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Sneak Some Learning Into That Candy Sack! Counting Candy and Other Tasty Halloween Lessons
Halloween… trick or treating, endless candy, super-cool costumes, and… math? Yes! Halloween is a great time to introduce some real-life math skills. Try the activities below on Halloween night and trick your treater into snacking on some STEM learning!1. Elapsed Trick or Treating Time
2. Take a Guess – When you’re heading home, have your child take a peek into her candy bag and estimate the number of pieces of candy in the bag. Count them at home and see how close she was! Take it a step further by counting a small scoop and making an educated guess about how many scoops are in the entire pile. Multiply for a closer guess. Then count.
3. Sweet Candy Sort Out – Who doesn’t remember the great candy dump? Emptying your bags on the carpet to admire your haul? This is the perfect opportunity for younger kids to practice sorting, a key early math skill. Sort by color, shape, candy type – then count the contents of each pile.
4. Colorful Candy Graph – Create a visual of your child’s trick or treat bounty – with a colorful candy graph! Once the candy is sorted into piles, count them and create a graph by listing the candy types across the bottom of a page and quantities in 10’s up the left side of the page. Use a different colored crayon to color in a bar representing each candy’s quantity.
5. Candy Rainbow – Introduce some STEM vocabulary while creating a candy rainbow! Sing the rainbow song as you sort your candy into color piles – then line the pieces of each pile up end to end to create each arc of the rainbow. Use words like above, below, left, right, middle, next to, and pattern while you design. Use those leftover lemon Starbursts to make a sun! Make your rainbow even more musical with Magic Moves® Rainbow Jam™- touch Rainbow Jam to a colorful candy in each pile to hear a fun song about that color!
- For younger ghouls and goblins:If Bobby starts trick or treating at 7:35 and stays out an hour and 15 minutes what time will he be back?
- For older spooks:If it takes 4 minutes to visit a house, and there are 6 houses on your block, how long will it take to hit each house on the block? How long to cover 3 blocks? 6?
2. Take a Guess – When you’re heading home, have your child take a peek into her candy bag and estimate the number of pieces of candy in the bag. Count them at home and see how close she was! Take it a step further by counting a small scoop and making an educated guess about how many scoops are in the entire pile. Multiply for a closer guess. Then count.3. Sweet Candy Sort Out – Who doesn’t remember the great candy dump? Emptying your bags on the carpet to admire your haul? This is the perfect opportunity for younger kids to practice sorting, a key early math skill. Sort by color, shape, candy type – then count the contents of each pile.4. Colorful Candy Graph – Create a visual of your child’s trick or treat bounty – with a colorful candy graph! Once the candy is sorted into piles, count them and create a graph by listing the candy types across the bottom of a page and quantities in 10’s up the left side of the page. Use a different colored crayon to color in a bar representing each candy’s quantity. 5. Candy Rainbow – Introduce some STEM vocabulary while creating a candy rainbow! Sing the rainbow song as you sort your candy into color piles – then line the pieces of each pile up end to end to create each arc of the rainbow. Use words like above, below, left, right, middle, next to, and pattern while you design. Use those leftover lemon Starbursts to make a sun! Make your rainbow even more musical with Magic Moves® Rainbow Jam™- touch Rainbow Jam to a colorful candy in each pile to hear a fun song about that color!
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Posted on Sep 22, 2020
6 Spooky Ways to Celebrate Halloween at Home
This pandemic has touched every corner of our lives, from work to school to home – and now it’s messing with some of our most favorite holidays! Since many cities across the country may not be allowing trick-or-treating, we’re sharing some spooky ideas (six to be exact) for celebrating Halloween at home. Whether you’re gathering your small, COVID-careful pod of people together to party in your backyard or keeping the fun to family only, check out these ghoulishly great activities and make this Halloween one to remember!1. Carve A Pumpkin (or just decorate it)!Nothing says Halloween quite like carving a pumpkin. Younger kids can paint a spooky face using non-toxic tempera or acrylic paint or try a totally awesome drip design using glow-in-the-dark paint! Older kids and grown-ups can use stencils, cookie cutters, lemon zesters, and pumpkin carving knives to carefully carve their own creepy creations. Need some inspiration? Check out these ideas for no-carve pumpkins or carving pumpkins– extra points if your pumpkin is wearing a mask!
2. Bake Some Scary Snacks!Your kids may not be bringing home pillowcases of candy, but you can still make the day super sweet with Halloween-themed nummies including voodoo doll cookies, cupcake witches, Halloween candy bark, and more! We especially love these simple chocolate chip spider cookies ???? For more fun, check out these delicious Halloween spooky snack ideas on our Pinterest board.
Photo credit: https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/3. Play Some Ghoulish Games!Have an in-home scavenger hunt (find free, printable clues on PlayPartyPlan.com!), set up your own spider-and-straw races, and make a Witch Pitch out of goodies from the Dollar Store, and get gaming! Find tons of great Halloween-themed games to make and play at home, on our Pinterest board.
Photo credit: onecrazyhouse.com4. Make Some Creepy Crafts!Crafts are perfect for a Halloween party! Set up a table with construction paper and paint and make handprint vampires and witches, make vanishing ghosts out of biodegradable packing peanuts, or construct your own haunted house out of toilet paper tubes. Or, for a less messy but totally tactile Halloween activity that doubles as a great guest gift, grab a 24-pack of Playfoam® Pals™ Surprise Party or a case of 64 Playfoam® pods from educationalinsights.com. Order now and SAVE 50% for a limited time! WOW! Each pod includes squishy, squashy Playfoam – perfect for sculpting everything from pumpkins to black cats, as well as a surprise, neon-colored Pal, and mystery party backdrop.
Click to shop & SAVE 50%!5. Take It on Parade!Just because you’re not trick-or-treating doesn’t mean you can’t get out and about. Spread the word in your neighborhood that the kids are going to be on parade, dress them up as their favorite celeb or superhero (you can find some super fun DIY costume ideas on our blog and some fun make-your-own mask printables on our Pinterest board!), wait till dusk, then hit the sidewalk! Keep a socially distant six feet between families and leave an adult at home to wave and holler as the parade goes by.
Photo credit: gigglesgalore.net6. Watch Some (Not-So) Scary Movies!Wrap up your Halloween-at-Home with some not-so-scary movies (and Halloween popcorn balls, of course!). Toddlers will love Room on the Broom; Toy Story of Terror and Goosebumps are good scary fun for little ones, while in-betweeners might be ready for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark or The House With a Clock in Its Walls. Click for Good Housekeeping’s list of 40 Halloween Movies That Won’t Keep Them Up All Night.
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6 Spooky Ways to Celebrate Halloween at Home
This pandemic has touched every corner of our lives, from work to school to home – and now it’s messing with some of our most favorite holidays! Since many cities across the country may not be allowing trick-or-treating, we’re sharing some spooky ideas (six to be exact) for celebrating Halloween at home. Whether you’re gathering your small, COVID-careful pod of people together to party in your backyard or keeping the fun to family only, check out these ghoulishly great activities and make this Halloween one to remember!1. Carve A Pumpkin (or just decorate it)!Nothing says Halloween quite like carving a pumpkin. Younger kids can paint a spooky face using non-toxic tempera or acrylic paint or try a totally awesome drip design using glow-in-the-dark paint! Older kids and grown-ups can use stencils, cookie cutters, lemon zesters, and pumpkin carving knives to carefully carve their own creepy creations. Need some inspiration? Check out these ideas for no-carve pumpkins or carving pumpkins– extra points if your pumpkin is wearing a mask!2. Bake Some Scary Snacks!Your kids may not be bringing home pillowcases of candy, but you can still make the day super sweet with Halloween-themed nummies including voodoo doll cookies, cupcake witches, Halloween candy bark, and more! We especially love these simple chocolate chip spider cookies ???? For more fun, check out these delicious Halloween spooky snack ideas on our Pinterest board.Photo credit: https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/3. Play Some Ghoulish Games!Have an in-home scavenger hunt (find free, printable clues on PlayPartyPlan.com!), set up your own spider-and-straw races, and make a Witch Pitch out of goodies from the Dollar Store, and get gaming! Find tons of great Halloween-themed games to make and play at home, on our Pinterest board.Photo credit: onecrazyhouse.com4. Make Some Creepy Crafts!Crafts are perfect for a Halloween party! Set up a table with construction paper and paint and make handprint vampires and witches, make vanishing ghosts out of biodegradable packing peanuts, or construct your own haunted house out of toilet paper tubes. Or, for a less messy but totally tactile Halloween activity that doubles as a great guest gift, grab a 24-pack of Playfoam® Pals™ Surprise Party or a case of 64 Playfoam® pods from educationalinsights.com. Order now and SAVE 50% for a limited time! WOW! Each pod includes squishy, squashy Playfoam – perfect for sculpting everything from pumpkins to black cats, as well as a surprise, neon-colored Pal, and mystery party backdrop.Click to shop & SAVE 50%!5. Take It on Parade!Just because you’re not trick-or-treating doesn’t mean you can’t get out and about. Spread the word in your neighborhood that the kids are going to be on parade, dress them up as their favorite celeb or superhero (you can find some super fun DIY costume ideas on our blog and some fun make-your-own mask printables on our Pinterest board!), wait till dusk, then hit the sidewalk! Keep a socially distant six feet between families and leave an adult at home to wave and holler as the parade goes by.
Photo credit: gigglesgalore.net6. Watch Some (Not-So) Scary Movies!Wrap up your Halloween-at-Home with some not-so-scary movies (and Halloween popcorn balls, of course!). Toddlers will love Room on the Broom; Toy Story of Terror and Goosebumps are good scary fun for little ones, while in-betweeners might be ready for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark or The House With a Clock in Its Walls. Click for Good Housekeeping’s list of 40 Halloween Movies That Won’t Keep Them Up All Night.
READ MORE
