At SchoolAmanda Vaden
Halloween STEM activities for kids are a fun way to celebrate the holiday in school!

It seems like the minute the calendar flips over to October 1 all things creepy and mysterious take over. The air starts to cool, the pumpkins are spiced, and we all start the spectacular countdown to the 31st so we can don our best costumes and enjoy a bewitchingly good time.

But the fun and festivities leading up to Halloween don’t mean your students have to stop learning.  To get in the spirit of Spooky Season, we’ve compiled some ways you can incorporate a little STEM into Halloween activities for kids and your existing lesson plans to  get wickedly creative in the classroom. After all, learning is fun, and so is dressing up, snacking on too much candy, and doing the “Monster Mash.” 

Let’s explore four fun Halloween STEM activities you can do with Sphero robots and littleBits this year with your students. 

Halloween STEM Activities 

Halloween and STEM go together like spiders and webs, goblins and ghouls, and candy and corn. (Well, we’re not entirely sure about that last one.) Nevertheless, when you combine the best aspects of creativity and technology into fun Halloween activities, amazing ideas can come to life. 

Sphero Goes Trick-or-Treating 

In this activity created by mlosinski in the Sphero Edu app, students will create a basic Halloween-themed program for their Sphero BOLTs or Minis to simulate a night of trick-or-treating. 

For this simple getting-started activity, you will need a Sphero robot, like a BOLT or Mini, and a tablet (or other compatible device) to build out your program in the Sphero Edu block-based programming canvas. Additionally, you will need a meter stick and four plastic or paper cups to set up as “houses.” 

This activity is ideal for students in grades 6–8 and should take 1–2 hours to complete. 

Try it today! What fun trick-or-treating phrases will your Sphero robot say as it goes door to door?

Masquerade Ball

Your Sphero robot has been invited to a Halloween masquerade ball but has nothing to wear and is a little nervous about dancing in front of others.  In this activity created by bradlowell in the Sphero Edu app, can you create a costume for your robot and help it learn some new dance moves?

In this fun Halloween STEM Activity, kids will design a masquerade ball costume for their Sphero robots.

For this project, you will need a Sphero robot, like BOLT, an iPad or other device to connect to the Sphero Edu app and your robot, random costume designing material, e.g. plastic cups, blank paper, markers, tape, glitter, etc., and, of course, music.

This activity is ideal for students in grades 1–6 and should take one hour or less to complete. 

Try it and be sure to take videos of your robot dance party! 

Pumpkin Cart

Do you know the history of pumpkins and Halloween or how and when the tradition of carving jack-o-lanterns originated? In this activity, created by bradlowell in the Sphero Edu app, you will put the cart before the horse and put your students’ engineering skills to work by building a Sphero BOLT-powered pumpkin wagon.

Designing a Sphero pumpkin cart is a fun Halloween STEM activity for kids.

For this activity, you will need a Sphero BOLT robot, an iPad, iPhone, or other compatible device, cart-building materials like disposable plastic or paper cups, straws, popsicle sticks, wheels, and axles, candy corn pumpkins, a meter stick, and painter's tape or masking tape. 

This activity spans multiple age and grade levels making it ideal for students in K–8 and should take an hour or two to complete. 

Try it and let us know how many pumpkins your cart can carry. Challenge teams to see whose cart is the sturdiest! 

Hack Your Halloween with a littleBits Workshop

Calling all zombies, witches, phantoms, and mad scientists! If you’re looking for the ultimate Halloween STEM experience, look no further. Hack your Halloween using Sphero littleBits to invent a costume or prank, then create a scary movie featuring your masterpiece. The petrifying project possibilities are endless! 

For this workshop, you will need a littleBits kit (like the STEAM+ Coding Kit, STEAM Student Set, or Electronic Music Kit), craft materials like colored paper, glue dots, paper towel tubes, googly eyes, and craft sticks, Halloween decor like pumpkins, old costumes, cobwebs, and more. 

This Hack Your Halloween workshop is ideal for students in grades 3–12, in teams of 4–5. We recommend 2.5–3 hours for this workshop. If you want to spend more time practicing filmmaking and editing, try doing a two-part workshop - one to build and create with Bits and one for filming. 

We hope you’ll try this one and share your students’ creativity with us by tagging @Sphero with #SpheroHalloween.

With these fun Halloween STEM activities and other creative ideas, you’re sure to give your students “pumpkin” to talk about this year! 

Do you have a go-to Halloween STEM activity? Share it with us on social media by tagging @Sphero and using #SpheroHalloween! 

Find more Halloween and other STEM activities and inspiration in the Sphero Edu app or littleBits Classroom. View the entire collection of our programmable robots and kits today at sphero.com.

Happy Halloween!

At school