Halloween is one of those times when students get excited and you need something a little different, but math class still has to be math class.
That’s why I love activities that let kids have some Halloween fun while still practicing an important skill. This Halloween multiplication craft gives students a chance to create their own silly monster while showing what they know about multiplication arrays.
And yes, the monster’s eyes aren’t just for decoration. They are the most important part of the craft.
A Halloween Math Craft That Actually Practices Multiplication
With the Build-a-Monster activity, students create a monster using a body, legs, ears, horns, and a mouth. Then they add the most important part: the eyeballs.
Instead of placing the eyes randomly, students arrange them into an assigned multiplication array.
For example, a student assigned 3 × 4 creates 3 rows with 4 eyes in each row.
Suddenly, that very strange-looking monster is also showing a multiplication model.
Students finish the activity by completing a Monster Fact Card that connects the array to the multiplication equation.
It’s a simple way to combine a Halloween math craft with meaningful multiplication practice.
Let Students Make Their Monsters Their Own
One of my favorite parts of this activity is that the monsters don’t all end up looking the same.
Students can choose from different:
- monster bodies
- legs
- ears
- horns
- mouths
They can mix and match the pieces, choose their own colors, and give their monster a name.
The templates are there to make the activity easy, but students can also create their own monster parts. If someone decides her monster absolutely needs a bow and giant feet, I say go for it.
The one part that does need to stay organized is the eyeball array. The eyes should be arranged in clear rows and columns so students can easily identify the multiplication represented.
Choose How Much Prep You Want to Do
I know teachers have very different opinions about crafts and prep, so I wanted this one to have options.
The Color-Pop Version
For a quicker classroom activity, copy the monster bodies and parts onto brightly colored paper.
Students choose their pieces, cut them out, and assemble their monsters. They can still color the eyeballs and add their own details, but they don’t have to color an entire page-sized monster body.
This option takes a little more prep before class, but students can complete the actual craft more quickly.
The Low-Prep Version
If you would rather hit print and move on with your day, copy everything on white paper.
Students color their own body and monster parts before cutting and assembling them.
This takes students longer, but it cuts down on teacher prep.
Either way works. It really depends on whether you’d rather spend a little more time at the copier or a little more class time on the craft.
And Then There Are Googly Eyes…
Printable eyeballs are included, but there is another option if you happen to have googly eyes sitting in a cabinet.
Students can use googly eyes to build their arrays instead, which makes this Halloween multiplication craft a little more fun.
Is this the budget-friendly version? Not necessarily.
Is a monster covered in organized rows of googly eyes pretty cute? Absolutely.
This option is for teachers who already have googly eyes on hand or don’t mind picking some up.
Different Ways to Assign the Arrays
The goal of this activity isn’t to see how many eyeballs students are willing to cut out.
It’s to show that they understand arrays.
That’s why the multiplication facts stay fairly small and manageable.
The activity includes three levels of assignment cards. The multiplication itself does not get harder from one level to the next. Instead, students have to do a little more thinking about the information they are given.
For example, one student might be told exactly how many rows to make and how many eyes belong in each row.
Another might be given the multiplication equation.
A third might need to use the information on the card to determine how the array should be built.
This makes it easy to use the same craft with students who need different levels of support.
A Fun Way to Check Array Understanding
The finished monsters are cute enough for a Halloween bulletin board, but the craft also gives you an easy way to see whether students understand the math.
Can they:
- organize objects into equal rows and columns?
- build an array that matches a multiplication fact?
- identify the number of rows?
- identify how many objects are in each row?
- connect the model to a multiplication equation?
You can see quite a bit of student thinking from one googly-eyed monster.
More Halloween Multiplication Array Practice
The Build-a-Monster craft is part of my Halloween Multiplication Arrays resource.
In addition to the Halloween multiplication craft, students can practice arrays in several different ways with:
- interactive Google Slides
- printable array task cards
- a matching activity with arrays, repeated addition, and multiplication equations
- array challenge cards with missing rows or missing numbers in each row
- student recording sheets
I wanted the activities to go beyond showing students one array after another and asking the same question every time. Instead, students work with arrays in different ways and make connections between the visual model and multiplication.
If you teach multiplication arrays in October, adding a little monster-building fun is an easy way to make that practice feel seasonal without giving up the math.
Multiplication arrays meet Halloween fun, and the results may have quite a few eyeballs.
