Free Halloween Math Games

My kids (and I) are loving all of the fun Halloween-themed things going on right now.  We've learned about pumpkins, scarecrows, bats and spiders.  And coming up soon-- owls.  I created a few Halloween games to spice up math tubs.  They have been a big hit.

Spook-tacular Tens
One of the Common Core standards in first grade is to determine the meaning of the equals sign and have children tell if equations are true or false.  I created this little game to begin teaching the concept of equal and not equal-- plus it fits in nicely with our addition strategy of the week-- tens partners.  The children sort the addition fact cards into "Equals 10" or "Doesn't Equal 10".  Then they record their answers on the recording sheet.  Click on the picture to download a copy.

Spooky Coin Count
The next game focuses on counting like coins-- pennies, nickels, and dimes.  The children sort the cards by the coin type.  They count their money and record on the sheet by skip counting.  Click on the picture below to download.

Double Double, Toil and Trouble
My kids are loving this game this week!  The directions say to use 7 pennies in the middle of the witches pot.  Instead, I've let them use candy.  They aren't even eating it-- just using it in the game.  It's the little things, I guess!  Anyway, a partner teacher said she was making her kids use 13 objects if they are playing with three in a group.  That extends the length of the game a little.  Good thinking, Jan :)
Click on the picture to download.

Pumpkin Parade

Last year, all of the first grade teachers had a pumpkin parade on Halloween.  The children decorated a pumpkin to look like a book character.  They brought the book to school to sit out with their pumpkin.   Each class rotated to the other classrooms to see all the pumpkins.  I was blown away by their creativity! Later, we put the pumpkins in the hallway for other classes to see.  Click here to download the parent letter I sent home.
Here are some pictures from last year

Directed Drawing -- Spider Webs

Each October I love to have my kids draw spider webs.  It is a great activity to practice listening skills (they all need more help with that!) and to learn how to use a ruler as a straight edge.  It's also a great way to teach math vocabulary like vertical, horizontal, diagonal, half, fourths, eighths, middle, equal, and so on.

Start by giving each child an 8 X 8 piece of black construction paper.  Have them find the center of the paper and put a dot.  I walk around and see if they put their dot close to the center.  It doesn't have to be perfect, but it should be close.

Then they will use a ruler to draw a vertical line down the middle and a horizontal line across the middle.  As they are drawing at their desk, I create one with them step by step on the Promethean Board.

Next, they will need to draw the diagonal lines.  I have them start at the center and draw towards the corner, four times (instead of making two longer lines).  This helps those who didn't get their dot exactly in the center of the paper.

After all the lines are drawn they will make four dots on each line.  This is the part you will need to model explicitly.  Many will want to draw their dots super close together, or draw more than four.  (I drew mine more as lines, instead of dots, so they would show up in the picture.  I don't have the kids make them that big).

After all the dots are drawn, they will connect the dots.  This part can be a little tricky.  So you'll need to model it a couple of times before they do their own.  I show them two different ways.  One way is to draw straight lines to connect the dots.  The other way is to draw swooped lines.  I show them both and let them decide.  Most know their own artistic (and spatial) abilities and choose appropriately :) 

In my example, I used silver Sharpie (which turned out looking pretty good).  I usually have the kids draw with pencil.  Then a parent volunteer or I go back and trace over the lines with silver glitter glue.  They turn out so cute (even those children that don't follow your directions at all still end up drawing a spider web-- it looks more like a web you've just walked through instead of one a spider just built, but no the less it's still a web!)

I'm planning to do this activity next week with my firsties.  I'll post pictures after they make theirs.