printable winter math activities for preschoolers from the Brighterly math and reading platform.
These Christmas math worksheets will help you keep kids engaged in learning while having fun with holiday-themed math challenges.
Learning goals: counting, fine motor skills, pattern recognition
Materials: printouts, crayons, mini erasers
Time: 5–10 minutes
Winter math activity for preschoolers #2: Snowball counting
For fun winter math activities, take the kids outside when it’s snowing; they should make as many snowballs as possible and count how many they have made and subtract the number of snowballs they throw from the pile.
If there’s no snow outside, let’s pretend it is! Set up a tray of cotton balls (“snowballs”) and numbered cards from 1 to 10. Kids match the correct number of snowballs to each card. You can also use pom-poms instead of cotton. It’s amazing how something so tactile and seasonal turns preschool winter math activities into a fun game.
As we place snowballs, I make up a story about a snowman family to combine literacy with math, and the Christmas quotes for kids from Brighterly often inspire our winter tales.
Learning goals: counting, number recognition, early addition
Materials: tray, cotton balls or pom-poms, numbered cards
Time: 10–15 minutes
Winter math activity for preschoolers #3: Hot chocolate marshmallow math
One of the coziest winter preschool math activities is a pretend-play setup ‘Hot chocolate marshmallow math’.
I write numbers on index cards and each card becomes a “recipe.” Kids look at the number and add the right amount of marshmallows to their pretend cup of hot chocolate. Offer two “recipe cards” at a time and ask your child to combine the amounts.
You may add a story: “Your hot cocoa café just opened, and the snowmen customers need their drinks before the next snowstorm!”
That story alone keeps my preschool kids engaged for 20 minutes straight.
Learning goals: counting, number recognition, comparing quantities, fine motor skills
Materials: index cards with numbers, marshmallows, small cups
Time: 10–15 minutes
Winter math activities for kindergarten
Note: Kids of the kindergarten age love structured yet playful tasks that mix counting, addition, subtraction, and creative problem-solving.
Winter math activity for kindergarten #1: Math worksheets for little ones
Kindergarten winter math activities are hardly imaginable without worksheets. They contain illustrative material which helps kids learn math playfully. Number bonds, simple addition/subtraction, and holiday-themed word problems do not seem frightful at all!.
Often, I use worksheets during our family morning time with a cup of cocoa and crêpes nearby. Really, math becomes part of our cozy routine with Brighterly great Christmas Counting Worksheets!
Printable Christmas worksheets included in Brighterly math program are full of coloring pages, connect-the-dots, and simple math tasks with cheerful seasonal visuals. You can enjoy them too, for free!
Learning goals: basic counting, pattern recognition
Time: 10 minutes
Winter math activity for kindergarten #2: Matching polar bears and snowballs
The polar bears and snowballs game is among the most popular printable kindergarten winter math activities. You get eight cards of polar bears with different colored scarves tied around their necks and a small can of colored cotton balls. Kids have to find the snowball of the same color as the scarf and hand it to the polar bear.
Tell the children to help their polar bears find their snowballs and give a hand to those experiencing difficulties.
Learning goals: number recognition, patterns
Materials: snowman cutouts, number cards, buttons/counters
Time: 15 minutes
Winter math activity for kindergarten #3: Gingerbread man counting & subtraction
Kids create their own gingerbread men from playdough, decorate them with pretend buttons, and use them for counting, addition, and subtraction. This hands-on practice works beautifully as a winter math activity for kindergarten, as it’s sensory, and little learners perceive math as craft time.
Once every child has made one, a math challenge starts: “Add 2 more buttons,” “Take away 1 button, what’s the new number?”
You can also turn the class set into a simple bar graph or picture graph if you group gingerbread men based on the number of buttons. Kids love winter math crafts when they see their creations become part of a larger data project.
Note: Remind the children that the gingerbread men are not edible, even if they look delicious.
Learning goals: number recognition, early addition and subtraction, graphing, fine motor skills
Materials needed: playdough, buttons/counters, trays
Time: 15-25 minutes
Winter math activities for elementary students
Note: Unlike math winter activities for little ones, elementary learners prefer deeper challenges: multi-digit operations, fractions, measurement, and data analysis.
Winter math activity for elementary #1: Lessons with a math tutor
An experienced math tutor can strengthen skills in multiplication, fractions, or help solve any problems that will be detected during the first 1:1 lesson. Brighterly offers excellent math tests to identify your child’s strengths and weaknesses. Why don’t you have your child pass a quick skills check right now?
| 1st grade test | 2nd grade test | 3rd grade test |
| 4th grade test | 5th grade test |
Even one session a week with a Brighterly math tutor during winter holidays can bring young learners to the next level. What once was a math mystery will become clear as a sunny day. Book free lesson today!
Winter math activity for elementary #2: Snowy number puzzles
This is a quest using winter math puzzles. Create a set of cards with addition, subtraction, multiplication, or simple fractions (with a seasonal twist).
Examples:
- “A snowman lost 7 buttons but found 4. How many remain?”
- “Count the snowflakes and multiply by 2 to find your next clue.”
Each answer leads students to the next card until they reach the final “You solved the winter mystery!” finish.
Also, let little students design their own winter math puzzles with drawings of winter themes (spoiler: their favorite theme is almost always the snowman math activities, so let them play with what they like the most).
Learning goals: operations practice, logical thinking
Materials: puzzle cards, pencils
Time: 10–15 minutes
Winter math activities for middle school students
Middle school math activity #1: Winter tutoring
Middle schoolers are curious and enjoy solving real-world tasks. These may include applied math and challenges that stretch their reasoning. Winter tutoring is a great help at this stage, so that your child receives proper guidance. A tutor can clarify complex concepts such as ratios, expressions, and equations. So, offering your child a winter math activity as a Christmas gift is a wonderful idea.
Try the Brighterly middle school math tests before starting lessons with a tutor.
| 6th grade test | 7th grade test | 8th grade test |
Affordable price is an evident advantage of winter tutoring with Brighterly. It means you can give your child expert support without stretching your holiday budget. And your child will receive focused assistance during winter break to then come to class with real progress.
Middle school math activity #2: Snowball budget game
This winter-themed challenge makes financial literacy surprisingly fun for middle schoolers. Give each student an imaginary $20 budget and a “winter shop” menu filled with snow gear, cocoa, and a few playful extras (e.g, emergency marshmallows). Their target is to buy what they want without going over budget.
Students plan their spending and learn to prioritize wants vs. needs. They track each purchase, so it’s a kind of sports strategy activity. While they manage costs and calculate change, they practice decimals, percentages, and the skill of making smart decisions.
You can run this as a small-group in your math centers or as a whole-class winter math activity.
Learning goals: budgeting, financial literacy
Time: 30 minutes
Conclusion
As a teacher and mom, I see the magic when kids explore different kinds of winter math activities through hands-on experiences. Try some of these non-standard ideas yourself, and if you want more, check out the 20 Christmas math activities for kids article.
Keep winter learning efficient and joyful with the Brighterly math program. Don’t wait for snow – book free lesson today and give your child a confident start to the season!
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