Christmas Addition to 15

Here’s a simple and sweet Christmas addition activity for you! It’s aimed at little ones who are learning basic addition to 15 by putting 2 groups of objects together and then counting up the answer. Pretending to be putting Santa’s presents together for him so he’ll be ready for his next delivery is great for the imagination, too!

What you’ll need

Download this Christmas Addition to 15 printable HERE. Simply print off the pages you’ll need, either the black and white or coloured version. It helps to use cardstock for the gifts and place tags, then cut them apart and you’re ready to go. Laminate the main landing strip page for longer use.

How to do Christmas addition

There are nine imaginary place tags. Place 2 of them at the top of the landing strip mat then add the correct number of gifts next to the sign, doing one place first, then the other. Then count all the gifts together to get to the final total. I haven’t added + or = signs or recording sheets since it was created as a quick and easy math activity, but the extension activities below will give you some ideas if you want to include higher numbers or writing.

Extension ideas

Print off more gifts then add 3 numbers together instead of 2.
After adding the 2 cards to the mat write the equation on a piece of paper. For eg, in the graphic above your child would write 7 + 1 =, then they add the gifts, count how many altogether, then write the answer to the equation.
Write sentences to explain the problem. For eg, ‘Santa needs to deliver 6 gifts to Gingerbread Road and 1 gift to Santa Lane. How many gifts should he pack for this trip?’ OR ‘Santa has 10 gifts in his sleigh. Does he have enough gifts for Elf Glen and Snowflake River?’
Spoken questions like the questions above really help kids think about math as having real-world relevance, so while writing might be too cumbersome for little ones, having them make up questions about the places or discussing routes they think Santa should take is really great for thinking at a higher level.