7 Spooky Halloween Math Activities & Games For Teachers, Parents & Kids
For your Halloween math games and activities, we’ve got 7 spine-chilling suggestions for you, ranging from Halloween math problems to some spooky math division, so let’s hope that you don’t get a fright when you see how tricky some of the questions are!
- Halloween Math Activity 1: Three-digit addition and subtraction ‘Trick-or-Treat’ adventure
- Halloween Math Activity 2: Spider web angles
- Halloween Math Activity 3: Fill in the symbols to help the witch make her potion
- Halloween Math Activity 4: Spooky math division word problems!
- Halloween Math Activity 5: Bats vs. broomsticks measuring activity
- Halloween Math Activity 6: Frankenstein’s friends – Simplifying fraction door numbers
- Halloween Math Activity 7: Spider web area and perimeter greater-depth investigation
Halloween Math Activity 1: Three-digit addition and subtraction ‘Trick-or-Treat’ adventure
This simple Halloween math worksheet will help your elementary class practice 3-digit addition and subtraction in a fun and engaging way.
Sid the Skeleton is heading down a haunted trick-or-treat path where he will get loads of candy from each house, but the ghosts and goblins may steal his candy along the way. It is up to your students to work out how many pieces of candy Sid is left with after he completes his math-filled journey.
Each house along the path requires your class to work out the answer to an addition or subtraction equation. At some houses, Sid will add more candy to his bag (a ‘treat’) and at others, he will have some candy stolen from the ghosts and goblins, which will be subtracted from his total (a ‘trick’).
Students will need to use the answer to each problem as the first number of the following equation to keep up with Sid’s ongoing candy total as he trick-or-treats!
Read the following directions aloud to your students:
Sid the Skeleton enters the haunted village with 148 pieces of candy. Along the path through the haunted village, he receives an enormous amount of candy. But look out! The ghosts and goblins who haunt the village are also stealing candy from his bag.
Start with the first addition equation. Use the answer to this equation as the starting number for the second equation. Repeat this process until you find out how many pieces of candy Sid is left with at the end!
Halloween math activities don’t come easier to use than this!
How to use this Halloween math worksheet
You can print off the image and get your class to tackle the path individually or in teams, or if printing poses a problem, then simply put the sheets up on the interactive whiteboard and use math books to record their answers.
Answer
1) 148 + 115 = 263
2) 263 – 135 = 128
3) 128 + 387 = 515
4) 515 – 294 = 221
5) 221 + 473 = 694
6) 694 – 496 = 198
7) 198 + 185 = 383 pieces of candy
383 pieces of candy
Halloween Math Activity 2: Spider web angles
These spiders have made different paths with their silk, and it is up to your class to work out the angles they have made! Each spider has chosen to begin creating its web using a different angle, so make sure your elementary students pay close attention to each and every arachnid.
How to use this Halloween math worksheet
Print off this Halloween image and hand it out to each member of your class. You will also need protractors for each student to use to work out the angles the spiders have made. Watch them work out the angles that each of the spiders has created!
Answers
A = 45 ° B = 25 ° C = 100 °
D = 90 ° E = 10 ° F = 75 °
Halloween Math Activity 3: Fill in the symbols to help the witch make her potion
You’ll find addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication in this one, making it the perfect Halloween activity for school. Willow the Witch is struggling to work out the amount of each spooky ingredient she needs for her potion, so she needs your class’s help!
Using the symbols for each of the four operations, your students will fill in the correct symbol in each box to ensure that exactly the right number of frogs legs, eyeballs and more end up in the potion.
How to use this Halloween math worksheet
This is a great math activity to use to settle your class down after an exciting lunchtime. Print it off for them and explain that Willow the Witch needs their help, and all that is left for you to do is sit back and watch them complete this math challenge using their four operations knowledge!
Answers
A) × B) + C) ÷ D) + E) × F) × G) × H) ÷
I) ÷ J) × K) ÷ L) ÷ M) + N) + O) ×
Halloween Math Activity 4: Spooky math division word problems!
This is a ready-made Halloween math activity with 8 ghoulish division-based word problems to solve. These questions are bound to get your class into the Halloween spirit while practicing division, so what more could you ask for?
How to use this Halloween math worksheet
Perfect as a quick and easy math starter activity, you can print one of these Halloween math images for every student as a great way to ensure 10 minutes of focus.
Depending on the math level of the children in your class, you can adapt the numbers in the problems to stretch and challenge each pupil by writing individual problems up on the interactive whiteboard.
Answers
1) 16 2) 3 3) 8 4) 5 5) 2 6) 5 7) 5 8) 5
Halloween Math Activity 5: Bats vs. broomsticks measuring activity
Depending on whether or not the cool fall weather has truly taken hold, this activity is the perfect one to make the most of the last few rays of sunshine and to take your math lesson outside.
This is one of the most active Halloween math activities we have on our list, so we know your students will enjoy it!
Ask your class to make a paper airplane each, and then decorate it with either bats or broomsticks. Everyone is likely to have a slightly different method of paper plane construction, but this is exactly what we want for this Halloween math game.
If there are a few students that don’t know how to make a paper airplane, you can find simple instructions on how to do so.
How to run this Halloween math activity
All you need to enjoy this math activity with your class is some paper, pens and a big dose of Halloween creativity.
Once everyone has made their paper plane, take them outside (or into the school hall if it’s raining) and let them fly! Then once everyone has released their plane, it is time for some Halloween math.
Students can measure and compare the distances their planes have flown, and you can ask questions such as:
- How far did your bat/broomstick fly in meters?
- How far did your bat/broomstick fly in centimeters?
- Which bat/broomstick flew the farthest?
- What was the average distance flown by bats and by broomsticks across the class?
- What was the average distance of all the bats?
- What was the average distance of all of the broomsticks?
- Which type of plane (bat vs broomstick) flew the farthest distance when all of them are added together?
Extra Halloween math activity idea
To turn this activity into more of a competition among your class, why not add some extra monsters into the mix? How much farther did the zombie plane fly than the ghost one? Is Frankenstein a better pilot than Dracula? The spooky possibilities are endless with this fun Halloween math game!
Halloween Math Activity 6: Frankenstein’s friends – Simplifying fraction door numbers
While learning about fractions, simplifying fractions is an important element teachers like to review with their class. Students should learn to be comfortable with simplifying fractions, so this fun Halloween math game is a great way to challenge the fraction knowledge in your class.
How to use this Halloween math worksheet
In a similar vein to the addition and subtraction trick-or-treat adventure sheet, you can print off the worksheet and get your class to tackle the path individually or in teams, or if printing poses a problem, then simply put the sheets up on the interactive whiteboard and use math books for answers.
Answers
1) \frac{2}{5}
2) \frac{1}{2}
3) \frac{1}{4}
4) \frac{1}{3}
5) \frac{2}{3}
Halloween Math Activity 7: Spider web area and perimeter greater-depth investigation
Spider webs are everywhere approaching Halloween, but rather than accidentally walking into them in the playground, why not bring these clever creations into the classroom to help area and perimeter stick to your students like a fly in a web?
How to run this Halloween math activity
Using the spider web shown here as an example, your class will need to work to find the area of one section of the spider web and then multiply this by the total number of sections around that layer to find the overall surface area of each layer of the web.
Then, they can repeat this for each layer of the web, eventually working out the total area of the web.
Simplify things
If you are looking for a way to simplify this task, make each layer of the spider web a single shape, either in the form of a circle, square or triangle.
We hope you enjoyed this set of 7 devilishly good Halloween math activities for kids. Let us know how you get on via Twitter @thirdspacetweet!
Looking for more? We’ve got lots more fun math activities here for you, including 19 fun end of semester math activities, Thanksgiving math acticities, and some great back to school math activities and our favourite fun math lessons.
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The content in this article was originally written by a member of the UK content team, Connor Whelan. It has since been revised and adapted for US schools by elementary math teachers Christi Kulesza and Katie Keeton, including new games!