Math Activities for Kids

Fun Halloween Math Games

October 4, 2019 By Terri Thompson

Halloween is so much fun, don’t you think?

Bring out the jack-o-lanterns, the ghosts, and the pumpkins! Let’s add a little bit of spooky fun to our learning activities.

Here are some great Halloween math games that I just know your kids will love. They’re for all levels of elementary school and some can be easily adapted to all levels of kids. You’ll find that these are great ideas for some extra (and super-fun) math practice at home.

Practice addition, subtraction, fractions, multiplication, and more with these Fun Halloween Math Games suitable for all elementary grades.

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Halloween Math Games for Kindergarten through Second Grade

Practice estimation with these Spooky Estimation Jars from No Time for Flashcards. This fun activity works on skills for your younger elementary kids, but it can also be adapted as a challenge for your older kids.

Turn a pumpkin into a geoboard, a classic math tool, for some fun hands on shape practice. It’s great for fine motor skills too! Danya Banya has all the details for this Pumpkin Geoboard.

Use the book Room on the Broom for some ordinal number practice (ex: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc) with this simple math game from Rainy Day Mum.

Go on a pumpkin hunt around your neighborhood and record your results on a ten frame with this outdoor math game from Still Playing School. Use the opportunity to do a little addition practice too.

Add a Halloween twist to tally mark practice with some spooky bones tally marks. This is a great hands-on math idea from Miss Giraffe’s Class.

Grab a bag of candy corn and use for a little greater than/less than practice. You can find the details for this candy corn math activity at Planning Playtime.

Practice addition or subtraction with this simple printable game, Ghost Roll Math, from Boy Mama Teacher Mama. Roll your numbers, record, and do the math.

Use Halloween candies to practice addition with this simple Pumpkin Candy math printable game from I Heart Crafty Things.

Add within five and ten with this simple idea from Gift of Curiosity that uses the cutest pumpkin and ghost beans.

Create pumpkin seed manipulatives and work on place value and subtraction with this fall math idea from Rainy Day Mum.

Simple Math Games for Halloween That Can Be Adapted for All Grades

Do some Spooky Sums from NurtureStore. Since you provide the math problems, this ghost math activity can be suitable for all grades.

Make our Halloween Pick-and-Solve Sticks for some fun math fact practice. But, don’t limit yourself to addition facts. You can easily use this method to work on subtraction or multiplication facts.

Halloween Math Games for Third Grade Through Fifth Grade

Create and practice fractions with this paper plate Candy Corn Fractions activity from Teach Beside Me.

Practice multiplication with a visual Pumpkin Patch Array with this idea from School Time Snippets.

You can also practice multiplication with this fun Candy Corn Themed Multiplication Games printable pack from Royal Baloo. I love the multiplication crossword!

Add some pumpkins and a few ghosts and you’ve got some fun and interesting Halloween math games that are much, much better than homework.

Which of these ideas do you think you’ll try with your kids?

Practice Math With These Fun Games

When we practice math at home, we love to use fun games. Here are some great choices to have at home:

Do More Activities With Your Family!

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.

Fine Motor Skip Counting Activity

September 5, 2019 By Terri Thompson

Have you ever bought a pack of paper plates to do one activity? And, then have 99 paper plates left over?

The struggle is real, right?

So, how are you going to use them up?

They’re too flimsy to eat on, so that’s not an option.

Your best bet is to come up with another fun paper plate activity, like this fine motor skip counting activity.

So grab a paper plate and let’s get going!

Supplies Needed

Paper plate

Permanent Marker

Paper clips

How to Make Your Fine Motor Skip Counting Activity

Use your permanent marker and write the number zero near the edge.

Add five paper clips next to the zero to figure out how far apart you’ll need your numbers. After your five paper clips, write the number five.

Continue writing numbers around the edge of your plate, counting by fives, until you make it all the way around. Leave enough room for five paper clips in between each number. Because of this, I only had room for zero through 40 on my plate.

Use a second (or third) plate if you want to continue counting to 100.

How to Play This Fine Motor Skip Counting Activity

Provide your child with the prepared paper plate and a large handful of paper clips. You’ll need enough paper clips to make it all the way around your plate.

Starting at zero, work your way around the plate by putting five paper clips between each number.

Don’t forget to skip count along the way!

More Ways to Play

Work in reverse. If you have a plate with all the paper clips in place, go back around the plate and remove the paper plates while practicing skip counting.

Use this concept to practice any set of skip counting. Place the numbers further apart to count by tens or closer together to count by twos. You can have paper plates for counting by threes, fours, or even sixes. Use this for any set your child needs to practice.

Attach a plastic bag to the back of your plate to store your paper clips. Now, you have a great busy bag activity for your elementary-aged kid.

How would you play with this fine motor skip counting activity?

Learn Math With These Fun Games

I’ve always had a lot of success using games to help my kids with their math skills at home. It’s much more fun and rewarding that using flash cards are worksheets. Here are some fun choices of games to try at home.

Do More Activities With Your Family

Do you want to do more fun family activities?

Green Eggs and Ham Addition Match Game

February 28, 2019 By Terri Thompson

We’ve got a few books at our house that have the tatters that only a well-loved book can get.

Green Eggs and Ham is one of those books.

We always have great fun reading it and even more fun doing activities inspired by the book, like this Green Eggs and Ham addition match activity to work on math facts.

Practice your adding to ten addition facts with this fun Green Eggs and Ham Addition Match game perfect for elementary kids.

This game was very easy and didn’t take too much time to make. Involve the kids and have them help put it together. Working together makes it go quicker!

Supplies Needed:

2 sheets green construction paper
Black marker
Scissors

How to make this Green Eggs and Ham Addition Match Game

Take each piece of paper and fold it in half. Fold in half again so that you have a simple accordion fold with four sections. This will help with the size for your ham and eggs.

You’ll want 11 ham shapes on one piece of paper and 11 egg shapes on the other piece of paper. So, you’ll have 3 shapes on each folded section of paper.

Draw simple ham and egg shapes inspired by the book.

To make this easier, I drew one ham shape, and cut it out. Then, I traced it ten more times. I did the same for the egg shape.

As you can see in the picture above, I made super-simple shapes. There’s no need to make it complicated.

Trace each shape with your black marker and then cut out all the shapes. Recruit the kids for this step. They’ll love to help!

Once you have all the shapes cut out. Write the number 0 – 10 on the egg shapes and again on the ham shapes.

The game is ready to play. It’s time to have fun making 10.

How to play the Green Eggs and Ham Addition Match game

Spread out the egg and ham pieces. Match one egg and one ham so that when you add the two numbers together, you’ll get 10.

Two-player version: Turn all the pieces face down and play like a memory game. But, instead of matching the two numbers, you’ll want to turn over two number that equal 10.

Pair this activity with a book

This fun math game is perfect to pair with a good book. Grab a copy of Green Eggs and Ham and one of these other fun Dr. Seuss books.

Do more activities with your family!

Paper Plate Multiplication Practice Activity

February 5, 2019 By Terri Thompson

We’ve now entered the world of multiplication facts with my youngest daughter. And, even though it’s my second time around this block, I’m still looking for new and fun ways to help her practice.

I think I found a winner with this Paper Plate Multiplication Activity. They’re fun, colorful, and perhaps most importantly, my daughter loves them.

Awesome!

Have fun practicing your multiplication facts with this simple Paper Plate Multiplication Activity. They're easy to make and make times tables fun.

Supplies Needed:

2 paper plates (for each set of multiplication facts)
Craft Paint
Scissors
Glue
Black marker

How to make your Paper Plate Multiplication Activity

Grab your craft paint and completely paint the top of one of your paper plates. Set aside and let it dry.

Note: If you’re short on time, this step of the process can be skipped. I love the color and think it makes the activity much more fun and colorful. But, you can certainly leave both of your plates white.

Once your paint is dry, flip your plate over and divide the edge into 13 sections. (For 2 x 0 all the way through to 2 x 12)

Use your scissors and cut each section from the edge of the plate to the first dividing line.

Flip your plate back over and write your multiplication facts on your cut sections.

Write one math fact per section. Start with your times zero fact and write your facts in order all around the circle.

In the center of your plate write a number representing which set of multiplication facts are on your plate.

Next, take your 2nd plate and apply glue to the center section. Place your colorful plate on top of the second plate and glue them together. Press down for awhile and let dry before your continue.

Note: Do not apply glue to the textured edge section of your plate! You need your edges to remain separate.

Once your glue is dry, flip up each of your sections and write the answer underneath.

That’s it! Your paper plate multiplication practice wheel is ready to use!

Fun ways to use your Paper Plate Multiplication Practice Tools

The easiest way to use this (and my daughter’s favorite) is to pick it up and use it to quiz your self on multiplication facts. You can check yourself by peeking under the flap.

These are also great to use with with pairs. One child can use their paper plates to quiz their partner.

These multiplication facts are so easy to take on the go. If you’re short on time and need to take some school work with you to sports practice, a waiting room, the backseat of the car, etc., just grab one of your multiplication paper plates. There are no small parts to lose.

How would you use one of these paper plate multiplication facts?

Our Favorite Math Resources

One of our favorite ways to practice math at home is with a fun game. Here are some awesome math games that I know you’ll love!

Math Activities for Kids

Fun Halloween Math Games

Halloween Math Games for Kindergarten through Second Grade

Simple Math Games for Halloween That Can Be Adapted for All Grades

Halloween Math Games for Third Grade Through Fifth Grade