• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Teach Mama

Education and Well-being for Every Child!

  • early literacy
    • alphabet
    • beginning sounds
    • phonics
    • phonological awareness
    • read-aloud learning
    • rhyming
    • sight words
  • reading
    • books
    • comprehension
      • activating schema
      • connecting
      • inferring
      • predicting
      • questioning
      • retelling / summarizing
      • visualizing
    • concepts of print
    • environmental print
    • fluency
    • non-fiction
    • spelling
    • word building
    • word consciousness
    • vocabulary
  • writing
    • creative writing
    • grammar
    • informative writing
    • tripod grip
  • STEM
    • math
      • computation
      • counting
      • numbers
    • science
  • Activities
    • birthdays
    • cooking
      • new for us foods
    • crafts
    • foundations
      • colors
      • critical thinking
      • fine arts
      • listening
      • pretend play
      • sorting
      • speaking
    • holidays
      • new year’s
      • valentine’s day
      • president’s day
      • st. patrick’s day
      • april fool’s day
      • easter
      • mother’s day
      • teacher appreciation
      • father’s day
      • july 4th
      • halloween
      • thanksgiving
      • christmas
    • family life
      • family fun
      • giving back
      • lunchbox love notes
      • school
    • indoor activities
    • outdoor activities
  • digital literacy
    • computer time
    • iPad for learning
  • Shop
home / Blog / Activities / holidays / halloween / Halloween Learning Ideas — Silly and (not so) Scary Literacy, Math and Science

Halloween Learning Ideas — Silly and (not so) Scary Literacy, Math and Science

This page may contain affiliate links. Learn More.

August 13, 2024 by Teach Mama 16 Comments

1.3K shares
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print

Halloween can be full of fun for kids but, with a few ideas, it can also be a time for learning. Math, science and literacy learning can be a fun part of your Halloween this year!

Collage of Halloween images.  A Jack-o-Lantern, candy eyeballs, apples in a tub of water, word search and ghost Bingo.

Halloween is in the air, and though we’ve just gotten around to decorating our house, we never do a lot of scary Halloween over here.

We always stick to the silly or tricky.

Halloween Learning Ideas for Your Little Monsters and Ghouls

But, like any holiday, I truly believe that there are opportunities for sneaking in a little bit of fun learning for your kiddos. And this candy-filled holiday is no exception!

It’s the very best of both worlds when your kids can have a whole lot of holiday fun plus some fun learning tucked in here and there!

Halloween is a perfect time to do some crazy fun stuff with your kids that maybe you wouldn’t do other times of the year. What other time of the year can you go to the grocery store dressed up as a space alien? Or flash your vampire teeth at people? Yes, I have done both!

Halloween Literacy Learning:

  • Halloween GHOST Bingo: Cute—not spooky—Halloween friends cover the boards and kids can practice learning the letters of ā€œGHOSTā€ while they use their eyes to match up the Halloween friends on cards to the ones on their boards.
  • Halloween Word Search: Perfect for emerging readers, word searches provide a super platform for really looking for letters. Add some Halloween words, and kids love playing detective!
  • Halloween Lunchbox Love Joke Notes: Bring some fun into lunchtime–or anytime–with fun, silly, and totally not-spooky Halloween Lunchbox Joke Notes.
Book covers for Room on a Broom with a witch and a cat riding a broomstick and Arthur's Halloween.

Some of our favorite Halloween books:

  • Room on the Broom, by Julia Donaldson — the witch’s hat blows away, and while trying to find it, the witch picks up more and more friends, all who want to ride on her broom. We love the language in this book, and it’s super-silly.
  • Too Many Pumpkins, by Linda Arms White and illustrated by Megan Lloyd — a sweet story about lonely and cranky Rebecca Estelle who loathes pumpkins only to have her yard taken over by pumpkins one season. In an attempt to rid herself of these pesky gourds, she bakes tons of pumpkin goodies and draws her entire town to her house for a pumpkin party.  Read it to chat about inferring like we did; read it and love the illustrations, characters, and story
  • Arthur’s Halloween, by Marc Brown — as a mom I love the lesson in this book, no never judge a book by its cover, but with a fun Halloween theme, Arthur and D.W. don’t let us down!
  • Zen Ghosts, by Jon J. Muth — the children in this story learn from their panda friend Stillwater on Halloween–and who doesn’t need a little zen on a spooky holiday?
  • Berenstain Bears Ghost Walk & Berenstain Bears Trick-or-Treat& Berenstain Bears & the Prize Pumpkin — All of our Berenstain bear friends during Halloween and fall, these three have been a permanent part of our at-home library for years and years. Our favorite? Hard to choose.  . .
Halloween snacks; "ghost" bananas on a stick, candy corn in a jar and carrot fingers.

Halloween Math Learning:

  • halloween party estimate game 2024: a perfect quick game to help kids practice number sense and estimating, it’s as easy as can be to get kids psyched about counting and numbers when candy corn or spiders are involved! All you need is the game sheet, a jar and some candy corn or plastic spiders. You get the idea!
  • Halloween Candy Math and Literacy Games: Sorting, counting, and more—who knew Halloween candy could provide so much learning fun?!
  • Cats, Hats, and Pumpkins Grid Games: Give your kiddos a chance to practice fine motor skills, counting, and practice that important literacy skill of left-right return sweep
  • Leafy Grid Games: Same kind of literacy and math prep but with Leafy Grid boards.
  • Blank Grid Games: Use Halloween stickers or stamps as markers to continue the spooky fun.

Halloween Science Learning:

  • Candy Experiments: Use that leftover Halloween candy for some super-fun science experimenting!
  • Halloween Treat-Making: Cooking is science for kids, so get them in the kitchen and have them help you make these super cute witches’ fingers, eyeballs, boogers on a stick, and frozen ghosts.
  • Dinner in a Pumpkin:  A perfect opportunity to show kids how crazy cool food can be, a fun Halloween tradition is dinner in a pumpkin!

That’s it! Just a few fun literacy, math, and science related Halloween learning opportunities for families and kids!

And if you need some Halloween class party help, check it out or feel free to leave links with your own favorite Halloween sites.

Happy, happy, happy Halloween!

PIN THIS FOR LATER

About the Author

Hi, I’m Patricia, an elementary teacher and reading specialist, turned homeschool mom. I also have a master's in psychology, specializing in children's issues. Read More…

Teach Mama: View My Blog Posts
Previous Post: « Easy Addition and Subtraction Math Game for Kids (Strike it Out)
Next Post: Halloween Joke Lunchbox Notes »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Janet Abercrombie says

    October 14, 2012 at 8:29 pm

    For older children, you can have students work with M&M probabilities. I recommend using the small snack-sized bags.

    Before opening the bag, ask “How many of each color do you think is in the bag?” See how close they were. Find the percentage of each color represented.

    Next, “Do you think all bags have the same amount of each color? If I opened another bag, would the percentages be the same?”

    “What percentage of each color do you think the M&M/Mars company makes? How many bags would we have to open to find out?”

    You can make charts and graphs with sample sizes. You can even have them email the company to see if there are, in fact, the numbers of M&Ms in each color are equal.

    Reply
    • amy says

      October 14, 2012 at 10:42 pm

      Janet! LOVE these ideas–huge thanks and you better believe we’ll be playing with M & M’s come Halloween! Awesome!!

      Reply
  2. Holly says

    October 16, 2012 at 11:32 am

    You always have lots of great ideas. I am going to pull out our fall grid games for some after school fun. My kiddos always look for forward to candy science experiments. They love it when they get pixie-sticks in their trick-or-treat bags because they are perfect for acid testing. You always remind me that it doesn’t take much to make time for learning at home. That’s why I love your blog! Thanks for inspiring parents.

    Reply
    • amy says

      October 16, 2012 at 2:30 pm

      Thank you soooo much my friend. Means so mucho you have no idea!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Welcome to Teach Mama!

Patricia Moore profile image

Hi, I’m Patricia, an elementary teacher and reading specialist, turned homeschool mom.

After our three kids graduated high school, I went back to school to become a marriage and family therapist who has specialized in children’s issues.

I love helping families find all the fun and deep learning possible for their children.

I’m so glad you’re here on Teach Mama and I look forward to helping you on your journey!

Search

Trending Posts

shrinky dink flag bracelet: super-cool patriotic craft

shrinky dink flag bracelet: super-cool patriotic craft

july 4 fun games from teachmama.com

july 4th activities for kids & families

july 4th funky sparkle flag pen

ringin’ in the 4th with sparkle pens and flag treats

Footer

Hi! I'm Patricia.

nice to meet you!

My family currently lives in Central Texas. A few of my favorite things include baking, teaching, and working with children.

Learn More

Sign Up for Email Updates!

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

Copyright © 2025 · Niche Theme

Copyright © 2025 Ā· Teach Mama Ā· Privacy Policy Ā· Log in

  • 8
1.3K shares