Yummy Treats For Halloween & Math Activities: A Fun Edible Way to Practice Math

Yummy Treats For Halloween & Math Activities: A Fun Edible Way to Practice Math
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These Halloween math activities were created to help students practice their math skills in a hands-on manner. Students not only get to see and feel their math, but they also get to eat it! Use any or all of the activities here to help prepare for Halloween as you help your students practice their math skills.

Spidery Cupcake Fractions

Bring in enough chocolate cupcakes for the entire class. They should not be frosted. You will also need chocolate frosting, chocolate sprinkles, plastic knives, white frosting, M&Ms and brown or dark red licorice strips.

  1. Give each student a plastic knife, frosting of both kinds, chocolate sprinkles, 3 M&Ms (2 should be of the same color) and 4 strips of licorice.
  2. Ask students to cover the top of the cupcake with chocolate frosting.
  3. Help students to put two “dots” of white frosting on the top of the cupcake. These will be the whites of the spider’s eyes.
  4. Help students to place the 2 M&Ms that are the same color on the whites of the eyes. The leftover M&M can be placed on the cupcake for the nose.
  5. Ask students to cut their licorice strips in half. They should now have 8 pieces of licorice.
  6. Ask students to put half the licorice on one side of the cupcake and half on the other side. Help students to insert these into the cupcake so that they become the spider legs.

If you want to do more with fractions than simply using the licorice, hand out more M&Ms than you need for the project. Then, ask students to divide them into different fractions, such as 1/2 or 1/4.

Mouse Bones

Make “mouse bones” by dipping straight pretzels in white chocolate. Give each student a bag of mouse bones and have them weigh their bags on a scale. Use a poster board to graph the weight of each bag. Have students fill in their part of the graph as they weigh their bones.

To make this activity even more mathematical, ask students to estimate the weight and count of the bag before weighing it. Then, have students count the “mouse bones” and see how close they were!

Bag of Fractions

This activity is a fun and easy way to practice grouping and fractions.

To do this activity you will need raisins, seeds, pretzels and a variety of candies or nuts that you choose so that there are ten different types of items. You will also need a plastic bag for each student and a large bowl. Mix all of the items together in a large bowl after giving each student a plastic bag. Have students come up to the bowl and give them a handful of the contents of the bowl, instructing them not to eat it yet.

Once the students are seated, have them divide the items into groups based on what they are. Every student should have at least 1 of each of the 10 different types of items from the bowl.

Now, have students separate the items by fractions. Keep track of the amount of items by writing them on the board.

Ask students to write down the totals for each item on a piece of paper. For instance, one student may have 10 pieces of candy corn, 12 pumpkin seeds and so on. Next, ask students to put 1/2 of a specific group in their bag. For instance, you might ask students to put 1/2 of their candy corn in the bag. Do this with each item until there is a bit of each item in the bags, then check over students work by comparing their papers to their bags.

Allow students to eat any left over items and take the bag of goods home with them!