Does the thought of trying to teach 25 Halloween-crazed kids the week before Halloween make you want to curl up under your covers and call in a sub? Have no fear, because you really CAN add Halloween fun into your lessons without sacrificing curriculum content!
Here are a couple of Halloween math activities that will engage even your most reluctant students and make your students forget they are even “doing math!”
The Halloween Hotel: a Halloween Math Project for Grades 3-4
“The Halloween Hotel” is a real-life math project where students will complete nine different tasks, each one focusing on math skills in a fun Halloween context. Your students won’t even realize that they are reinforcing basic math skills like area, perimeter, addition, subtraction, multiplication, time, and more! Although this project was designed for Grades 3-4, your 5th graders will have a ghostly good time completing it!
Halloween Escape Room
It’s Halloween night and you are trick or treating with all of your best friends. Your dog Sparky is also tagging along for the night. Suddenly Sparky starts barking and runs down the street as fast as he can. But he doesn’t stop there. ”Oh no,” you say to your friends. “He’s heading right for the old Monroe place.” Before you can catch him, Sparky has jumped through a broken window and run right into the old abandoned house at the end of your street. Mrs. Monroe used to live in the house but it’s been empty now for ten years. The kids at school say the house is haunted, but you don’t believe them. You call Sparky, but he’s not coming. You’re going to have to go in after him.
Are you ready for the challenge
If you’re ready to take Halloween math to a whole new level, this is the resource for you! Your students are going to LOVE this Halloween-themed escape room-style activity where they will crack codes and work together as a team, ultimately overcoming the obstacles and saving their dog from the old abandoned house.
Your students will be completing six different challenges (or obstacles) in order to rescue the dog and get out of the house. These challenges will be completed as a small group of about three to four people in order to encourage teamwork and cooperation.
My students LOVED this activity. One boy said, “This is the most fun I have had all year!” We used it on the morning of Halloween, and I loved that it was on theme, but the students were still learning.
When a team has solved a challenge, one member will come to you with the answer and get the next envelope.
The goal is for each group to complete the escape room, but it is motivating to have teams compete against each other to see who can solve it first.
We had so much fun completing this during our Halloween party. We turned the lights off and they used flashlights to solve the problems.
This escape room does not involve expensive locks or lockboxes. It is easy to set up, and once it is prepared it will be ready to go for years to come! Each obstacle will be placed inside a manila envelope.
Helpful Links
Here are the direct links to the Halloween math activities mentioned in this post:
