What if I told you that Halloween celebrations can be fun and educational at the same time? Having been a teacher for seven years, I can relate to not having time to shake a stick, let alone celebrate Halloween! So, I’ve put together a few Halloween maths activities to satisfy teaching and learning needs and spooky needs at the same time.
Perfect for Spooky Maths Groups
These cool Halloween maths activities are perfect for maths rotations or maths groups (whatever you like to call them). On the other hand, you might prefer to choose one activity to explore as a whole class.
So, before you launch yourself into a pumpkin frenzy of Halloween maths activities, make sure that you get clear on the following:
- Which activity or activities best suit your class?
- How are you going to set it up? Whole class or maths groups?
- Will you choose one activity or multiple activities?
- Where are you going to get pumpkins from? Reach out to the school community for pumpkin donations (they can be pricey).
Pumpkin Geoboard
First up…the pumpkin geoboard. I love this! This measurement and geometry activity is super easy to set up, and your students will go batty over it! Geoboards are brilliant learning tools for exploring basic concepts such as perimeter, area, and the characteristics of triangles and other polygons.
You will need:
- a small pumpkin
- push pins
- colourful rubber bands
How to Make a Pumpkin Geoboard
- Press push pins into the skin of a pumpkin. Provide your students with brightly coloured rubber bands.
- Remind your students that a polygon is any 2-dimensional shape formed with straight lines.
- Demonstrate how to how to secure the rubber bands around the pins to create polygons.
- Encourage your students to work with a partner or a small group to explore triangles and other polygons.
Use our Types of Triangles Poster and head to our 2-D Shapes Collection for teaching resources to scaffold learning.
Halloween Tally Work
This quick activity makes the perfect warm-up for a Halloween number lesson! Count the Halloween illustrations and create a tally board on the Search and Find – Halloween worksheet. Why not expand on this activity and put your data into a graph?
Measure the Circumference
This simple and fun Halloween maths activity can be adapted for lower to upper years. For lower years, focus on informal units of measure, and for middle and upper years, use a measuring tape. Extend student learning by converting measurements, comparing and finding the difference between pumpkins, and graphing your results!
You will need:
- one or more pumpkins of varying size
- ribbon or string
- paper clips
- measuring tape
Firstly, explain to your students that the circumference of a circle or sphere is the distance around it. For a rich learning experience, ask open-ended questions and build in lots of class discussion. For example, ask:
- How could we measure the circumference of the pumpkin?
- What challenges might we face?
- How do measurements vary and compare?
- Why do the results vary?
Head to our Measurement collection for teaching resources to use when your students are learning about units of measurement including length, mass, volume and capacity.
Ordering Puzzles
Another quick and easy resource, these Halloween Number Ordering Puzzles make a great independent activity for little learners. Why not print them out and back them on card before cutting so that you can use them again and again in your numeracy rotations?
Measure the Capacity
Students often find it hard to estimate the capacity of containers. And the best way to develop knowledge and understanding of this tricky concept is with hands-on learning. So, this Halloween, why not estimate and measure and compare the capacity of pumpkins?
There’s not much to explain here. Most importantly, remember to explain the difference between volume and capacity. Also, don’t forget to explore how containers of different shapes can have the same capacity!
For lower years, take a look at our hugely popular unit plan Measuring Capacity with Informal Units.
Measuring the Mass of a Pumpkin
For lower years, use balancing scales to compare the masses of small pumpkins or pumpkin portions. Encourage your students to determine whether the mass of the pumpkin is more, less or about the same. Get your weekends back by using our Measuring Mass with Informal Units Unit Plan.
For the middle to upper years, electronic bathroom scales should be introduced to measure the mass of a whole pumpkin. Next, encourage your students to identify and use the correct operation to convert units of measurement. For example, convert kilograms to grams by multiplying by 1000. Use our Converting Units of Measurement Posters to support teaching and learning.
Head to our Mass Collection for more helpful teaching resources to use in conjunction with your Halloween maths activities.
So, as you can see, it’s easy to get spooky without losing sight of learning!
Try them all this Halloween!
By setting up these maths group activities, you could possibly be the smartest and spookiest teacher around! Don’t forget to photograph your Halloween maths activities in action!
For more Halloween teaching resources, head to our Halloween Collection.
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