Learn about Heaven this Halloween

Here is one last Halloween idea for you. Death is so prevalent in the whole Halloween extravaganza. Why not use that to your advantage in your home school? Learn about heaven!

• Study Revelation with your children. Yes, it is a challenging book of the Bible, but Kay Arthur has a study guide for children. Her study guides never disappoint.
• Read Heaven for Kids by Randy Alcorn.
• Read What about Heaven by Kathleen Bostrom. This book is written for younger children and includes Bible references in the back to further your study of heaven.

Think outside of the box this Halloween! Learn about heaven instead of buying into our culture’s ideas about death .

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Make Oobleck on Halloween

Count down to Halloween by exploring fluid mechanics in a multisensory way. Begin by reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss. (Oobleck is what the king has the magicians create, and it comes from the sky.) Then make Oobleck yourself. There are recipes all over the internet, but Make and Takes includes great photos. This is also a video that shows you many possible ways to experiment with Oobleck. (Please note that the video does not include any audio.)

Oobleck: A Non-Newtonian Fluid – The funniest bloopers are right here

Enhance your learning by discussing:

• the properties of liquids and solids,
• Non-Newtonian fluids,
• and what viscosity is.

Experimenting with Oobleck is a great way to get your kinesthetic, tacticle, and/or visual learners engaged in learning about liquids and solids. Have fun and get messy this Halloween!

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Day of the Dead

As Halloween approaches, I continue to think of ways to keep with the spirit of the season. One idea is to do social studies project on the Day of the Dead (el día de los muertos), a traditional Mexican holiday celebrated on November 1st (honoring deceased children) and 2nd (honoring deceased adults). Although towns all over Mexico commemorate the holiday differently, there are similarities in the events that each location holds. There are also religious overtones woven into the traditions.

• Research the holiday and create a brochure about the traditions of the day.
• Make a map of Mexico. Flag certain cities and explain how they commemorate el día de los muertos.
• Make your own sugar skulls or skull mask.
• Bake el pan do los muertos, a sweet bread baked in the shape of bones.
• Research and make your own catrina, a humorous figure of an upper class woman depicted as a skeleton. They are associated with the Day of the Dead.

Use this as an opportunity to learn a little about a different culture.

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Halloween Biology

This Halloween you can opt out of the ghosts and goblins, but still use the gory spirit of the season to your advantage in your home school. You can learn about the human body. Create a lapbook or a small book reporting on the different systems or just on a particular system.

• Study the skeletal system. Construct your own skeletons and name the major bones in the body. Dissect a whole fish from the grocery story and investigate its skeleton. Learn about x-rays. Research calcium and how it is absorbed.
• Study the heart. In your book you can name the parts of the heart, include a mini report on Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (the first heart surgeon), include data from heart rate experiments, etc.
• Study hematology. Blood is quite gory! Learn about red and white blood cells and about how blood coagulates. Investigate blood typing. Contact the Red Cross to find out more about blood donation.

The ideas are endless, but hopefully this will get you thinking outside of the box. Have fun!

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Home School Halloween Math

Even of you don’t participate in Halloween, you can have a little fun with it while staying away from the ghosts and ghouls. Here are a few tips for learning math in your home school this October.

Bag of Halloween Candy Math

• Estimate how many candies are in the bag. Discuss strategies for making accurate estimates (size of candies, counting a few, etc.) Then count them. Try putting the candies into groups of ten to make it easier to count.
• Make a graph of the different types of candies that come in the bag.
• Poll a sample of people to find out which candies from your bag are their favorites. Create a graph with the results.
• What shapes do candies come in? Can you find a sphere? A cube? A cylinder?
• Learn a little about fractions. Empty a bag of M & M’s. Find out what colors there are. Find out how many candies there are. Count how many of them come in each color. Now figure out the fraction of the total bag each color is.

Have fun eating some of the candy after doing some math!

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