Sixteen sums laid out two across and eight down, each one in a rounded frame with a numbered corner, a Christmas drawing on the left and a box for the answer on the right. Set the number range and whether the sums add, take away or mix the two, then print. The answers come out on a second sheet.
Three number ranges
Within 10 keeps both numbers and the answer at ten or below, which is where a five or six year old works. Within 20 opens it up to teens and brings in bridging through ten, the step most children find hardest. Two digit changes the layout as well as the numbers: the sums are set out in columns, one number above the other with a rule underneath, which is how column addition is taught.
The sums control switches between addition, subtraction and a mix of both on one sheet. Mixed is worth using once a child is confident, because deciding which operation a question needs is a separate skill from doing it.
The pictures are part of the point
Every frame carries a different drawing from the site's artwork library: a star, a wrapped present, a wreath, a snowman, a penguin, a bauble, a robin, a bell, a gingerbread house, a reindeer, a sleigh, a stocking and so on. They are line art, so the sheet prints cleanly in black and white and a child who finishes early has sixteen small pictures to colour in.
The drawings have nothing to do with the answers. They are there to make a page of sums look like something a child wants to pick up in December, which is most of the battle with a worksheet.
The answer sheet
With the answer sheet switched on, the download is two pages: the worksheet, then the same sheet again with every answer written into its box in red. Switch to Sheet only and the download is one page, which is what you want when you are running off a class set and marking by eye.
Each sum is numbered in its corner on both pages, so a child who works out of order and an adult marking against the key are still looking at the same reference.
Questions
- How many sums are on a Christmas maths worksheet?
- Sixteen, arranged two across and eight down with a numbered frame around each one. The count stays the same at all three number ranges, so a child moving up from within 10 to within 20 faces a sheet of the same length.
- Can I get subtraction instead of addition?
- Yes. The Sums control above the paper switches between Add, Take away and Mixed. Mixed puts both operations on one sheet in a random order, which stops a child answering on autopilot.
- Are the sums the same every time I open the page?
- No. A new set is drawn on every visit and every time you press Regenerate, so the same settings give an endless run of different sheets rather than one fixed PDF repeated.
- Do two digit sums come out in columns?
- Yes. At the two digit setting the sums are set out vertically, one number above the other with a rule under them and space for the answer below, which is the layout used for column addition and subtraction in school.
- How do I print the worksheet without the answers?
- Set Answer sheet to Sheet only before you download or print. The PDF then comes out as a single page with the answer boxes left empty.