Education Technology

Carving Out Some Halloween Math Fun

Posted 10/21/2022 by TI Staff

It’s that chilling time of the year again — no, not testing season — Halloween! Lift spirits in the classroom with these three spooky, fun math activities. Students will never know you tricked them into learning math concepts. Plus, we’ve included a costume template that will make you look boo-tiful! Time to get this party startled!

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Give ’em pumpkin to talk about!

Learn how to use your graphing calculator and equations to “carve” a jack-o’-lantern on an imported image on a TI-84 Plus CE or TI-Nspire™ CX family graphing calculator. Middle school students can use the Draw features to “carve” the pumpkin. For TI-84 Plus CE users, use a program that “draws” the pumpkin, and then use equations or the Draw features to create a jack-o’-lantern. Or have your students create a boo-tiful ghost using equations or the Draw features.

Tom Reardon teaches you how-to in this fun webinar.



Downloadable pumpkin carving worksheets with three lesson types.

Get the pumpkin carving activity files for an easy classroom start »

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Calculating cats and bats

Download these premade activity sheets, and choose the activity style right for your classroom. Students can determine functions that made an image or practice transformations to complete a picture, or challenge them to create their own cat or bat design.

Special thanks to Sarah Hultman for helping create these worksheets and cat math and to Jerome White for bat math!

Downloadable Calculating Cats and Bats worksheets with three lesson types.

Download the Calculating Cats and Bats worksheet bundles »

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I want to teach your BRAAIINS!

Add a creepy twist to an exponential growth lesson with zombies! Exponential growth and decay are often taught in the context of human populations, but what about zombie populations? This STEM Behind Hollywood “Zombie Apocalypse” activity explores the concept of exponential growth in the context of a zombie apocalypse.

Trigger an outbreak of learning and infectious fun in your classroom.

Check out the full zombie activity and download files »

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Video thumbnail of a woman in a TI-84 Plus costume. Text on left side says DIY Calculator Costume

Bonus: DIY Calculator costume!

This calculator costume is eerie-sistible to math teachers. Download the template and instructions for an easy DIY costume. Follow the basic instructions, or customize your costume to fit your own spooky style. Add an intense math screen for an extra fright!

DIY calculator costume template for a boo-tique look!

Get the calculator costume template »

Have a happy Halloween!