Cost of a Thanksgiving Meal

Divide the students up into groups of three or four. Instruct the students to come up with a list of foods they plan to eat at their Thanksgiving dinner. Each group will have some items the same, and some different. Once the children have their lists, they must figure out how much money it would cost to purchase the items. You can supply children with some grocery fliers, or allow them to view prices from a supermarket's online website. Tell the students that they must have enough ingredients to feed an average family of four. For example, one can of corn may only feed two people, so in that case, the children would need to purchase two cans. Have each group share their meals and the total cost with the class.

Gingerbread House Math

Divide the children up into groups and provide the materials for them each to make their own gingerbread house. You will need graham crackers, frosting and candy to decorate the house with. Once the students are done, they must measure and record the gingerbread house's perimeter, area and volume. You can also have the students report how many M&M's it would take to cover the roof, or how many tablespoons of icing was used to construct the gingerbread house. Make sure the children receive detailed instructions before they begin if you want them to measure the ingredients they use.

Christmas Graphing

Create a large graph on the chalkboard with numbers going across the bottom and up the left-hand side. Place coordinates on a sheet of paper that will create a Christmas picture when connected together. The picture could be a snowman, Christmas tree or a reindeer. Call the students up one at a time and have them add a coordinate and connect it to the previous one until the picture is complete. If you aren't sure how to create a picture graph, you can use one of edHelper's Christmas graphs (see Resources).

Easter Egg Hunt Race

Divide the class up into four groups and assign each group a color. Each group will need 10 of their color eggs. Create 10 math problems covering concepts the children have learned or are learning at the moment. The problems can be in number form or in word problem form. Copy the 10 questions four times so that each group has the same questions. Place the questions inside the plastic eggs. Hide all of the eggs in the classroom or the school playground. When you say "Go," the students must find their eggs and solve the equations. The group that has all 10 questions answered correctly first wins.