Winter Break Math Packets for Kindergarten to 5th Grade

Every teacher knows the January feeling. You spent the fall building something: multiplication facts in 3rd grade, long division in 4th, fractions in 5th. Then two weeks of cookies and cousins go by, and the class that walked out fluent in December walks back in acting like October never happened. The first week of January quietly becomes a reteaching week, every single year.

The fix is not a giant holiday workbook. It is the smallest routine that works: one sheet of familiar math a day, for the ten weekdays of break, checked off by the kid on a tracker page. I built my winter break line around that routine, one packet per grade from Kindergarten through 5th, and this page is the tour.

Why ten days beats thirty pages

The winter packets that fail all fail the same way: they are too big. A thick December packet signals to families that this is a project, projects get postponed, and postponed projects come back half blank. So each of these packets holds exactly ten daily sheets, front and back, ten to fifteen minutes each. That is the whole ask.

• Ten days matches the actual break, so finishing is realistic instead of theoretical.
• Every page is first-semester review only. Nothing new, so no adult has to teach on vacation and no child is stuck waiting for help.
• One sheet a day builds the habit. The tracker page turns it into a small ritual: do the sheet, check the box. Kids police it themselves.
• An optional Challenge Day waits at the end, a notch harder, for the student who finishes day ten and asks for more.

Built to be sent home, not just printed

A break packet lives or dies at the kitchen table, with an adult who has not seen a math classroom in twenty years. So every packet opens with a one-page Note for Families that explains the routine in plain words: one sheet a day, ten to fifteen minutes, keys in the back, no screens, nothing to prep. A second page translates each fall skill into parent language, so "place value" actually means something at home. And the answer keys are numbered by page, so checking day four takes a minute, not an argument.

For you, the prep is one trip to the copier on the last week of the semester. Hand the packets out before the final bell, and spend January teaching instead of reteaching.

What each grade reviews

Each packet reviews its own grade's first semester, which is why there is one per grade rather than a generic "elementary" file. Pick your grade below.

Kindergarten winter break math packet

The Kindergarten packet (31 pages) reviews counting, number recognition, comparing, shapes, and adding within 10. It is math only: no reading or letter pages. At this age an adult usually reads the directions aloud, and the family note explains the routine in plain words. See the Kindergarten packet on TpT.

First grade winter break packet

The 1st grade packet (35 pages) keeps addition and subtraction within 20, place value, and number patterns warm over the break. See the 1st grade packet on TpT.

2nd grade winter break packet

The 2nd grade packet (33 pages) reviews two-digit addition and subtraction, skip counting, money, and two-step word problems. See the 2nd grade packet on TpT.

3rd grade winter break packet

The 3rd grade packet (32 pages) reviews multiplication and division facts, place value, rounding, and addition and subtraction. The sample pages above come from this packet, so you can see exactly what goes home. See the 3rd grade packet on TpT.

4th grade

The 4th grade packet (33 pages) keeps multi-digit multiplication and long division warm over the break. It has its own page with the full tour: the 4th grade winter break math packet.

5th grade winter break math packet (PDF)

The 5th grade packet (33 pages) reviews multi-digit multiplication, long division, adding and subtracting large numbers, fractions, and place value. Like every packet here, it is a single printable PDF with the family note, the tracker, the ten daily sheets, and the answer keys in one file. See the 5th grade packet on TpT.

The K-5, K-2 and 3-5 bundles

Singles are $6.95 per grade. The K-2 and 3-5 bundles carry three grades each at $14.95: three packets bought separately come to $20.85, so the bundle is the version I point teams toward, and it means the whole hallway goes home with the same routine.

• The K-5 bundle (197 pages, $27.95): all six grades, Kindergarten through 5th, against $41.70 for the six packets bought separately. It is the one for a whole school, or a teacher who moves between grades.
• The K-2 bundle (99 pages): Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade.
• The 3-5 bundle (98 pages): 3rd, 4th and 5th grade.

The rehearsal is in November

If you want the winter packet to come back finished, run the short version first. The five-day Thanksgiving break packets (Kindergarten through 5th grade) use the same family note, the same tracker, and the same one-sheet-a-day rule. A family that has done five days in November does not need the routine explained in December; they just need the next packet.

The week before break has its own five-day Christmas math packets, for the days of concerts and parties while the class is still in school.

What happens in January

The packet hands its baton to two other routines on this site. The first is the mid-year reset: a Mid Year Math Check In for every grade, Kindergarten to 5th, that shows which fall skills came back from break, and four January weeks of spiral review for 3rd and 4th grade, for the students whose packets stayed in the backpack. The second is weekly homework, the same one-sheet habit stretched across all 36 weeks of the year. Classes already running weekly homework take to the winter packet instantly, because to them it is not a holiday project. It is just the normal sheet, at home, with hot chocolate.