There are lots of Polar Express math activities you can do with your students after reading the book. Many of these activities can be modified for different grade levels or skill levels.
- After reading the book, talk about the when events in the story happened. Ask the what time they think, the train picked the boy up and what time they think they opened presents the next day. Remind the students of the two times that clocks are mentioned in the book - when the conductor checks his watch for the train to leave and when the clock struck midnight at the North Pole. Then to practice time give each student a large piece of manila paper. Have the students fold it into four sections. Then use a blank clock stamp to stamp a clock in each station. Tell the class to think of four events in the story and to write the time that they think they happened and draw in the hands on the clock to match. Then they can write the event and draw a picture. Remind them to put the events in the correct order from the story. This activity also doubles as a sequencing activity.
- Your students can practice patterns after reading The Polar Express. Give the each student some small rectangles cut out of white paper and some smaller white circles to use as wheels. Have them glue the wheels to the bottom of the rectangles to make train cars and then to glue the cars onto a larger piece of paper to make a train. Then give them snap cubes and let them make several different pattern towers with the cubes. When they are finished, have them choose their favorite and color their trains to match that pattern.
- For a math center activity place a variety of different bells at your center. Let your students sort the bells in as many different ways as they can.
- To practice shapes give groups of two or three students a copy of the book The Polar Express. Have them work together to go on a shape hunt through the book. What objects can they find in the illustrations that are circles, squares, rectangles and triangles? Older students can also find 3-d shapes. This activity would also work as a math center.
Your students will have fun practicing their math skills with The Polar Express math activities. You can find another activity for The Polar Express here.
