Graphing With Gift Bows: Christmas Graphing Activities for Kindergarten

This is Day 6 of the 12 Days of Christmas Math Games and Activities for Homeschoolers! You can check out the other posts in the series to find easy, hands-on math lesson ideas for your homeschool this month! Today I’m excited to be sharing some fun Christmas graphing activities for kindergarten, including Graphing with Gift Bows! This post also includes a free download so you can use these Christmas graphing activities for kindergarten in your homeschool!

This activity was designed for kids in 1st grade, who are learning about making and reading graphs. It can be adapted for kids from preschool through 2nd grade using the suggestions included in this plan!

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What You Need:

• This Graphing with gift bows free printable (get it below!)

• A package of gift bows (or another item to graph)
• A roll of masking tape

Optional Items to Make it More Fun:

• Fun CHRISTMAS THEMED COUNTERS: I found a cute set of Christmas-themed erasers at the Dollar Store that my kids love as counters. We also love to use food as counters- cheerios and M+Ms work especially well.
• JINGLE BELLS: Our favorite Christmas themed counter is actually a set of small jingle bells! My kids love playing with these and somehow any math activity is more fun when we can use jingle bells as counters.
• A MAGNET WAND: Because most jingle bells are magnetic, a MAGNET WAND is a fun addition to this game, and will allow your kids to practice fine motor as well.
• Alternatively, red and green POM POMS and kid-sized TWEEZERS add a fun fine motor component to the lesson. You can also use a SPOON to practice scooping.

Prepare:

• Gather your supplies.
• Using the tape, make an empty bar graph on a table or the floor, with bars large enough to hold different colors of gift bows (or other objects).

How to Use These Christmas Graphing Activities for Kindergarten

In this activity, your child will be sorting the gift bows by color to make a bar graph. After the bows are sorted by color, your child can organize them into the bars you have taped to make a bar graph. When the bar graph is complete, you might want to adjust the bows so that they are spaced evenly like they would be in a bar graph. After you have created your graph, take a few minutes to talk about it with your child.

Things to notice together:

• The more bows of a certain color, the longer the bar.
• The fewer bows of a certain color, the shorter the bar.
• How many bows of each color are there?
• How many bows are there altogether?
• Which color has the most?
• Which color has the least?
• How many more of one color are there than another?
• Are there 2 colors that have the same amount of bows?

Adapt the Christmas Graphing Activities for Kindergarten For Your Kids:

For Younger Kids:

Use smaller numbers:

Use only a few of the bows instead of the whole package. Consider using only 2 or 3 of the colors instead of all of them.

Instead of practicing graphing, practice counting:

For very young kids, skip making the bar graph. Concentrate instead on sorting the bows by color, and counting how many of each color there are.

For Older Kids:

Use more objects:

Add a second package of gift bows to make a bigger graph. Or, choose something different to graph so that your graph will have more items. A package of a candy like M+Ms that has different colors is a lot of fun to graph!

Make a different kind of graph:

After you have finished sorting your gift bows into a bar graph, show your child how to make a different kind of graph. Use graph paper to make a line graph or a pie chart of your gift bows.

Find a different way to sort:

Can you re-sort the bows using a different characteristic? What if instead of sorting them by color, you sort them by size? How many different ways can you graph them?

Extensions: Statistics

Choose a question that can be answered with an opinion, like “What is your favorite color?” Have your child conduct a survey where they ask that question to several people. They can collect the data and graph it on a bar graph.

What Your Kids Will Learn in These Christmas Graphing Activities for Kindergarten

There are so many skills that your child is practicing in this activity! In order to make the graph, your child will need to sort the items and organize them into groups. When you ask follow up questions about the graph, your kids will be thinking critically and analyzing the data they have collected. This also requires them to use counting and one to one correspondence as they compare the amount of bows in each column. Although this is a simple activity, kids have to use many skills to complete it!

Get the Christmas Graphing Activities for Kindergarten Free Printable!

Fill out the form below to get your copy of the Christmas graphing activities for kindergarten free printable. I’ll also send the other lessons in the Christmas Math games and activities series straight to your inbox. All your math plans for the month are done!

Get all the 12 Days of Christmas Math Games and Activities Lessons!

This huge 200+ page PDF is stuffed with hands-on activities and printables to complete 12 fun Christmas themed math lessons! Each day includes complete directions and printables, plus bonus tips, extension activities, and worksheets to reinforce the concepts your kids are learning. This huge bundle includes all the activities and printables you will need to complete the 12 Days of Christmas math games and activities, plus bonus worksheets and extension activities that won’t be included in the free downloads! Harness that Christmas excitement to make homeschooling fun this season with this easy-to-use resource!

These lessons were designed for kids in preschool through 1st grade. Each lesson includes adaptations to customize it for your child’s unique needs- or so that siblings can do the activities together!

Learn more about this amazing resource here!

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Are you looking for hands-on science experiments for your homeschool too? I’ve combined my Christmas math and science resources into a huge STEM bundle! And when you purchase both resources together you can save 30%! Learn more here.

Check out the other posts in the 12 Days of Christmas Math Games and Activities series here to find more fun activity ideas for your homeschool!