Christmas Color by Number Addition and Subtraction Worksheets K-2

About this resource

Solve a problem. Find the answer in the key. Color the square. A picture shows up! This is a Christmas color-by-number kit for addition and subtraction facts: six mystery pictures, each a grid with a fact in every square and a color key, plus the warm-up, solve-and-color, writing and record-keeping pages around them. Every student answer is colored or written in crayon or pencil, so no student page needs scissors or glue.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (32 pages)

• 6 Christmas mystery pictures (a star, a gift, an ornament, a tree, a bell, a stocking), each a 9 x 9 grid: 81 squares with a problem in every one, 486 squares in all
• 16 student pages in 5 page types: a practice tree, 6 Get Ready pages, 6 Mystery Picture pages, 2 Solve and Color pages (12 problems) and 1 Name the Picture page
• Three pictures within 10 and three within 20: Picture 1 adds within 10, Picture 2 subtracts within 10, Picture 3 mixes both; Pictures 4, 5 and 6 do the same within 20
• Keys from 2 colors up to 5: one dot on the name line is a 2- or 3-color key (Pictures 1 and 2), two dots is a 4-color key (Pictures 3, 4 and 5), three dots is a 5-color key (Picture 6, the stocking). The key prints each color word and the answers that get it.
• 2 answer keys with the finished pictures, generated from the same data as the pages
• 1 tracker, 1 class progress grid, 1 team note page, 1 home page, 1 filled example (an invented student), 1 phrase bank (16 starters)
• 1 binder cover and 6 divider tabs with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here, a how-to-read-a-page page and a contents page that gives every page number

The Five Page Types

1. Practice tree (one dot): solve the problem, find the answer in the key, color the box. A small tree is hiding in the squares, so a child sees the whole idea before the first mystery picture.

2. Get Ready: one problem for each answer in the key, grouped by the color it will get, with a big box to write the answer in.

3. Mystery Picture: solve each problem, color its box like the key. Squares start white and the picture shows up when every square is colored.

4. Solve and Color: six problems a page, such as "4 + 3 =". Solve it, find the answer in the key at the top, then color the blank outline of the picture to match.

5. Name the Picture: the six finished pictures, a word bank, and "I see:" to write.

Facts That Have One Right Color

Every answer is in only one color on a page, so each square has one right color. The same problem never touches itself, up, down, left or right, and no problem shows more than 3 times on a picture. Within 10 means every sum, and every number you start from when subtracting, is 10 or less; within 20 means 20 or less. All of this is checked in code when the file is built, along with every square against its own key.

Built For The Child Holding The Page

A big "My name" line, one short instruction with a picture, large rounded numbers, and squares big enough for a crayon. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult, and the level is dots, not words. The color names are printed in the key, so the pages still work when photocopied in black and white. The pictures are ordinary objects (a star, a gift, a bell) with no faces and no characters.

A note on the pictures: each is a simple pixel drawing. If a child gives one a different name, say the word yourself; the Name the Picture page has a word bank for that.

Type In, Or Print

The name and date lines, the tracker, the class grid, the team note, the home page and the binder cover are type-in fields in any PDF reader. The answers a child writes in the boxes are crayon or pencil work. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a slideshow or a word-processor file.

Who This Is For

Kindergarten, first and second grade classrooms, self-contained and resource rooms, and any teacher working with an older student who still needs addition and subtraction facts practice, for the December / Christmas season. The home page sends the same job to a family; the team note hands off what changed since the last meeting.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

Facts practice with the record-keeping around it. It is not a probe, a goal bank or a score sheet, not a math assessment, and not a claim about any student's age or rate of progress.