Halloween Eye Candy - Infographics

Source: Infographics Archive (detail)

A year ago, we published our post about Halloween infographics. Since that time, the proliferation of infographics for all topics has grown in leaps and bounds, and with it a whole array of new visual treats has entered the pool. Halloween is revered by kids young and old. As teachers, it’s perhaps one of the hardest days to keep their focus, particularly for elementary and middle school students. For that reason, integrating these colorful, data-loaded infographics into lessons keeps them engaged and helps quiet the distracted.

So here are a few of our new favorites. Oh, TheHorror! is a clever arrangement of popular horror films within a bloodshot eyeball. The radial chart includes the rotten tomato critics’ ratings, movie budget, and box office revenue. It’s great for lessons in the humanities, with crossover connections to economics and math. It could be a discussion opener for ranking current movies that relate to pop culture in the ranking, too.

Source: Pronto (detail)

Halloween Freaky Nomics includes data on spending, from candy to costumes, using graphs and charts. Check out the “costume inspiration” bar chart comparing online and offline places adults seek ideas. Social media seems to have the edge. For more integration of financial information, take a look at Tricks, Treats and Too Many Bills for a “scary snapshot of Halloween spending.”

Source: Degree Se

Of course no discussion about Halloween would be complete without candy. For this we recommend Trick-Or-Treat. Kids will love the visual, candy bar charts using Starburst and Smarties. It’s a novel design to show the percentage of adults who celebrate the day, including the dollar amount they’ll spend on everything from cards to costumes. It screams math.

Last but not least, take a look at HalloweenStatistics 2012 Creepy Calculations for ideas related to economics, social studies, and language arts. Find out facts about the best and worst cities for trick-or-treating, or the ranking of the most popular Halloween songs, films, books, and games.

Source: Visual.ly (detail)

With all of these infographics, the learning opportunities are endless. They also afford a chance to compare the data for possible discrepancies in the information.

Let's not forget the media literacy applications as well. Branding and marketing this holiday have pushed Halloween to be a major money-making industry, one that contends with other major holidays.