Playful Mathematical Inquiry Halloween Experiences

Halloween is only a few days away! I can feel the excitement in the air. My own children, who are teenagers, have been scouring the house looking for the Halloween candy which I have had to hide. These are fun times for many children who celebrate Halloween! Children naturally engage in the world of make-believe in their daily play and Halloween highlights this. When I was teaching in the classroom, I would enjoy harnessing my students' excitement to plan motivating math learning experiences using their interest in Halloween. So similar to last year, when I shared some of my favourite ideas, this year I created some new playful, mathematical inquiry based Halloween experiences. I will be visiting a couple of classes this week to try these out, but I won't get a chance to try all of them. If you happen to try any of these ideas with your class, I would love to hear how they went. Please consider adding a comment/photos below. 

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Halloween Estimation Clipboards:

 Many of you know, I am a big fan of Steve Wyborney's  "Estimation Clipboard". For those of you unfamiliar with this, please check out Steve's site and/or my previous blogpost. 

Directions:

• Share the initial image and ask students to estimate "How many?" aloud. After you have heard a few responses, reveal the amount. This information will move to the top left of the screen.
• The next slide will show another highly similar image. Again ask your students "How many?" Since the images are similar, students now have some prior knowledge which they can tap into when estimating. After you have heard several estimates, reveal the answer.
• Following the reveal of how many items were in the second image, a third highly similar image is shared, but this time rather than share estimates aloud, students are asked to record their estimates.​ ​Once they have recorded their estimates Steve recommends a partner talk where students 1)share their estimate and 2) explain to their partner why they chose the number they did. What strategies or reasoning did they apply? 
• Follow the same format for the fourth and final image.

After all the images have been shown, ask your students what strategies they used to estimate. You may wish to record these on a chart that students can refer to for future estimation activities. 

Halloween Estimation Clipboards:

When creating these clipboards, my intention was to create images that would encourage students to visualize 'doubling' 'halving' to help them with their estimates. 

SetAto20.pptx
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SetBto100.pptx
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SetCto100.pptx
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SetDto200.pptx
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Steve Wyborney's Summarized Instructions

estimation_clipboard_instructions.pdf
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Halloween Three Act Tasks

Another inquiry-based approach I am fond of is 'Three Act Tasks'. For those unfamiliar with this, I recommend you check out my Three Act Task page and blogpost. There you will learn about the pioneers of this approach, the learning involved, and instructions on how to use these with your classes.

Below I am sharing some Halloween Three Act Tasks I have created. I am also including my thinking behind each task in the lesson design so that BC teachers can see how this aligns/connects with our own context. 

ROCKETS THREE ACT TASK:
Content - Two-digit by two-digit Multiplication Three Act Task

rockets_three_act_task.pdf
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rocket_three_act_task.pptx
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HALLOWEEN CANDY THREE ACT TASK (Late Primary/Early Intermediate):
Content - Addition of many addends to 100. Numbers were intentionally selected to highlight finding partners to make tens. 

halloween_candythree_act_task.pdf
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halloween_candy_three_act_task.pptx
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Halloween Candy Three Act Task (Early Primary)
Content - Addition to 20

halloween_candy_to_20.pdf
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halloween_candy_to_20.pptx
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HALLOWEEN SCARIES THREE ACT TASK:
Content - Addition to 10

halloween_scaries_three_act_task.pdf
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halloween_scaries_three_act_task_.pptx
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Wishing you all a very Happy Halloween!