One of the challenges of teaching is keeping our students engaged in October. The daily question is: IS TODAY HALLOWEEN? And for a month they ask us how much longer until Halloween. Why not have some fun with these DIY Halloween lessons and centers and keep students engaged all month long?
These DIY Halloween centers are EASY prep and cheap! Almost everything you’ll see here costs $1. The Dollar Tree and Target Dollar Spot are our best friends! So many fun and random things that we can turn into interactive, hands on learning centers and Halloween lessons!
Halloween Lessons: Ten Frames
First up are these interactive ten frames using ice cube trays or silicone molds. Most of the time these don’t have 10 spaces, but lucky for us, The Dollar Tree has some cute designs with 10 spaces!
First up is a vampire ten frame! The fang ten frames are from The Dollar Tree! The counters are just red acrylic gems. Any red counter will work. The spinner is a FREEBIE on our freebies page! To use, students simply spin. Say the number and make the number in the ten frames. Then, they write the number and make the ten frames on the ten-frame recording sheet.
Next up is a skeleton ten-frame! These amazing ten frames are skeletons! Seriously. Dollar Tree totally out did itself with these. The counters are skeleton erasers from Target. The cards are from our Skeletons And Ghosts counting creation! Students choose a card. Say the number. And make the number in the skeleton ten frame. Then they record the answer on the ten frame recording sheet.
Our next ten frame activity is something we use all year long. We simply use themed “giant” manipulatives for our “giant” ten frames!
Giant ten frames you say? Yep. It’s just construction paper divided into ten to make a giant ten frame!
We found these amazing sparkly spiders and glittery bats at The Dollar Tree so we’re using them on our giant ten frames!
Students choose a card. Say the number and build the ten frame. Then record their answer on the recording sheet.
The number cards are from our Bats Research Project and our Spiders Research Project!
Halloween Centers: Spider Counting
Next up is this fun spider counting game! The spider basket is from Dollar Tree. The spiders are from Walgreens. Students choose a card and count the number of spiders into the spider web.
Halloween Math: Counting Plates
Another one of our favorite low prep, interactive math centers is paper plate counting. You can find thematic plates for every holiday and season. All you need is to write the numbers on the plates and add some counters. BAM! Instant math centers!
The cat plates are from Hobby Lobby. The cat erasers are from Target!
The pumpkin plates are from Dollar Tree. Erasers from Target.
Spider Letters
We found these foam spiders at Dollar Tree. To make an uppercase and lowercase letters matching game, we used dot stickers. We wrote the letters on the stickers and stuck them to the spiders. The students match the letters!
Our dot stickers come from Amazon!
To get your free witch spinner, vampire spinner and ten frame recording sheet, visit our freebies page!
For more Halloween ideas, check out these posts:
Check out these Halloween Creations to bring engaging, hands on learning to your classroom!
