Somehow it is already the middle of October and Spooky Season is in full swing! I would absolutely love to hear about all of the fun Halloween-themed robotics and CS activities you are doing in your classrooms. And to start, here are some of my favorite Halloween themed resources and community posts from the past couple of years for you to check out!
First, this wacky video Audra and I did a couple of years ago with ideas for 123, GO, IQ and VR:
Or check out this post from @James_Nesbitt who shared fun literacy activities for VEX 123 using the book How I Met my Monster.
And,
@Tina_Dietrich shared a super creative VEX GO idea where students free-built spooky creatures and photographed them against a haunted background.
And, why not use the Art Canvas or Art Canvas+ Playground in VEXcode VR to draw something Halloween themed?
Have any other great ideas for Halloween-y engineering or coding! Share them here!
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@Aimee_DeFoe I absolutely love that video that you and @Audra_Selkowitz did, thanks for sharing it again 
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One of my all time favorite activities (featured in that video) is Trick or Treating with VEX 123!
You could totally do this with other robots as well - just dress them up in Halloween costumes, and code or drive them to ‘trick or treat’ at houses set up around a Field.
Expanding it beyond just 123 could make for a really fun mixed age group Halloween celebration! I’m picturing things like:
- A robot costume contest
- Creative coding challenges beyond just trick or treating - like dance party projects
- Prizes for collaboration and students working well together
- ‘Spooky Storytime’ where students tell ‘ghost stories’ about or with their robots
And I’m sure there are so many other creative ideas for how to bring robotics into Halloween celebrations out there - I can’t wait to read about them!
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@Aimee_DeFoe I’m working with a first grade teacher to have students build houses out of Legos to place along the 123 field. First grade isn’t ready for the coders/coder cards so we will have them code their robot to honk when they get to the house instead. Hopefully I will get a good video to share!
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Great idea! I look forward to seeing the video!
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A fun read aloud around this time of year is “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” Students are tasked with coding with touch around rocks to get to the candy at the end! If students code into a “rock,” then the student’s turn is over and their peer in their group gets a chance to code. The Kindergarten class was very engaged! (They could even print out a picture of Charlie Brown to attach to the art ring.) @Audra_Selkowitz @Aimee_DeFoe @Tina_Dietrich @Desiree_White-Price
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@Aimee_DeFoe @Audra_Selkowitz @Danielle_McCoy @Desiree_White-Price
Here are a few pictures and videos of our 4th graders completing the Monster Mash activity. I love how the kids are singing the Hokey Pokey while their monster is dancing!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vSbwV7wk7wXhksfaJL68nswjAM4CU7iB/view?usp=sharing
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AAAAAA! @Tina_Dietrich the joy in that video is EVERYTHING! Their monsters are so creative and fun - this was the perfect thing to read to start the week. Thanks for sharing!
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What a fantastic project! I love this oh so much!
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@Tina_Dietrich @Audra_Selkowitz @Aimee_DeFoe @Desiree_White-Price , this had me thinking! We could hold a codebase dance party and play the Hokey Pokey! (Like back in the roller skating days haha) How about Mother May I or Simon Says?? These would be cute lessons about following directions and can be used with 123 and GO!
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Great stuff and also a lot of great math you can teach in order to have the robots dance proportionally. @Tina_Dietrich This is very similar to what we were discussing previously with the 6th grade math classes. I’ve attached a PDF that has some more info. This was one of the very first projects I was involved with while I was still teaching - happy to chat more about the topic.
dancing with robots.pdf (413.0 KB)
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@Audra_Selkowitz Here are a few pics/videos of the 123 Halloween activities. In 1st grade, they read the book, Big Pumpkin. Students chose a character from the book to attach to their art ring. They programmed their robot to a variety of houses they built along the neighborhood streets. When they arrived at a house, the robot honked and they said “trick or treat” to get a piece of candy from inside the house.
In 2nd grade, students made 3 dimensional houses out of the milk cartons they get at lunch and cube patterns. After setting up the neighborhood and decorating their art rings, they used the coder cards to program their robot to a house and ring the doorbell to trick or treat and receive a piece of candy.
Trick or Treat 1
Trick or Treat 2
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This looks amazing @Tina_Dietrich! What a fantastic way to capture the excitement of Halloween, and still keep learning activities going! Hopefully this will be the start of a fun filled Halloween tradition now!
I love the structure to this lesson! It gives a lot of options to meet the kids at different levels of programming experience. I have been hesitant to break out the programming tablets, but I am excited to dive into them this year. They coding strips give the 123 so many more options to advance their codes. My students will really enjoy adding the sounds and using the sensor! Thanks for sharing!
@James_Nesbitt The Coder and Coder cards are one of my favorite things about 123! The ‘Act’ cards in particular I could see being really handy with your Halloween dance party and haunted adventures!
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I love this and incorporating the neighborhood is a great idea! I could see using this for when we do map work with the students later in our school year. Thank you for sharing!
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@Audra_Selkowitz & @Aimee_DeFoe,
One of the first grade classes at one of our schools put a very neat twist on the ‘Clean Your Room’ activity by collecting starbursts and putting them into their “treat bag.”
The possibilities are endless for the upcoming holidays!
Christmas- put toys into Santa’s sleigh
Valentine’s Day - collect letters to deliver to the mailbox
St. Patrick’s Day - collect gold coins to deliver to the Leprechaun’s pot
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Love it!! I also love the 123’s frog costume!
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This is awesome!! What a fun extension - and yes there are SO many ways you could connect this to holidays or even school events that students are interested in. Like if you had a winter concert coming up - do something with gathering music notes, then practice singing one of their songs.
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