The spooky plights of All Hallows Eve are upon us, and what better way to alleviate those frights than with engaging Halloween math activities? From reading coordinates to using algebraic equations to solving hidden messages, we’ve provided a variety of free Halloween math activities perfect for both middle and high school students.
Each of the activities listed below is a fun and easy printable that can seamlessly be incorporated into your daily classroom activities. Our Piqosity team has also created a few spooktacular math problems exclusively for this article that are sure to challenge and delight!
An all-new 2022 version of this article, complete with embedded Piqosity original quizzes, is available for your use!
Halloween Activities for Middle School
1. Creepy Coordinate Grids
This creepy coordinate grid activity covers a variety of math concepts, including how to identify coordinate pairs and quadrants, calculating the distance between ordered pairs, and reflecting points over the x and y axes.
Your student will solve 16 different task cards using a provided graph and record their findings on a provided worksheet. This is a great activity for your student to complete on their own or with a partner.
Created and made available for free download by Mixing it Up in Middle.
2. Distributive Property and Combining Like Terms Halloween Hidden Message Activity
Nothing fits better with Halloween than solving a good mystery. With this hidden message activity, middle and high school students can test their algebra skills by solving equations to reveal a secret message.
The activity can be done by individuals or in small groups to promote working cooperatively. You can also choose between two different difficulty levels depending on the skill level of your students: color-coded or non-color-coded. The non-color-coded version is more difficult as students can’t rely on a specific color group to narrow their choices down.
During the activity, students need to use the distributive property to simplify equations and combine like terms to reveal the Halloween message. Once they simplify the equation, they will cut and paste the answer onto the provided secret message sheet. An answer key is included and the creator recommends projecting it onto a board to go over once students finish.
Created and made available for free download by Math in Demand.
Halloween Activities for High School
1. Graphing Cartesian Cartoons (Pumpkin)
Cartesian cartoons are a great way to practice piecewise functions and other graphing skills without causing students to completely lose interest. In this pumpkin cartesian cartoon activity, students will solve 34 different coordinates and then connect the dots to reveal a smiling jack-o-lantern.
Your students will get a kick out of creating their own Halloween-themed dot-to-dot while simultaneously exercising their brains. This activity pairs well with the geometry portion of our ISEE Upper Level math review.
Created and made available for free download by Matt Lora at Value Added Publishing.
Halloween Math Questions by Piqosity (5th Grade-Algebra 1)
We are nearing the end of October and Halloween is on everyone’s mind. The trick-or-treating night is nigh and millions are wondering how they can streamline their journey around the neighborhood while receiving the most amount of candy possible. Join us as we dive into some spooky math problems to determine how a group of trick-or-treaters can best maximize their candy haul this Halloween. Piqosity devised these problems, starting at a 5th-grade level and progressing in difficulty to Algebra 1, in order to test your math knowledge and prepare you for a bountiful Halloween – solve these tricks to prepare for your treats! These problems, written by Piqosity’s own Mohamed El Noamany, are easy to copy/paste and turn into your own Halloween math worksheet!
Piqosity’s Halloween Math Questions
1. During Halloween, a group of 3 friends plan to collect as much candy as they can. If they plan to visit 185 houses and will each receive 3 pieces of candy from each house, how much candy will the trio collect if they visit all the houses?
A. 555
B. 1665
C. 1500
D. 1885
2. One of the trio wonders if they will even be able to carry that much candy in their bags. The bags that the trio carry are shaped as rectangular prisms, with a width of 5 inches, a depth of 6 inches and a height of 10 inches. If the average candy has a volume of 1 in³ how many pieces of candy can the trio carry between themselves?
A. 300
B. 900
C. 1800
D. 1600
3. Let’s say that the trio only visits 8 houses, and they take 1 piece of candy from the first house. Each time they visit another house, they become more greedy and each takes double the amount of candy that they took from the previous house. How much candy will the trio collect by the time they visit all 8 houses?
A. 275
B. 945
C. 765
D. 637
Math Answer Key and Explanations
1. B
Since there are 3 friends and each of them will receive 3 pieces of candy, we can multiply these numbers together to get the total number of candy the trio will receive per house. If we multiply this by the number of houses they plan to visit, we will be able to calculate the total pieces of candy they will receive.
C = 3×3×185 = 1665
2. B
In order to find the total number of candies that will fit into each bag, we need to calculate the area of each bag and divide the result by the volume of each candy. We can calculate the volume of a rectangular prism by multiplying each of its dimensions together.
Volume = Height × Width × Depth
Volume = 5 × 6 × 10 = 300
300 ÷ 1 = 300
Since there are 3 bags between the trio, we need to multiply this number by 3.
3 × 300 = 900
The trio will only be able to carry 900 pieces of candy between themselves!
3. C
When the trio visits the first house they only obtain 1 piece of candy and each time they double the amount they took before.
The amount of candy each of the three received at the first house is equal to:
The amount of candy each of the three received at the first house is equal to:
The total amount of candy each person will receive from the 8 houses can be modeled with the following equation:
Multiply this value by 3 to calculate the total amount of candy the three will receive:
The trio will have 765 pieces of candy if they visit 8 houses.
Find More Math Resources Like These at Piqosity!
We hope you didn’t find these Halloween math activities too ghoulish. After all, math shouldn’t be a scary concept for anyone; fun activities like the above can pique curiosity in math and help students overcome math anxiety. And if you enjoyed these free Halloween math activities, make sure you check out our upcoming free Halloween English activities!
You can find more (non-Halloween-themed) Math lessons with questions of similar difficulty levels in our Math Course! These are complete courses available online through our app and can be purchased separately or received for free when bundled with our ISEE test prep courses!
- 5th Grade Math Course
- Algebra 1 Course
- Algebra 2 Course (coming soon!)
For your convenience, we have outlined lessons relevant to or at the same difficulty level as the above passages and word problems. These can be found below.
Related Math Lessons by Piqosity:
Lessons related to question #1:Lessons related to question #2:
Lessons related to question #3:
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