Every teacher knows - when Halloween falls on a school day, it's not the best time to introduce new content. Kids brains are somewhere else, thinking about all of the candy they are going to eat and the fun they will have trick-or-treating with their friends.
As a teacher, I always hated feeling like I was wasting these days though. I wanted to review concepts we had already learned that year with a fun Halloween twist. This Halloween math-or-treating activity is perfect for this - the kids won't even know they are reviewing!
I first start out by asking parents for donations or candy or other small non-food items to use as treats in the buckets. I number the buckets #1-10 and then put the items in around the room, spacing them out so there's plenty of room between the buckets. I purchased some chalkboard headstones a few years ago from the Target Dollar Spot and they work perfect for writing "Take ___ Pieces" to stick inside each bucket with the number and directions.
This is the time you might need to edit questions and answers if you are not a fourth grade teacher (sorry!) It's super easy and I have detailed directions included that allow you to keep the magic links for correct and incorrect still working! Just plug in your questions and answer choices and you are good to go.
Then, I print out the work pages for each student for accountability so I can see they are solving and not just clicking answers. I pair students up and have them get out their Chromebooks. I push the Google Slides presentation out to them in full-page presentation view so they can't edit anything (easy instructions included in the resource!) I make sure to review procedures, reminding them to work all of their answers out on the paper, agree on an answer before clicking, and walking, not running, to the candy bucket after each question. I also show them how to click on the houses and the doors and how to get back to the main map if they need to.
After students answer each question, they click the answer and check to see if they got it right. It will direct them to go to the numbered candy bucket and select a treat if they did, or try again and work it out with their partner if they didn't. You can always change this slide if you don't want to have students up and moving to go get treats. I personally think it is a great way to get kids up and moving and keeps them ready to solve those tough word problems!
This was always a hit with my students and one activity they still talked about at the end of each year when we reflected on our favorites. Find this activity by clicking the image below to go to my TeachersPayTeachers store.
Reading this blog post and it's not Halloween time? Make sure to pin this blog post so you can easily find it again come October! More of a visual learner? Check out this product on TikTok!
Happy Halloween, teacher friends!