Halloween Math Ideas

First I have to say that I love Halloween!! It makes me feel like a kid but, more importantly, gives me an excuse to be silly and act like a kid.

I have been gathering activities for Halloween and I keep finding amazing things for so cheap that I'd love to share with you.

First of all, I LOVE little erasers and using them for math! How adorable are these erasers I found in the dollar spot? I'm obsessed with the dollar spot or as Mr. Giraffe calls it with a heavy sigh, "See you in half an hour" :)

These adorable little things were only $1 for 50! I got the candy corns, bats, black cats, and jack-o-lanterns to which Mr. Giraffe exclaimed, "What are you going to do with 200 erasers?!" I obviously rolled my eyes and said, "Pshh a million things!" which he knows me well enough to know means I-have-no-idea-yet-but-I'm-pretending-I-know-everything-so-just-go-with-it-because-you-love-me-and-therefore-support-my-dollar-spot-addiction :) 

I also grabbed some of this cute stuff (mostly from the dollar spot and the dollar store) for this week because I couldn't help myself...

I'm also OBSESSED with those little mini cauldrons from the dollar spot! LOVE! They say "Happy Halloween" on the side and are the perfect mini containers. I also had to have the pumpkin ice cube tray which I'll show you what I did with that a little later in the post!

Back to the erasers, this is what I came up with...

Halloween Eraser & Tally Bones Graphing!

So they use the spooky BONES (cotton swabs) as tally marks to graph how many of each Halloween eraser they had in their cauldron. It's a super simple activity that's tons of fun. All you need is: the Halloween erasers, cotton swabs, and black 12x18 (or similar size) construction paper. I got the big black construction paper at Michaels using the 50% off one item coupon on my phone (search on your phone for a coupon before you approach the register!) so it was pretty cheap! 

First, have students fold the construction paper in half hamburger style. Then have them fold that in half again hamburger style. Have them unfold it all and fold it in half hot dog style. This will create 8 boxes like this:

Each student/set of partners/group/however you want to do it needs a little container of erasers and some cotton swabs. I used the little cauldrons to hold the materials but you can easily use sandwich bags if you can't find the cauldrons and it's probably more practical because materials will be easier to manage. I'm braving it with the cauldrons though! :) 

Once they get their little cauldron of erasers, have them dump them out and sort them like so...

Gosh I can't get over how cute those little Halloween kitties are. But we all know I'm a crazy cat lady at heart so that's to be expected. Don't worry, dog lovers, I love dogs too! Really, any animals - I'm a big animal lover.

Once they sort all of their erasers, they'll put each type of eraser in each box on the left. On the right side, they'll use the spooky bones (cotton swabs) to make a tally graph of their findings!

This is what it'll look like when you're done! Super simple and lots of fun!

Here's a peek at some more fun Halloween math for this week!

Halloween themed non-standard measurement math station!

Students take each fun Halloween picture and use cubes to measure it. Then they write how many cubes tall each picture was. 

Candy corn puzzles! Students simply match the number to the ten frame and tally mark representation of the number then record on their recording sheet.

This math station is to practice missing numbers! Tell your kiddos that these spooky Halloween characters/pictures stole the numbers! Oh, the horror! And it's THEIR job to help figure out what numbers they stole! 

Students simply pick a card and figure out what number is missing. Then, they write the number next to the character who stole that number on their recording sheet. 

Way more fun than a line (45, __, 46, 47), right?!

Skip counting on pumpkins!

A little batty addition for you as well! I also made a sheet for doubles and subtraction. They color the bats whatever the answer is.

Spooky Spin for more graphing practice!!

Use a pencil and a paperclip to spin the spinner and see which Halloween picture will win! You can make it a little bit more fun by having the students make predictions as to who will win or say something like, "Don't let that witch win!" - it makes them really get into it!

Whatever it lands on, they add a tally under that picture then color in one box on their bar graph until one of the pictures reaches the top! The beauty is you can play this over and over for a lot of graphing practice!

A quick tutorial for those of you who have never used a makeshift spinner. You put the pencil tip in the center of the spinner where all the lines meet with the tip inside of a large paperclip. Then, you flick the paperclip to spin it! It actually works really well! I recommend a I'm-trusting-you-with-MY-paperclips-that-are-normally-for-adults-aren't-you-so-special-so-we-wouldn't-dare-ever-bend-my-precious-paperclips-into-shapes-GASP-of-course-not-I'm-so-glad-I-can-trust-you talk before you go leaving paperclips laying around. :) 

You can never get too much addition practice! This is great practice with both addition AND writing their own number sentences. Students grab a card and write the addition sentence for it on their recording sheet and solve it. For example, if it's 4 pumpkins + 5 bats, they would solve the problem and write 4+5=9 on their recording sheet like above!

Another thing you can use that recording sheet is with these AWESOME pumpkin ice cube trays I found at the dollar store! They are the perfect premade ten frame!

You can practice building numbers in the pumpkin 10 frame for students who are still practicing numbers. What I planned was creating addition sentences with the Halloween erasers I already have and recording them on the Spooky Addition recording sheet from the activity above. You could also do Making 10! Have them find as many combinations as they can to make 10 in the pumpkin tray and record them on the sheet. See, another reason to grab those adorable erasers!! Told you, Mr. Giraffe :) {I am so thankful he puts up with me!}

All of these Halloween activities are in my Halloween Math pack found {HERE}!!

Halloween Math Stations & Activities

I don't think you'll need anything else for math with that pack but in case you do, I also have this number sense puzzle in my store that has been a huge hit!

Students pick each card and find that number on the hundreds chart and color it in the color they tell them to which will reveal a witch! It's great number sense and hundreds chart practice!

For even more Halloween fun, I have some fun Halloween writing craft activities that are NO PREP that you can see in this post: 

October Writing Crafts for Kids

And you may have already seen this on my Instagram but just for fun and since I already called myself out as a crazy cat lady, check out my adorable little pumpkin girl...

I know her face says otherwise but she actually loves this dress. She normally keeps to herself but the second you put this dress on her, she starts prancing around quite confidently trying to get her head scratched by everyone in the room. I do the same thing when I'm wearing a pretty dress so I guess I can't blame her!

I hope you were able to find some fun ideas in this post and have an absolutely wonderful Halloween!!!! Thanks for reading!

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CVC Words Roll

First of all - Happy Friday, friends!!

I have been very busy but wanted to take a second to tell you all about a reading game I LOVE.

Have you been working tirelessly on CVC words? Stretching CAAAAAT more times than you can count? You're feeling victorious (and exhausted) so you move onto short i words, then short o words, and so on. Could it be?! They're blending! They're stretching! Slowly but surely, those littles are reading! This game is a really fun review that provides A LOT of CVC reading practice that your students will love!

I present to you...

Roll and COLOR!

So here's the deal...

You print out a "game board" and the 3 dice. You print the dice on the color paper it tells you to so it corresponds to the little cheat sheet in the top right corner of their paper that tells them what order to put the dice in. They'll learn it pretty fast because hey - they want to win! They'll also make sure they read the word correctly (which helps with those kiddos who see the first letter and guess!) because again, they want to win! This provides so much reading practice.

Cut out the dice and fold along the lines and tape to make your dice. They're super durable if you print them on card stock but I am cheap and just use regular colored printer paper and just tape them!

Once your dice are made, students roll the 3 dice to build their word.

If their word is on their game board, they color it in! There are multiple ways to do this:
1) Give each student their own game board (but that is the same as their partners) to color in how they wish so when another person rolls, they can look on their own game board to see if it is there to sort of partner check without looking at their partner's board.
or
2) Give each student a different game board (there are 4 below level game boards and 3 on level game boards to choose from) to increase the amount of words on game boards. This can also be done 2 different ways: they only color in on THEIR gameboard if THEY roll the word, or (so they're just as engaged during a partner's roll), they can color in the word if they have it no matter who rolled the dice.
or
3) Have partners use the same game board and each get a different color. For example, Student A colors in with a red crayon and Student B colors in with a blue crayon.

You can also differentiate what the goal is! It could be whoever gets a full line (down or across) first. If you do options 1 or 2, it can be whoever's board is filled first. If you do option 3, it could be who has the most colored in when the board is full. There are sooo many different ways to play - just find what works best for you and your students!

You know me, I'm all about differentiation so that's why I included easier game boards as well! There are only 12 pictures instead of 20 on the easier game boards as you can see below:

You can also play Roll and COVER! I included all of the same game boards in color so you can also play this as a roll and cover game. Instead of crayons/markers, you'll need something for students to use as their piece. 2 different color counting cubes (or 3 different colors if 3 people are playing, etc.) or red/yellow counters work well!

Students take turns rolling the 3 dice and reading the CVC word they created. Instead of coloring it, they cover it with their marker. You can play first person to get a line wins or fill the board and whoever had the most wins.

The beauty of this center is that soooo many different words can be created by these 3 dice.. whether the picture is on the sheet or not, your students are READING every time they roll. They're getting nonsense word practice as well from all the non-words they roll. I chose the letters that would make the most possible kid friendly words as well as ensured that there weren't any no-no words that could be made :) The dice combination literally makes dozens and dozens of words so it is a whoooole lot of reading practice, let me tell you! And they can play this over and over again with the same (or different if you wish) boards!

If you want your students to be more independent, I included a kid-friendly directions sheet to put in the center. It's also a good visual reminder for the color order although, like I said, they'll get it pretty quickly!

 

This pack is currently on sale since I just posted it... go grab it {HERE} at my TpT store!!
Make sure you're following me so you don't miss out on great deals. I post a lot of things for 50% off for the first 48 hours or other little goodies to reward followers! You just click on the "Follow Me" below my name and then it should say "Following" so you see all the new stuff! I'm constantly posting new things! Yes, yes, I know I am a workaholic.

CVC Words Roll

I'm thinking of making this activity for other phonics sounds (digraphs, vowel pairs, etc.)! Do you think you'd use it? Let me know in the comments!

**Edit: I now have this for a few other sounds! Check it out here:

CVCe Words Roll

Bossy R Words Roll

Short A CVC Words Roll

Short E CVC Words Roll

Short I CVC Words Roll

Short O CVC Words Roll

Short U CVC Words Roll

& there is also a BUNDLE of all the short vowel rolls!

Long A CVCe Words Roll

Long I CVCe Words Roll

Long O CVCe Words Roll

Long U CVCe Words Roll

OR you can get them all in a 

HUGE BUNDLE of all my Phonics Word Rolls :)

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