Using Halloween Dollar Store Finds in Math

Looking for some fun ways to use all those dollar store Halloween props you've accumulated in your Math and Literacy blocks? Here's a few ways you can use your cheap finds at school. 

Halloween Pencil Toppers

I picked up these cute pencil toppers as a Halloween treat for my class but soon got other ideas for them!

When working on direction in Math and HASS, we used the toppers as our 'person' to move along the grid. When learning 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 turns, I always find there are a few students who will try and move spaces when turning, instead of staying in the grid space they are in. Using the pencil toppers help because we practice turning the topper in the space and we can see the new direction it is facing before following the next direction. For younger kids, they can use the toppers to learn left and right when giving and following directions. Grab this math activity from my store here. 

You can use the same pencil toppers as pawns for board games to add a little extra fun! You can grab this short and long /oo/ activity pack and board game from my store here. 

Halloween Buckets I use candy buckets to hold math centers. I also bought mini-candy buckets and use them for sorting activities. Here is one I made for ICP students working on addition and subtraction facts. I wrote facts on craft sticks and the wrote the sums/differences on the back of the heads and pumpkins. The students sort the sticks into the mini tubs. This same idea could be used for parts of speech, multiplication and division facts etc. You can grab this free recording sheet here if you'd like to make up this activity for yourself. 

Spooky Fingers

When I taught in Grades 1-2, I used these spooky fingers to track our reading!

I might bring them out again this year with my Grade 4's just for a bit of fun! Also, Nick Bland was hands down our favorite author in Grade 1! The orange tub was bought from Woolworths (I think) in a pack of 3. 

So there you go, some quick and easy ways to bring some Halloween fun into your classroom! Let me know in the comments your ideas!

1st Grade Fall Addition and Subtraction Word Problems + Halloween Freebie

One of the skills I have to practice all year when I teach first grade is addition and subtraction facts (for automaticity) and solving word problems. Initially, my students need to act out and represent the problems in various ways so they can 'see' the problem and know whether to add or subtract.

I initially start with acting out and drawing pictures to represent the problem. But this is very time consuming! When students are ready, I show how 'mathematicians' use short cuts to become efficient at math, and we move onto using symbols to represent the objects in the word problem.

When modelling to the class, we always use 10-frames and different colors of cubes to represent the different parts of the problem. Finally, I move onto using number paths and recording in an equation. 

If you are looking for seasonal word problems for Fall, I have a pack in my TpT store. It has 3 types of addition and subtraction within 10 problems:

• result unknown (20 addition and 20 subtraction)
• change unknown (10 addition and 10 subtraction)
• start unknown (10 addition and 10 subtraction)

What are the benefits of using this pack for your class? 

CONSISTENCY

The pages in this pack all follow a consistent format to help in developing student independence. Each page has an addition or subtraction number story (or word problem). Students visualize the problem and draw a picture to represent it. This can help some students work out whether the problem requires them to add or subtract. In addition, students will complete a 10-frame (make it hands-on by using unifix cubes or counters), number line or track and number sentence (or equation) for each problem.

VERSATILITY

You can use the problems in different ways. For example, to start off the year you might project each page and complete whole class. Later, you might work with a small group before moving the pages to an independent work math tub.

LOOKING FOR A DIGITAL OPTION?

I've included JPEGS of each word problem for you to upload to SeeSaw (or other password protected online app). This gives you complete FLEXIBILITY in how you upload the problems - addition OR subtraction OR both, number line OR number track, problem type, how many etc. Use the word problems how YOU want to use them.

If representing and solving word problems in multiple ways is something your class needs, you can find the pack here. Winter, Spring, Summer and a Seasonal Bundle are also available. 

On another note, the other week we were looking at probability and events that will, might and won't happen. I made up this quick little activity which you can download in Google Drive. 

My kids had a lot of fun with it. I hope yours do too!

Halloween Addition and Subtraction Game Freebies

If you are like me, you love the Halloween season! Even though Halloween isn't a major holiday in Australia, it is getting more popular and it's just so much FUN! 

Here are some math rotations I've used with my class that have a Halloween theme. I use T.I.M.E. for my rotations - Teacher's Choice (usually this is working with the teacher, unless I have individual assessments to do), Independent Work, Math Facts and Easy Revision. You can read a blog post about T.I.M.E. Math here. 

For our T (Teacher's Choice) Tub, we are working on solving and representing addition and subtraction number stories. I am using my Fall Word Problems with my lower group. We are drawing a picture, using unfix cubes in a 10-Frame, number path and number sentences to represent each problem. 

You can pick up my pack of 80 Fall themed addition and subtraction problems for K-1st Grade in my TpT store. 

For our Math Facts rotation, I made some 'broomsticks' (addition and subtraction facts written on craft sticks) and wrote the totals 7-12 on Halloween themed tubs or 'cauldrons'. Students pull a 'broomstick', solve, and sort the sticks into the 'cauldrons'. 

Here's a recording sheet I made to go along with it if you want to make this activity for yourself. I added some Hundred Charts to work out the answers as differentiation for those who needed it and some flash cards for fast finishers - they love testing and timing each other!

Another game we've been playing to master addition math facts the last two weeks is Witchy Brew. You can download it here in google drive. 

Do you love Halloween as much as me?!

Halloween Math Centers for 2nd Grade PLUS Freebie

This week was a short week for us, Monday being a Student Free Day. We were lucky to have the afternoon to ourselves for planning and preparation which was great!

Because we lost a day and reports are coming up, instead of normal math centers, I decided to put out review activities so I could pull students for individual assessments. I chose 9 activities so we'll do 1 each day after our whole class lesson and activity this week and next week. I also put the kids in mixed ability groups of 2-3 students. Even though the content was review, the activities were new and from my Halloween and Fall math packs. 

I have to say the kids had a ball! I kept them working for about 25 mins and each time we stopped they asked if they could go onto the next activity! 

 

We changed up one of the activities from my Halloween Math Pack for 2nd-3rd grade. Instead of printing out the trick-or-treating bags and candy for my Candy Sharing center, my kids used jack-o-lantern buckets and fake spiders to act out the division sharing problems.

You can grab the packs these activities are from at my TpT store. 

Another game we've been playing to master addition math facts the last two weeks is Witchy Brew. You can download it for FREE here in google drive. 

I'm also LOVIN my tubs of counters and a double dice. I have enough for every student in the class. Each holds 20 counters, a double dice and a paper clip to act as a spinner. We use them just about every day. For this game, they roll the double dice (or 2 dice), add them together and move the number of spaces. My students who are already pretty good with their facts use 1-10 dice instead. 

Do you have a favorite Fall or Halloween themed activity? 

Halloween Math Center - Giving Directions 2nd Grade

Recently we've been focusing on giving and following directions in math. I must say, that the kids LOVE when we do direction.

We started with a little bit of review with following simple directions (left, right, up, down). With this worksheet, students had to follow the directions given for each trick-or-treater. Some students just used their fingers to follow the directions and mark where they ended up, others drew lines, dots or arrows to help them keep track. 

 Mostly however, we've been focusing on moving beyond these types of directions to using 1/4 and 1/2 turns to the left and right and moving forward. I've been asked at least 10 times a day to play a little game using these directions. You've probably played it before. Basically the whole class stands up and faces a certain wall and you call our directions one at a time (e.g. 1/4 turn to the right, 1/2 turn to the left etc). Everyone who doesn't face the correct direction each time sits down. It's fast paced and fun. So simple, but they just love it!

We have used the Giving Directions sheet from my Halloween Math Pack a number of times. They used the worksheet as is, so they had to write directions for the trick-or-treater to pick up as much candy as she could. They used teddy counters to help with identifying the 1/4 and 1/2 turns.

The next day, I used the same worksheet but drew pictures on the board. Each student wrote directions in their math journals, paired up and used their teddy counters to follow each others directions (kiddo 1 read their directions while kiddo 2 followed them with the teddy counter, then swapped). This worked a treat because they were able to identify missing steps.

Finally, I used the same sheet AGAIN, but this time they chose their own beginning and ending piece of candy, wrote directions for their partner, read them out and checked if their partner was able to finish in the same space. They also started with their teddy in the same space and shielded their grid from each other. They took it in turns to give directions (which they both followed, so student 1 might say 1/4 turn left and move forward 3 and they would both move their teddy. Student 2 would give a direction and they'd both follow etc) and checked after 5 directions each if they ended up in the same space.

If you'd like any of these worksheets they are a part of my Halloween Math Pack.

Halloween Math Centers for 2nd-3rd Grade

I saw this on Pinterest today and just had to share:

 Source

Hehe, this is so me when I'm supposed to be working and get distracted on Pinterest or Instagram!

Even with the distractions, I've managed to finish a Halloween math pack filled with lots of hands on activities for my kids to complete after the holidays. 

 

It comes with 13 math activities for multiplication, division, graphing, area, time, transformations, directions, skip counting, arrays and measuring. You can find it in my TpT Store.