Halloween Math activities

 

Halloween Math Activities

Check out these Fun Halloween Math Activities Ideas

Spooky

Buzz is a favorite counting game for many children. But you are bound to find that they'll like the Halloween version even more.

Players sit in a circle and start to count around the circle. But when a player comes to the number 7, a multiple of 7, e.g. 14 or 35 or any number with a 7 digit, e.g. 27, the player says buzz instead of the number. When a player doesn't say 'Buzz' at the appropriate time, the player is out.

In the Halloween version the word buzz can be replaced with a Halloween word, e.g. 'spooky' or 'scary' or 'ghost'. Try to count to 70 which would be a 'spooky' number and then continue on counting - spooky-one, spooky-two, etc as players can't say 'seventy-one'.

4 Dice Skeleton

This game requires 4 dice and a copy of the alphabet with a number value beside each letter, i.e. a-1, b-2, c-3, d-4 etc. Each player also has a piece of paper with 8 dashes on it, ready to write the word SKELETON.

The object of the game is to write the word SKELETON, by rolling the total value for each letter.

If a player rolls 5, 3, 3 and 1, these are added to 12 which is a letter 'L'. The player can then put the letter 'L' into their word. If a player rolls 1, 1, 1 and 2, they can write in the letter 'E' both times in the word. The first player to finish their word SKELETON is the winner. The game can also be played with other Halloween words, but don't include any words that contain an A, B, C, Y or Z as with 4 dice it is impossible to throw 1, 2, 3, 25 or 26. Try using the words - FRIGHTEN, MONSTER or PUMPKIN. Words like HALLOWEEN, FRANKENSTEIN or JACK-O'-LANTERN can also be used if the A's and C's are written in before starting the game.

A shorter version of this game is to have each person working on completing one word.
The person who completes it with the last letter is the winner.

Predicting Pumpkin Measurements

Introduce a few pumpkins to the classroom and you can get kids, estimating and comparing mass, circumferences, diameters and heights. This is a fun Halloween maths activity to get kids practicing measuring. All you need is three - five pumpkins labeled with a letter on each.

Have children record their estimated mass, circumference, diameter and height for each. Children can also record the order of the pumpkins from lightest to heaviest and from smallest circumference to largest. The same can be done for diameter and height. Then have the students measure and record these things. Children can then compare their estimates with the actual measures.

Halloween Brain Teasers

Halloween Brain Teasers are also a great way to get kids busy with math. Simply take your favorite Brain Teasers and change the characters and situations to a Halloween character or situation.

Here's a couple to get you started.

Dracula only likes red candy and Frankenstein only likes black candy. There are 6 pieces of red candy, 9 pieces of black candy and 4 pieces of blue candy in a bag. What is the minimum number of pieces of candy that Dracula will need to pick, without looking at them to make sure that he gets at least 1 piece of red candy? How many pieces will Frankenstein need to pick out to make sure he gets at least 1 black piece?

Dracula has 3 pairs of pants - black, brown and blue, 2 shirts - black and white and 3 capes - black, red and blue. Name all of the different outfits that he can wear, e.g. black pants, white shirt and red cape. How many different outfits can he make?