Why I add Halloween fun to my middle school math classroom
My birthday is in late October, so it should be no surprise that I’ve always been a big fan of Halloween. Of course, my version of Halloween is fun and whimsical. You know, it’s like an explosion of orange and purple and pumpkins and candy corn. I’m not exactly into the horror version of Halloween. So, as a math teacher I like to bring in cute and fun Halloween by incorporating things like pumpkins, bats, not too gross zombies, spiders, cute witches, etc.
Through my many moons as a middle school teacher, teaching 6th, 7th and 8th grade, I find that students really appreciate this nod to their childhood. It can be super simple to incorporate Halloween through clipart, little trinkets, and themes to activities, but it can definitely pay off with students who are having fun while doing math.
Today, I’d like to share some of my favorite ways to bring Halloween into the middle school math classroom. Most of them are simple adjustments that can bring a whole lotta fun. And, I’m excited to share with you an amazing free game template that I know you’re going to love!
- Halloween Math Mazes
- Halloween Math Trivia Game
- Coordinate Graphing
- Pumpkin Exit Tickets on the Door
- Halloween Stuff as Incentives
- Color by Answer
- Order of Operation Halloween Riddle
- Adding Integers Jack-O-Latern Knockout Game
- Candy Corn as Inequalities
- Graphing Lines with Zombies
- Halloween Brain Break
- Order of Operations Pumpkin Puzzles (Free)
- Trick or Treat Game
- Candy Corn Estimation
Each one of these activities brings a little Halloween fun without being too distracting to what you have to do in class. Many of the ideas can be used as homework or fast finisher review work throughout the month of October.
Halloween Math Mazes
If you’ve ever read my blog before then you know that I LOVE mazes. In my classroom, we use them as a bell ringer for just about every day of the year. I’ve created 4 sets of Halloween mazes that you can purchase in my TPT store. They include the topics of distributive property, proportions, integers, and one-step equations.
The clipart is so cute and the kids really get a kick out of it. Just by having cute, seasonal clipart, and copying on orange paper, makes these mazes feel like a special treat for my students. They LOVE it!
These mazes work great for cyclical review, as homework, bell ringers, fast finisher stations, or just good old fashion practice. Plus, they’re available in both printable & digital versions (Google Slides).
To find even more ideas on how to get the most out of mazes in the math classroom, check out this blog post.
Want even more math mazes? Join the Maze of the Month Club and get a free, exclusive math maze sent right to your inbox each month. You’ll get started right away with a free integers maze, and then you’ll get the inside track on monthly mazes and other math goodies.
Yes! I want to join the Maze of the Month Club!
Can’t wait to see you there 🙂
Halloween Trivia Game
If you’re looking for a fun whole group game to play with students that gets them thinking about number and using lots of math talk, this game is hard to beat. Instead of reviewing specific math concepts, the Halloween Math Trivia Game gets students working together to make reasonable estimates for a variety of Halloween themed questions.
Once a group has settled on their answer, though, it’s not over. They have a chance to review the other teams’ responses and then wager on the 3 that they think are the closest to the right answer without going over. When the answer’s revealed, students can earn points for their own answer as well as those they wagered on. We like to call this game Guesses and Wagers to reflect both parts that students have to tackle. This game is particularly good to play on days between units, half days or other unusual days on the school calendar.
Coordinate Graphing
I think that this coordinate graphing activity from Kristine Nannini is the first thing that I bought on Teachers Pay Teachers a few year ago. There’s so much graphing in 8th grade math, and we needed something for students to do when they finished their benchmark test, so this was a perfect fit. This activity and ones like it typically take kids a while to finish. It’s really cool because they don’t know which picture they are drawing, and they love it when the image emerges.
You can differentiate your instruction with these activities because some require more work than others. Make sure that you give students a refresher on how to find a coordinate point before they start working on this. If they have enough time, they can color it and you can make a display of these artful masterpieces.
Pumpkin Patch Exit Tickets on the Door
About once a week we do an exit ticket on a sticky note and students put it on the door on their way out. I read students’ comments on the door after students leave, and it’s a cool way to see visually what all my students are thinking about a topic. I leave the notes up until I get tired of them or until the next time that we do the same thing. So, students also get to see how others are thinking about the topics we’re studying on their way into and out of class.
To add a little fun to this class activity, during October we use pumpkin exit tickets and the kids tape them to the door on the way out. It does take a couple of extra minutes for them to cut the pumpkins out, but they are a little more engaged because they want to make their pumpkins awesome.
Click here to download for FREE the pumpkin exit tickets I used with my students.
This is an activity that you can even start using in September and throughout the fall months. I have students respond to one of our 5 thinking like a mathematician prompts for their ticket out the door (see below). These prompts are glued to the inside of students’ interactive notebooks. As you can see from the list below, most of the prompts work for just about any lesson.
Thinking Like A Mathematician Prompts:
- What is a new math word you learned today? What does it mean?
2. What is a mistake you made today? What did you learn from it?
3. Describe a new strategy you learned.
4. Describe how you challenged yourself today.
5. Tell about something you noticed today and how it helped you solve a math problem.
Halloween Stuff as Incentives
Kids like prizes, and middle school students are definitely not an exception to this rule. I like to give out small prizes that they’ll enjoy, but that won’t break the bank. One year for Halloween I found a variety of slime for student prizes which was a huge hit.
Some other things that work well are pencils, brain shaped erasers, bouncy balls, stickers, candy, etc. I always warn students that they have to use the toys appropriately or they’ll be taken away. And I remind them that if they’re taken from them, I will not replace them. I’ve heard the teacher next door to me taking away a mini beach ball about 10 minutes after they won it in my classroom. Needless to say, this served as a lesson for all of my students on when and where to play with things. If you’re already using candy or other small prizes as student incentives, using seasonal items is a great way to spice things up.
Color by Answer
Another great activity for the days around Halloween are color by answer activities. To make sure that students don’t spend too much time on the coloring part, I use pictures that are small. This gives students a little brain break and brings in some festive Halloween fun without adding a bunch of time to the activity.
The Halloween coloring activity that I have in my store is for comparing functions. It fits well with what we’re learning the two weeks before Halloween.
It’s amazing how a simple twist like this can make math practice so much more interesting for students.
Order of Operation Halloween Riddle
Students love solving these cheesy Halloween riddles while practicing their math skills solving with order of operations. I think they’re at an age where they can realize how clever a riddle is and they can laugh at that. You might have to be over the top when introducing this type of activity. Don’t take it too seriously. I’ve created this riddle to practice order of operations. Pro tip: make sure that you emphasize ahead of time that students shouldn’t yell out the answer once they get it.
Also, remind students that the riddle isn’t the point of the activity and that they have to finish the math. Sometimes they get a little too into the riddle and think once they finish the riddle they are done with the math (ummm, no). You could even have fast finishers make their own riddle to use with the rest of the class.
Adding Integers Jack-O-Lantern Knockout Game
In 7th and 8th grade math there’s always a need to keep practicing adding and subtracting integers. Integers show up all over the place, and if we don’t practice then we forget what we’ve learned.
This Adding Integers Knockout Game works as a sponge activity for me during the month of October. It’s a great game to play with the whole class and is a simple way to bring in some seasonal fun. This whole class game can go really fast because the questions are easy. It’s a perfect opportunity for a whole class review using mental math.
Candy Corn as Inequalities
When I saw the idea to use candy corn as a greater than/less than symbol on Pinterest I was like, “Why didn’t I think of that?” It’s such a simple idea and maybe it can help students cement the idea of the inequality symbols.
I invariably have a few students every year that can’t keep the symbols straight. I’m hoping that using candy corn as a hands-on manipulative will give them students repetitions. In turn, the kids who struggle get another chance to find something that will help them remember which sign is greater than and which sign is less than.
To do this activity you give each student some candy corns. First, ask students to figure out how these candies could be helpful to remember the inequality symbols. Next, say some math sentences and have them model them on their SmartPal dry-erase sleeve or white board. Here’s some example practice sentences:
- The number of houses kids visited on Halloween was greater than 25.
- Each candy costs 25 cents and a boy has $12 to spend. How many candies could he buy?
- The number of kids at the Halloween party will be at least 37.
- Two sisters divided less than 120 pieces of candy between themselves.
You could make math situations specific to your classroom and situation to practice more with inequalities. Students will love this activity, and they can eat their candy corn when they’re done rocking their math practice.
Graphing Lines with Zombies
We really start to ramp up teaching about slope and linear equations during the month of October, so this Graphing Lines with Zombies activity is perfect. Students graph lines and have to figure out which zombie each line goes through. This resource is from a TPT store called Amazing Mathematics. She actually has a lot of zombie themed algebra and pre-algebra stuff, so definitely check them out. They’re serious time savers, and so fun. Also, with these activities I figure you can use them all year round because, as I remind my students, you never know when there’s going to be a zombie-apocalypse.
Halloween Brain Break
I recently read about a brain break where students play ping pong on their desks using their notebooks as the paddle. It seemed like the perfect quick way for students to recharge their batteries between two activities. The next day at Target I came across some Halloween ping pong balls. It just seemed like it was meant to be. So, for a quick brain break, around 3 minutes, students play ping pong with a partner. I have them work as partners to see how long of a volley they can get going. That way they’re not just trying to be Venus Williams and slam the ball as hard as possible.
If you can’t find Halloween ping pong balls you can get orange ones and make jack-o-lantern faces on them. Plus, this brain break could be used any time of year, not just for Halloween.
Order of Operations Pumpkin Puzzles (Free)
If your students are like mine, solving problems using the order of operations is something that you can review anytime. This free activity from Bethany of Math Geek Mama let’s kids review it with some fun. They have to match the top of the pumpkin with the bottom of the pumpkin with the right solution. I would have this on hand for a sponge activity. It’s not too difficult and it helps students to keep their skills fresh. All you have to do is click this link, scroll down the page, and download it from the blog post. It’s that easy.
Trick or Treat Game- FREE template
You’re going to LOVE this one. This Trick or Treat game template is based off of my knockout games. Knockout games are whole class games that students get so excited about. They love the trick or treat part where they can get bonuses or lose points. This game is a great way to review a topic before a test or to practice something you’re learning. When we play, the question shows on the board and I have all students show their work and their answers on a SmartPal dry-erase sleeve. This gives me the opportunity to see what they’re thinking.
This version is all about Halloween with pumpkins and references to trick or treating. But the best part is that you can add your own problems to customize it to what you’re learning about. It’s all set up for you- all you need to do is add questions. If you want a game that’s already made for you, check the integers trick or treat game I talked about above.
Click here to download your free Trick or Treat Knockout Game template.
Candy Corn Estimation
If you’ve never been to the estimation 180 website, then this activity is a great introduction. This site has over 180 estimation activities that are ready for you to use. This candy corn estimation activity has three ways to estimate candy corn. It’s a fun activity for kids, and then you can even give them some candy corn after you’re done.
Try One Thing…
So, we’ve shared a wide variety of Halloween tricks and treats. Hopefully that you’ve found something that can add a little fun and whimsy to your math classroom. You don’t have to be an overachiever and do them all, but your students will certainly appreciate your efforts to bring a bit of seasonal fun into the classroom.
We can’t wait to hear about what you try out in your classroom! Please drop us a note in the comments, or tag us on Instagram (@ideagalaxyteacher). Thanks for reading. Until next time!
For all of the resources available in the Math Idea Galaxy store together at a steep discount, be sure to check out our Halloween Math Activities Bundle.
