Spider Math
Display an enlarged picture/pattern of a
spider. Have the children help
you count the spider's legs
and eyes. Number each leg with a marker
as the children
count. Explain that while many spiders, like the spider
in
the picture, have eight eyes, some have only two, four, or six and
all spiders have eight legs. Teach the children the spider poem
below:
Spiders are not insects.
Spiders have eight legs.
Spiders have four pairs of eyes.
Spiders hatch from eggs.
Spider webs are sticky.
Spiders weave them tight.
Spiders spin that silky string.
Spiders weave webs right.
Great Girth
Estimates
What can your
students do with a string and a large pumpkin? Practice estimating
skills, of course! Attach three pieces of double-sided tape to a wall near
the pumpkin.
Label the tape sections "too short," "just right," and "too long." Cut a
string length
equal to the circumference of your pumpkin. Attach this string to the tape
labeled
"just right." Have each student cut a length of string to approximate the
girth
of the pumpkin. Then have her wrap her string around the pumpkin to see
how
close she was to the actual measurement. Is her string too short, just
right,
or too long? Have her attach her string to the tape in the appropriate
category.
Halloween Shapes
Make a bat, witch, cat, or
Jack-o-lantern with circles, squares,
triangles, and rectangles. Identify shapes in a Halloween symbol.
Jack-o-Lantern Dot to
Dot
Teacher prints numbers from
1 to 12 in a large circle. In center of circle draw eyes,
nose, and mouth. Draw stem on top of circle. Child connects
dots in numerical order.
Jack's Teeth
Cut five pumpkin shapes from
orange felt. Use a black marker to give each one
a simple jack-o-lantern face with a big smile but no teeth. Then
label each pumpkin
with a different number from 1 to 5. Cut 15 tooth shapes from black
felt. Place the
pumpkins and teeth on a flannel board with the teeth to one side.
Have a child identify
the number on a pumpkin and add the corresponding number of teeth to its
smile.
Witch Hand
Math
Here's a tasty way to help
your kindergarteners count by fives. Prepare
a batch of sugar cookie dough - add green food coloring to it; then have
each
child use a hand shaped cookie cutter to make a witch's hand cookie.
Instruct
each child to count to five as she presses 5 candy corns onto the
fingertips to
create fingernails. Bake the cookies. Place each one a different
paper plate,
and then line them up on a tabletop. Have the class count by fives
as you point to
each hand cookie. Give your class a hand for counting; then invite
them to eat up.
Trick Or Treat Sack
Place treats in a bag.
Count items as they are removed from the bag.
Cat Whiskers
Attach various colored
whiskers to cat's face cutout.
Count number of whiskers. Also count number of particular
color of whiskers. Remove whiskers and repeat using a different
number.
The Better To See You
With
Create a set of monster eye
manipulatives by painting different colored
irises on Ping-Pong balls. When the paint is dry, invite children to
sort the eyes by color into clean, empty egg cartons.
Creepy Crawly Calendar
Update your calendar with
these student made numeral cards.
To prepare, give each child a white construction paper square
that is sized to fit a numeral box on your class calendar. Invite
him to illustrate his square with a spider or a bat. Then help him
label his card with a designated numeral from the calendar.
Replace your ordinary calendar numerals with these spooky bat
and spider cards and use them during your daily calendar activities.
To reinforce numeral recognition skills, occasionally ask a
child to identify his calendar card and the numeral on it.
Count the Spiders Game
Ahead of time, make a Count
the Pumpkins game. Number paper plates from
one to four. Use a large pumpkin to cut ten pumpkins from orange
construction
paper. Spread out the four paper plates and encourage the children to
name the number on each one. Ask the children to place indicated
number of paper pumpkins one each plate.
How Many Days Until
Halloween?
Cut out 31 construction
paper pumpkins and tape them over every date
on an October calendar. Allow a child to take one down each day,
beginning on October 1, and have the students count how many days are
left. Each
day ask the children to predict how many pumpkins will be left after
one is removed.
Insect / Spider Patterning
Laminate and cut apart
several sets of spider & insect cards. Place in an envelope.
Create patterning task cards on larger sheets of paper. If your children
can read,
use the words "insect" and "spider." If not, use simple symbols such as
drawing
of different spiders and insects. Children lay out picture cards to
imitate the
patterns. Children can create their own patterns and have a friend
discover
the pattern. Children separate the cards into sets of spiders and sets of
insects
and explain the reasons.
Mr. Skeleton
Display skeleton decoration
which can be purchased or drawn.
Count the number of ribs, leg bones, arm bones, bones in hand, and so on.
Sweet Skeletons
Purchase a package of
Brach's Dem Bones Tart & Tangy Candies. Give each
child a scoop of candy to sort by shape (skulls, ribs, bones, feet, and
hands.)
Then graph. After graphing, have each child assemble a skeleton
from his candies. Then invite everyone to bite into the bones.
Haunted House Sort
Find an appropriate haunted
house pattern. Make several copies and
color, decorate, and laminate them as placemats. Find white lima beans
at the grocery store and turn them into ghost counters. Add eyes and
mouth
to the beans and you have a great math center for Halloween. Have the
kids put the ghosts in the haunted house and count them as they go.
Halloween Sort
For a sorting activity, use
various Halloween treats such as spiders
and bat rings of different colors or pumpkin and ghost light covers.
Bone Graph
Display a skeleton
decoration which can be purchased or drawn.
Count number of ribs, bones in hand, leg bones, arm bones.
Graph.
Pumpkin Count
Provide small plastic pumpkins. Number each 1-10.
Have the children
count out the correct number of pumpkin seeds to each pumpkin.
Ten Little Pumpkins
Cut out ten pumpkin shapes
out of orange felt and place them on a flannel
board.
Remove the shapes one at a time as you read the following poem:
Ten little pumpkins
All in a line
One became a jack-o-lantern
Then there were nine.
Nine little pumpkins
Peeking through the gate
An old witch took one
Then there were eight.
Eight little pumpkins
There never were eleven
A green goblin took one
And then there were seven.
Seven little pumpkins
Full of jolly tricks
A white ghost took one
Then there were six.
Six little pumpkins
Glad to be alive
A black cat took one
Then there were five.
Five little pumpkins
By the barn door
A hoot owl took one,
Then there were four.
Four little pumpkins
As you can plainly see
One become a pumpkin pie
Then there were three.
Three little pumpkins
Feeling very blue
One rolled far away
Then there were two.
Two little pumpkins
Alone in the sun
One said, "So long,"
And then there was one.
One little pumpkin
Left all alone
A little boy chose him
Then there were none.
Ten little pumpkins
In a patch so green.
Made everybody happy
On Halloween.
Spider Measurement
Give each child a copy of
the same spider picture or use plastic spiders.
Find the answers to questions such as: How many spiders wide is your
hand? How many spiders long is your shoe? Whose pencil is longer,
yours or your friend's? How many spiders longer?
Witch Match
You may be able to find
witch stickers or Halloween stickers. Make
sure that you have at least two identical sheets. Place two identical
stickers on one index card. One on the left side and one on the
right. Then cut the card in half in a funny shape. Follow with all
the stickers. Then set out the cards and ask the child to pick out
one, then find it's match. Next, place the cards together.
Spider Subtraction
Use the "Five Hairy Spiders"
counting poem to practice the concept of subtraction.
If children are ready for math at the symbolic level, write the equation
for each part of
the poem. For example, as you say "One crawled away and then there were
two, write
3 ?1 =2 on the board or put a strip on the flannel board showing that
number sentence.
Five hairy spiders jumped
across the floor.
One crawled away and then there were four.
Four hairy spiders climbed the backyard tree.
One crawled away and then there were three.
Three hairy spiders walked across my shoe.
One crawled away and then there were two.
Two hairy spiders spinning in the sun.
One crawled away and then there was one.
One hairy spider caught a bug on the run.
He crawled away and then there were none!
Spider Addition
Challenge the class to help
you make up a poem that starts with
one hairy spider and adds a spider with each verse. Use the same
patterns to show each verse on the flannel board. For example:
One hairy spider crawled across my shoe.
Along came another; then there were two.
Two hairy spiders sat upon my knee.
Their brother came to visit; now there are three.
Halloween Patterning
Math Center
Create Halloween pattern
cards by drawing 4 Halloween shapes/pics (pumpkin,
ghost, witch, and spider) construction paper and cut into individual
pictures.
Place all pumpkin, ghost, witch, and spider pictures in their own clear
plastic cups.
Place all four cups in the math learning center. Cut large sheets of
white construction
paper or newsprint into 3" x 23". Make several different pattern
cards by gluing the
small Halloween pics onto a short strip of paper. Duplicate the Halloween
pattern
cards (mentioned above). Color, laminate, and cut into individual picture
cards
. Duplicate enough pictures for each child to have his or her own
picture card.
Introduce the Halloween math center to the whole group by passing each
child
a large laminated Halloween pattern picture card. Choose a sample
pattern
card from the collection made for the center. Show a sample pattern
card to the
class. Ask the children to look at their picture card to see if the
picture card they
are holding is seen on the sample pattern card. If it is, they are
to leave their pattern
picture card facing up. If the picture is not on the sample pattern
card, they must
turn their picture card face down. Check the cards left to make sure
the children
understood the directions.
Next begin choosing children with matching picture cards to complete the
chosen
sample pattern by calling the children up front, one by one, to create the
same
pattern as the chosen sample pattern card. After several children
have taken
their places in front of the group, holding their card by their chest for
the others
to see, ask the children, "What picture needs to come next to continue
making
this pattern?" Invite the children to try to complete the pattern
using the children
who have remained seated with their cards facing up. They must
determine
where they fit into the pattern.
Once the pattern is complete, read the pattern aloud with the children,
while
pointing to each of the picture cards the children are holding. Have
these
children sit down and now everyone turns their cards face up to begin the
activity again. Choose a child to come to the front of the group to
build
another pattern. First, the child must choose a sample pattern card
and
show it to the class. The children who see their picture card in the
pattern
will leave their card face up, while the others turn their cards face
down.
Allow the child up front to choose children with the matching picture
cards
to come forward (stand in front of the class in a row to make a "people
picture
pattern".) Once the pattern is complete, check it verbally with the whole
class.
Repeat the process until several patterns have been made.
Extended activity: Leave the Halloween pattern cards on display for the
children
to build more "people picture" patterns. If space is available,
these pattern
cards may be placed on the floor forming a long floor pattern.
