Feed Santa cookie game is a fun and easy math game for toddlers and preschoolers. Let your little one feed Santa his favourite M&M Christmas cookies all the while practicing counting and other early math skills!
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Feed Santa Cookie Game
First thing you need a cardboard box. I was doing this activity with all three of my kids so I used a very large box but this can be done with any size box. Draw the outline of a Santa face with your black sharpie. Use my picture as a reference.
Grab your paint sticks and colour in your Santa’s beard, hair and hat. Take a pair of scissors and cut out the mouth of the Santa big enough to fit cookies you make. Add large googley eyes for added character to your Santa!
I used brown construction paper to make my M&M Christmas cookies. You can also use spare cardboard. Cut them into small circles and use you paint sticks to create colourful M&M cookies.
Then I grabbed my number flashcards. They don’t get used try often since I prefer to use hand-ons on activities to teach and practice counting withy kids but they are useful for activities like this. If you don’t have number flashcards you can create your own or use a large dice.
How to Play Feed Santa Cookie Game
Flip over a flashcard or role the dice and then ask your toddler or preschooler what number it is. If you are using flashcards and it has objects on it depicting the number represented have them count those objects. If you are using a dice, count the number of dots.
Tell them that Santa is very hungry (I actually became the voice of Santa and asked my toddlers to feed me [Santa] that number of cookies on the flashcard). They absolutely loved that I pretended to be Santa and eagerly counted out the right number of cookies to feed Santa.
Total Hit
This was really a hit and they played this several times in one sitting and again the next few days later on their own. When they played on their own they didn’t really count but still had fun feeding Santa.
Modify for Preschoolers and Kindergartners
For older kids you can use the same flashcards and have them feed Santa the number of cookies as it relates to the answer of a simple math problem. For instance, let them figure out a simple addition or subtraction problem such as 6 – 4 = 2. Then feed Santa 2 cookies.
My kids are 2.5 and 6 years old.
Supplies
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- Cardboard Box
- Black Sharpie
- Paint Sticks
- Brown Construction Paper
- Scissors
- Large Googley Eyes
- Number flashcards
- Large dice
WILL YOU TRY FEED SANTA COOKIE GAME WITH YOUR TODDLER OR PRESCHOOLER THIS CHRISTMAS? PIN IT FOR LATER!
