Halloween Puzzles and Activities

Here are some computational thinking-linked puzzles for Halloween to download and print.

halloween16x16solution

Colour by number Pixel Pictures

Colour each square (pixel) according to its number.

See our pixel puzzle page for lots more pixel puzzles.

“Maggot” logic puzzles

A pumpkin maggot logic puzzle
A maggot

Place 10 Maggots, one in each of the 10 separately coloured areas of the pumpkin picture so that there is only one maggot in each row and only one maggot in each column as well as no two maggots touching vertically, diagonally or horizontally.

Halloween creature odd-even Pixel Puzzle

Colour all the EVEN numbers black to find a hidden Halloween animal.

halloweencreature

Odd-land swamp Pixel Puzzle

In odd-land, solid ground is made of odd numbers (1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and so on). Blue swampy ground is made of even numbers. Colour the odd numbers to find a way through the swamp. Can you spot a pattern of colours to use to colour in the odd numbers?

oddswamp

See our odd-even page for more odd-even puzzles

Halloween Kriss-Kross

kriss-kross15-halloweenV2

Kriss-kross puzzles combine a love of words with a love of logic. Given a list of words of different lengths, you must fit them all in to the grid. See our Kriss-Kross page for more kiss-kross puzzles.

Make a Halloween Useless Machine Coffin

OpenCoffin

Make a Halloween “Useless Machine” coffin. Switch it on and the occupant reaches out of the coffin and switches it off again. See the CS4FN blog post for more on Useless Machines. Find the plans to make your own here.

Program A Pumpkin

Print, cut and assemble a paper pumpkin with windows cut out to display the different eyes and mouths on paper strips which slot in and move freely. Just a fun toy for younger kids but older kids can learn about the linked computer science and find out about real computing research.

The Program A Pumpkin Activity

This is based on our popular Emotion Machine activity – a simple card robot head that can be “programmed” to change emotions.

Halloween-linked cs4fn articles

Halloween Computing Jokes

Why do computer scientists get confused between Halloween and Christmas?

ANSWER:

Because Oct 31 = Dec 25

What is Dracula’s favourite Computer Science subject?

ANSWER

Cryptography

Why is the number 237 magical?

ANSWER:

Because it is Hex ED

Why are zombies good at programming?

ANSWER:

Because they are good at decomposition.

What do computers worry about most at Halloween?

ANSWER:

A byte from a vampire.

How did the first program die?

ANSWER:

It was executed.

How did the second program die?

ANSWER:

From a bug.

What is Dracula’s favourite control structure?

ANSWER

A COUNTer-controlled loop

What is Dracula’s favourite kind of computing?

ANSWER

He likes mobile computing too because it is all BATtery operated. Though before that he preferred BATch processing.

What is a ghost’s favourite data type?

ANSWER

Boolean

This blog is supported through EPSRC grant EP/W033615/1.