Fall Math Activities 2006

Fall Math Activities

These activities were designed to introduce or reinforce important math concepts and skills using seasonal themes.



Spider Games

Each of these games capitalize on students' fascination with spiders at Halloween time.   The games develop mathematical concepts using a seasonal theme.



Bat Math

Bats are a common theme at Halloween.   Use these resources to capitalize on student interest in bats and develop student understanding of common mathematical patterns.


Fall Glyphs

Each of these glyphs capture data about students in a visual mode.   Students should analyze the class data by creating tally charts, Venn diagrams, bar graphs, etc. and writing about what they learned from looking at the glyphs of their classmates.

  • Jack-o-Lantern Glyph can be simply colored on the handout, using the legend, or students may cut construction paper shapes to create jack-o-lanterns.   The file also contains a sample jack-o-lantern and asks students to interpret the legend and write what they know about the person, based on the sample glyph provided.


Fall Coordinate Graphing Activities

These activities require students to use coordinate pairs to correctly color in the squares of the grid to create a fall picture.



Fall Problem Solving

These open-ended assessments require students to apply mathematical concepts and skills to solve problems and explain their thinking using words, pictures and numbers.

  • Grade 2 Halloween Word Problems were written by Tammie Holcombe and Karen Zeigler, second grade teachers at Port Monmouth Road School in Keansburg, NJ.
  • Annual Fall Parade challenges students to identify the pattern formed by triangular numbers.
  • Fall Fraction Words requires students to use fraction skills and the clues to figure out the fall words.   Students are challenged to create their own fraction words.
  • Fall Scavenger Hunt challenges students to use a grid to identify the leaf with the largest area.
  • Insects and Spiders gives students the number of animals and legs and challenges them to figure out how many insects and how many spiders were in the scientist's lab.
  • Pascal's Bats encourages students to analyze the patterns in Pascal's triangle.
  • Pumpkin Picking is a pattern problem that can be solved using a picture or an input/output table. [contributed by Shannon Collier, Joseph C. Caruso School, Keansburg, NJ]
  • Trick or Treat requires students to create a table of values and identify the pattern or rule to solve the problem.
  • Turkeys and Cows gives students the number of heads and legs and challenges them to figure out how many turkeys and how many cows were in Farmer Brown's barnyard.


Additional Seasonal Math Activities

These math activities are organized by seasons.   Elementary teachers often incorporate seasonal activities as craft projects.   Many of these seasonal craft projects can be mathematical as well with a little forethought.   Browse the activities for projects to add that reinforce mathematical concepts and skills through seasonal and holiday themes.