Halloween is a fun time of year for children. Stores are overflowing with candy, there are crazy and colorful costumes all around, and it kicks off the string of holidays that dominate the calendar for the rest of the year. Want to join in the festivity, add some holiday decor, and practice math skills? Halloween pictures on Cartesian planes or math-fact mystery pictures are the perfect way to accomplish all three.
All you need are regular pencils and erasers; colored pencils, crayons, or markers; and themed coordinate grids, mystery pictures, or Halloween activities like those offered by Super Teacher Worksheets.
1. Coordinate Grid Pictures
These worksheets are perfect for students who've started to learn about ordered pairs. All you need to do is print off the list of coordinates and the accompanying sheet of graph paper. You can also have students use looseleaf graph paper and set up their own axes.
Students must graph the list of ordered pairs and connect them as they go, stopping when instructions tell them to stop and switch to a new component of the picture.
Once the picture is fully graphed and checked for accuracy, bust out the colored pencils, crayons or markers and complete the piece of mathematical art.
(If you and your students are up for a creative challenge, try the activity in reverse! Try to create a picture on a coordinate plane and record the necessary ordered pairs. They can swap artwork and see if their peers can complete their original works of art using their instructions.)
2. Math Mystery Pictures
If your students haven't learned about the coordinate grid—or if you're trying to practice other skills at the moment—then mystery pictures are the way to go!
Solve all the addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division problems scattered around the picture. Then use the key and the colored pencils, markers, or crayons of your choice to complete the picture. So long as the students' math was accurate, the final picture will be appropriately colored too.
When your students finish their worksheets, you'll have a bunch of holiday-themed artwork to hang up around the classroom or on a hallway bulletin board for their school peers to admire. Consider passing out a few copies of several different pictures so that there’s a variety of art afterward. Alternatively, make it a weekly activity leading up to the holiday, completing a different picture each time.
