Spooktacular Games for a Brainy Halloween
We understand that parents may be dreading Halloween when they think about the amount of sugar their children will be consuming. Talk about quadrupled energy levels! However, we at Kumon we like to look at every occasion as a potential learning opportunity. How, you ask?
Well, we know one thing’s for sure: children love candy. On an average day, as parents, if we offer our children candy, it’s because they’ve worked hard and candy serves as a motivating reward. So why does Halloween have to be any different? Why not make children earn this candy the same way they would on any other day?
Trick-or-Treating with Math
Use trick-or-treating as an opportunity to test your children’s math skills. Every time they ring the doorbell, ask them simple math questions. Make these fun questions like adding or subtracting the first and second digit of the home’s address or ask them to pick a handful of candy from their bag and count the number of treats they have in their hand. Then, they have to take that number and multiply or divide it by a number of your choice.
For every question they get right, they’ll get a candy in their trick-or-treat baskets!
Pumpkin Math
Another fun game to play at home uses a few pumpkins and some basic math skills. You can involve a few of your child’s friends for this activity. Cut open the pumpkin and ask the children to estimate how many seeds are in the pumpkin and then they’ll count the number of seeds to determine whose estimate is the closest to the actual number.
You can also use the pumpkins to estimate weight. Children will take turns passing around the pumpkins and guess how much they weigh. Incorporate additional math practice by asking the children to determine the difference between the actual weight and their closest prediction.
What games can you come up with to make Halloween a learning experience? Let us know in the comments section below!
To find out how else you can integrate learning in children’s everyday lives, visit Kumon’s blog.