[Our October math activities are available for third, fourth, and fifth grade.]
Welcome back for October’s issue of Monthly Math Activities! Now that you have accumulated three months of activities for your students, staying organized will be important as you still have seven more sets of activities to add to your collection.
As teachers, we help our students develop strong organizational skills in order to keep their work spaces tidy, know where their materials are located, and present their knowledge in a logical, organized way.
It’s also important as an educator to find an organizational style that works for you. I’ve known teachers who put everything in binders, others who swear by their filing cabinets, and those who use catch-all folders or tubs and bins to keep things tidy. Yes, there are those of us who love their piles too, but we’ll skip those for now.
For those of you who are binder people, you’re going to love the added freebie this month. Printable in both color and black and white is a binder cover and spine perfect for a 1″ – 3″ binder. I like to use plastic tabs that have pockets so I don’t have to punch holes in everything or open the binder every time I want to take something out or put it away.
I like to punch holes in the answer keys, which can stay in the binder and put master copies in the pockets to pull out quickly and run copies. Clear three-hole pencil pouches are perfect for storing reusable items like playing cards for centers.
What if you’re not a binder person? That’s okay. Read the 4th grade and 5th grade October blog posts for more organizational tips and ideas.
Already organized? Congrats, it’s time for a deeper look into this month’s activities. Have fun teaching!
Let’s take a closer look at what October’s bundle includes.
- Fall Math Facts
- Hidden Pumpkin Problems
- Corn maze Multiplication & Division
- Trick-or-Treat Rounding
- Spooky Shape Sorting
- Candy Craze Comparison Game
- Dia de los Muertos – Color by Number
- Halloween Logic Puzzle
Fall Math Facts
No matter where your students are at, there’s something for everyone here. There are 6 different levels to choose from as students work on multiplication skills. From finding products, to filling in a multiplication chart, to matching there’s enough variety to keep students engaged for it all. Use one at a time as you teach the facts or make a packet for students to work through over time.
- x 0-2
- x 5 & 10
- x 3 & 6
- x 4 & 8
- x 7 & 9
- x mixed
Hidden Pumpkin Problems
Word problems made fun!
This activity is great to teach how to solve word problems and write equations or to practice independently if you’ve already been working with word problems this year.
First, students read, write an equation, and solve 8 basic multiplication and division word problems. Then, they find the equations hidden in a number search below.
Corn Maze Multiplication & Division
Multiplication is a BIG deal in 3rd grade. The more opportunities students have to practice, the better.
Students make their way through a corn maze finding multiplication or division equations and recording all 20 equations on the side of their page.
For your struggling students, this activity might be paired with a multiplication facts table, which can help with division as well.
Trick-or-Treat Rounding
Sometimes my students groan at rounding. A few never see the point, as they’d rather just solve the exact problem. However, rounding and estimating have their place and are great life skills as an adult.
In this activity, students cut, match, and glue rounded estimates to problems including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
Spooky Shape Sorting
Keep the scissors and glue handy! Here’s another sorting activity.
Working with shapes and their attributes is a great skill to practice periodically throughout the year, and there’s no need to feel like you have to wait until you teach a lesson on it. In this activity, students will encounter triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, and hexagons.
If you’re like me and love to sneak in learning when and wherever you can, this would also be a great time to talk about numeric prefixes (uni-, bi-, tri-, quad-, etc.)
Candy Craze Comparisons
This game is great for centers, whole class, or small groups and is played with two or more players.
Each player needs a place value mat with 4 spaces. Players take turn drawing cards with the digits 1-9 trying to make the highest number possible. (You can print and cut or use regular playing cards).
Students love this game due to its combination of luck and skill. Each time you pick a card, you have to place it on your mat, knowing once it’s down, it cannot move. After all mats are filled, numbers are recorded and compared. If you’re playing with more than 2 players, students can order them from least to greatest.
In the higher level of this game, students make 2 numbers, add, then compare the sums.
Dia de los Muertos Color by Number
While technically Dia de los Muertos is in November, it’s included in October so you can decorate your classroom ahead of time if you want.
This activity doubles as student practice and classroom decorations. For the main activity, students partition shapes and label unit fractions. Those answers are used for a Color by Number Skull that can be cut out and displayed in the classroom.
Bonus Alert!! There’s an additional bonus activity to make papel picado (pierced paper) artwork to hang up in your room too. You can print on white paper and have students write fractions on a number line, color, and cut. You can also print on brightly colored paper, label fractions, cut, and display.
Halloween Logic Puzzle
Best for last?
I LOVE logic puzzles. The harder and more complicated, the better. However, if your students are new to logic puzzles, this is a great place to start.
Halloween tricksters have taken over the numbers in these logic puzzles. Students use clues to figure out which characters are parading as which digits. In the lower level, there are only 5 digits to figure out, and more than enough clues to solve the entire puzzle. The higher level has 9 digits in disguise and will take a bit more mental energy to solve.
Happy Halloween!
October Math Freebie Worksheet
Fill out the form below to receive a free October Math Worksheet!
View the Grade Level Bundles
Purchase the bundles and save!
- Monthly themed games, puzzles, riddles, coloring, and more!
- 2 levels for differentiation
- BW & Color
- Answer Keys
Aviam
Love the spooky shape activity. Would love to get ahold of this document for my grade 3 classroom