Halloween is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate with my students! It’s the first “fun” holiday of the school year, and there are so many fun events. But most of all, I love planning Halloween math activities for upper elementary school students!
Even if it’s an exciting holiday, sometimes it’s not possible to stop instruction to celebrate a holiday. But you can easily use the activities that I have shared below to keep on learning but with a fun twist! Whether you only have time to do one Halloween math worksheet, or you have an entire math block to dedicate to a hands-on activity… I’ve got an activity for you!
Keep reading to find out some of my favorite Halloween themed math activities to do!
1. Halloween Math Riddles
Multiplication practice doesn’t have to be scary, especially with these spooky math riddles! I love using math riddles because they are ZERO prep, self-checking, and can be used for so many different things!
I’ve used these riddles as:
- Morning work
- Sub plans
- Early finisher activities
- Math centers
- Homework
- …and so much more!
Whether you teach 3rd grade, 4th grade, or 5th grade, these riddles are perfect for adding a simple multiplication activity to your October Plans! Each set of riddles includes 4 pages of multiplication practice, each paired with a fun riddle to help students check their work!
Grab the level you need here:
- Multiplication Facts
- Multi Digit Multiplication (up to 4 digit by 1 digit and 2 digit by 2 digit)
- Multi Digit Multiplication (2 digit by 2 digit and 3 digit by 2 digit)
2. Escape Rooms
Imagine you’ve just finished a fun night of trick or treating with your friends, and you come upon a house that looks like it might be haunted! You decide to explore it with your friends, and you discover the house actually belongs to a witch. By the time you make this discovery, she has trapped you in a room with a bubbling cauldron. Will you escape in time? Or will you end up part of her next potion?
This spooky story is the background to a spooktacular escape room that will keep your students engaged AND will trick them into reviewing multiplication concepts!
This Halloween multiplication escape room is perfect to use if:
You are wrapping up your multiplication unit in October, and you want a fun review. Or if you want to celebrate Halloween in your classroom, without having a full blown party!
To complete the escape room, students will solve 3 clues. Each clue contains a math portion, as well as a “puzzle” that must be solved. This is the perfect activity to engage your students during a time of year when behaviors get a little “tricky,” yet still giving them practice with an important math skill!
Grab the level you need here:
- Multiplication Facts
- Multi Digit Multiplication (up to 4 digit by 1 digit and 2 digit by 2 digit)
- Multi Digit Multiplication (2 digit by 2 digit and 3 digit by 2 digit)
3. Pumpkin Math
Pumpkin Math is one of my favorite Halloween math activities! I love it because it’s hands on and you can use it to practice tons of concepts. And, as a bonus, it can be done in your classroom even if you don’t celebrate Halloween!
Here are some ways to use Pumpkin Math in your 3rd grade, 4th grade, or 5th grade classroom:
1. Conversions
Use the weight of the pumpkin or the circumference of the pumpkin to practice converting to other units. You can also do this by weighing the seeds in the pumpkin!
2. Create Arrays
Have students practice their multiplication skills by creating arrays from the seeds. For students just learning multiplication, you can split the seeds into smaller groups. For students practicing multi digit multiplication, this is a good way to try out larger arrays!
3. Graphing
If you have multiple pumpkins, students can practice graphing the weight, circumference, and/or the amount of seeds. As an extension, they can write their own questions using the graph! Students can trade questions and answer them!
4. Finding Volume
Have students determine the dimensions and volume of the box they would need to hold their pumpkin.
5. Graffiti
Instead of using paper or a whiteboard to solve a problem, have students show their work using a Sharpie on their pumpkin!
There you have it! Tons of engaging Halloween math activities that are perfect for your 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade lessons! I hope that this post helps make planning in October a little less scary!
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