Frightfully Fun Activities for a Brainy Halloween

Frightfully Fun Activities for a Brainy Halloween Frightfully Fun Activities for a Brainy Halloween Boo! Ghosts and goblins are out and about and witches are walking among us! The Halloween season sparks imagination, creativity and a sense of wonder in children of all ages. Who are we kidding? Even adults like to partake in the season of spooky make-believe. This time of year is a great opportunity to build upon that imagination and turn it into a ‘spooktacular’ learning opportunity. Check out these frightfully fun activities for a brainy Halloween. Pumpkin Math There are many pumpkin related activities you can do while reinforcing a few math lessons. Work on your child’s estimation skills by guessing how many pumpkin seeds are inside, how much it weighs and what the circumference of the pumpkin is at its widest point. You can then work on their counting skills when you cut open the pumpkin and count the number of seeds inside. Children will have fun using addition and subtraction skills when determining the difference between the actual weight and circumference and their closest prediction. Candy Sort We all know that children love candy and one of the most popular Halloween pastimes is sorting it after a successful night of trick-or-treating. Why not throw in a little learning? Work on your children’s sorting abilities by having them sort the candy in various ways and then graph their results. They can sort to see the most common to the least common type of candy, by candy wrapper color, chewy candy versus hard candy, etc. After you are done sorting, create a Venn diagram that classifies the different characteristics of the candy. This teaches sorting skills, language skills, and comparing similarities and differences. Halloween-Inspired Books What better way to spark your children’s imagination and creativity then through reading books. One of the best things parents can do for their children is read to them every night. Channel their Halloween excitement by picking out some frightfully themed books. Scholastic has some great options for kids all of all ages. Candy Corn Calculations Your children will love practicing their multiplication tables in a tasty and fun way by creating sets of candy corn to solve their own products. Have your children roll a die to represent the number of sets of candy corn. Then roll a second die to find out how many pieces of candy corn will be in each set. For example, you may roll a six and a four. Your children will then arrange the factors they rolled (six sets of four pieces of candy corn, or 64=24). This activity helps them find their factors, multipliers and products. These are just a few activities that will keep your children’s learning brewing this Halloween season. You might also be interested in: Celebrate Halloween with this Mystery Booklist for Grades 3 through 7 Fun and Easy Tips to Keep Kids Learning during the Holiday Season 4 Fun Ways to Perfect Your Child’s Mental Math Skills Happy Read Across America Day! Kick-off National Reading Month by Celebrating Dr. Seuss’ Birthday With These Fun Activities Frightfully Fun Activities for a Brainy Halloween Frightfully Fun Activities for a Brainy Halloween Boo! Ghosts and goblins are out and about and witches are walking among us! The Halloween season sparks imagination, creativity and a sense of wonder in children of all ages. Who are we kidding? Even adults like to partake in the season of spooky make-believe. This time of year is a great opportunity to build upon that imagination and turn it into a ‘spooktacular’ learning opportunity. Check out these frightfully fun activities for a brainy Halloween. Pumpkin Math There are many pumpkin related activities you can do while reinforcing a few math lessons. Work on your child’s estimation skills by guessing how many pumpkin seeds are inside, how much it weighs and what the circumference of the pumpkin is at its widest point. You can then work on their counting skills when you cut open the pumpkin and count the number of seeds inside. Children will have fun using addition and subtraction skills when determining the difference between the actual weight and circumference and their closest prediction. Candy Sort We all know that children love candy and one of the most popular Halloween pastimes is sorting it after a successful night of trick-or-treating. Why not throw in a little learning? Work on your children’s sorting abilities by having them sort the candy in various ways and then graph their results. They can sort to see the most common to the least common type of candy, by candy wrapper color, chewy candy versus hard candy, etc. After you are done sorting, create a Venn diagram that classifies the different characteristics of the candy. This teaches sorting skills, language skills, and comparing similarities and differences. Halloween-Inspired Books What better way to spark your children’s imagination and creativity then through reading books. One of the best things parents can do for their children is read to them every night. Channel their Halloween excitement by picking out some frightfully themed books. Scholastic has some great options for kids all of all ages. Candy Corn Calculations Your children will love practicing their multiplication tables in a tasty and fun way by creating sets of candy corn to solve their own products. Have your children roll a die to represent the number of sets of candy corn. Then roll a second die to find out how many pieces of candy corn will be in each set. For example, you may roll a six and a four. Your children will then arrange the factors they rolled (six sets of four pieces of candy corn, or 64=24). This activity helps them find their factors, multipliers and products. These are just a few activities that will keep your children’s learning brewing this Halloween season. You might also be interested in: Celebrate Halloween with this Mystery Booklist for Grades 3 through 7 Fun and Easy Tips to Keep Kids Learning during the Holiday Season 4 Fun Ways to Perfect Your Child’s Mental Math Skills Happy Read Across America Day! Kick-off National Reading Month by Celebrating Dr. Seuss’ Birthday With These Fun Activities