A Guide for A Stress-FREE Halloween in Your classroom

 

​Whether it's the excitement around Halloween, a full moon, or everyone is already hyped up on sugar, the classroom can become a little crazy.  Getting kids to focus on their learning during the week of Halloween can be a challenge. If you are not prepared with engaging and relevant activities, then chances are the week may turn into a nightmare for you! 

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​A strong strategy to conquer this craze filled week is to have a bunch of spooky themed education activities ready to go! By keeping learning fun, managing the craziness will be a lot less stressful in the classroom. Engaged students usually reduces the typical types of behavioral issues. If you don't know where to start, this guide will help you find some fun and easy to prep activities. Some resources listed are free, others cost around a cup of coffee, either way, I hope that these resources save you time and keep learning fun for everyone.

Halloween Reading Mystery

The Haunting Hat

If you would like to add a little something extra to introducing this task, we have an optional video hook to set the stage to engage! View below:

Reading Mysteries are an engaging way to encourage your kids to read, find evidence in the text, complete comprehension, and vocabulary puzzles, and use deductive reasoning to solve the case. I designed this activity to be easy to set up and engaging for your kids. The story that I created for Halloween in this range is The Haunting Hat. Everything that you need for this task is in the download. The story is my original work, with inspiration for the characters gathered from those found in popular children's literature.

Click here to learn more

Buy the Haunting Hat Here

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Spooky and Magical Literacy Mysteries

The Case of the Wacky Wand and The Case of The Grumpy Ghost are both fun Literacy Mystery resources that suit Halloween due to their story elements. The Private Eye C.S.I. Literacy Mysteries work differently to the 'Once Upon a Crime'  Mysteries in my range. The mystery packets in this range require inferring to solve the mystery and are much more challenging to solve.
 
Pick a case that you like, print and your student detectives are ready to begin their investigation!

The Case of The Grumpy Ghost

CLICK here to learn more

In the Case of the Grumpy Ghost, your students will be investigating whether a grumpy ghost incident report really did happen, or if someone else is responsible for it. 

Your students will need to build a suspect file, gather evidence from the reading pages, and take notes. There are comprehension questions at the end of each reading page to complete too.

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THE CASE OF THE WACKY WAND

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Oh my! Someone has made Larry's wand go wacky!!! The wizard requests the help of a brilliant detective to help with this rather mischievous case.

Your students will be required to  read through the story and add and subtract suspects as they 'journey' through the pages. They must discover enough evidence and clues to convict a suspect for the crime at the end.  

Buy the Case of the Grumpy Ghost here

Buy the Case of the Wacky Wand here

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Halloween Math Projects

Below are two print and go Math Projects, 'My Spooky Store' and 'My Magical Bakery'. Both only require you to print, photocopy, and staple together into a booklet to have ready for your class. Each project is jam packed with different math skills, and in a fun way show how math can be applied in the every day!

​My Spooky Store is the easier project out of the two and best suits lower elementary.

My Magical Bakery is more challenging since it involves skills such as fractions, multiplication, budget constraints, and more. Best suited for upper elementary students. 

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MY SPOOKY STORE Math Project

Tip: Adjust the difficulty of the addition/subtraction sales tasks by controlling what sort of prices are set at the start. 

This task is simple and fun, with a variety of math explored in a real-world context. 

Your kids will be tasked to set up their Spooky Store by setting prices for items in their Spooky Store and adding a bit of their creativity to the store's appearance. Then, students must complete the paper activities that follow which will involve a variety of math tasks. 

LEARN MORE

Check out some reviews below:

Buy My Spooky Store HERE

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MY MAGICAL BAKERY Math Project

Ten levels in this printable booklet will keep your kids busy learning a variety of math skills. From setting up their bakery, mixing potions, hiring staff, and baking magic, this math project will challenge and enchant.

Learn more

Buy My Magical Bakery Here

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Halloween Math Mysteries

The Math Mysteries are all designed in a format that is easy to prep, simple to grasp, and can become seriously addictive!
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Check out below the Case of the Tricking Treat and the Case of the Jumpy Jack-O-Lanterns. Both fun, full of math, and come with video hooks to capture attention. 

The Case of the Tricking Treat

I get so excited when talking about these resources, so I recently made a little video to give you a better look at what is inside the Tricking Treat math mystery packet. Check it out --->>>

Available in different grade packets too, you can pick and choose which math editions suit your students best. The clue math pages are interchangeable across the grades (excluding first-grade), making it an easy activity to differentiate without the rest of the class being too aware of it. 

Check out the video hook to set the stage to engage! (Optional use)
The video in the resource packet is now updated with a voice to read the text.

Learn more here

Or click the individual grade buttons below to purchase the individual packets. 

1st Grade

5th Grade

2nd Grade

6th Grade

3rd Grade

7th Grade

4th Grade

8th Grade

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THE CASE OF THE JUMPY JACK-O-LANTERNS

A NEW Halloween Math Mystery with a different storyline, different suspects, and different clues. Get your students equipped with their math and deductive reasoning skills to solve this spooky case. 

Available in 1st - 6th grade editions.

Learn more here

1st grade

2nd Grade

3rd Grade

4th Grade

5th Grade

6th Grade

Check out the optional video hook that you can use to introduce the case to your kids

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5 W's Structured Math Mystery

I have a growing 5 W's Math Mystery series that simplifies the regular math mystery that I use. Perfect for Little Detectives in first grade and sometimes second grade, your students will be required to complete five math clue pages to discover the Who, What, Where, When, and Why to the case. Check out the latest Halloween themed one now available:
The Case of the Spooky Surprise

Learn more here

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A SCARY MATH QUEST!

THREE levels of difficulty provided. The chapters are also interchangeable to differentiate.

Set the stage to engage with this optional video hook (view below).

A Math Quest is a fun worksheet style format of an adventure, without wasting too much paper.

• ​It begins with a story,
• Each chapter reveals the next part of the story, posing a math task to complete.
• The final chapter will present some choices for actions to take in the story. Students make their choice and then complete the math in that section, carrying out instructions to receive a 'special number.' If they do the math correctly, the special number will match up to their ending of the story on the final page.
• Four alternate endings to the quest story!

Bonus literacy tasks included! 

Buy the Differentiated Level Bundle Here

OR Separate packets available as a single level

Easy Level

Medium Level

Hard Level

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Now for some free Halloween Resources ...

Print, laminate, and cut these 30 cards that will prompt your students to create spooky math word problems. Use as part of your math warm-up routine or math centers this week. 

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Easy print and go Halloween Writing Activity! There are four writing prompts on the single worksheet for your students to select.

Download for FREE here

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Potion Groceries is a fun math-warm up activity that will surely get the kids attention and thinking hats on! Useful for working with money, addition, estimation, trial, and error. Differentiated options included.

- Print, photocopy and go! 

Download for free here

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Kids love a word search as an early finisher task. Keep this on standby for those moments where kids may need something after completing a task, or if there is only a short time before the bell goes. 

Download for free here

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If you decide to choose any of these resources to try and survive Halloween week, I truly hope they make your life a little bit easier, and your kids have fun. But most importantly, I also hope that the activities provide the educational value that you are looking for during the Halloween buzz too.

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!