Engaging Halloween Math Activities
Halloween is right around the corner! Here are some fun and engaging math activities you can try this year!
1. Pumpkin Calculations
Grab a few large or small pumpkins (ask for class donations) and some measuring tapes. Have your students practice their formula calculations by measuring and calculating a pumpkin’s surface area and volume. Have students work together in small groups. Allow calculators as a way to practice the formula. Have students create their own data display or grab my pumpkin measuring resource that has everything you need for your students to complete this hands-on activity including reflection questions and a teacher guide. Grab it here!
2. Halloween Candy Fun
This is a perfect time to do some candy math! Here are a few ideas to incorporate candy into your Halloween math class.
Colored Candy Calculations: This simple yet classic candy activity has your students calculating the percentage of colors in each pack of M&M’s or Skittles in an individual pack. Change it up and give each group of students a scoop of candy with colors from a larger bag. Have students create a table with colors in one column and a column each for tally, fraction, and percent. Have students make a prediction ahead of time about which color will have the highest percentage. You can then have groups compare their data with other groups. Students can write about what they experienced in their activity.
Analyze Candy Collection: This activity works great the day after Trick or Treating. Have students bring in a random selection of their treats (20-30 pieces). An alternative is having parents donate a large bag of candy to your classroom and giving each student or pair of students an amount from the bag. Then have students compare and calculate percentages by looking at chocolate vs. non-chocolate pieces. This is another fun one to discuss and see what most people hand out for Trick or Treating. I have the table and reflection questions for this activity in my Math Behind Halloween resource. Grab it here.
3. Halloween Riddles
Do you need something that is low prep and fun for students during the Halloween season? Try this set of Halloween riddle math worksheets. Each worksheet includes simplifying expressions using the distributive property. Best of all there are a variety of levels that make this set easy to differentiate. Check it out here.
4. The Math Behind Halloween
Want your students to learn statistics about the spooky holiday? Grab my Math Behind Halloween resource that includes activities related to candy and costumes but also includes a resource that will have your students solving problems that reveal statistics and facts surrounding the holiday. This is an engaging way to have your students practice percentage math skills.
I love finding ways to incorporate math activities into holidays-especially meaningful math that connects to the real world! I hope these ideas help you with your October math planning.
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