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Some SWEET Math Lessons for All that Halloween Candy!

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Hey there and Happy Halloween to those of you who take part!

 

I hope you’ve had a great math week and that things have been fun, but not that so-fun-that-we-just-can’t-do-our-work, Mom, kind of thing. You know what I’m saying?

 

I’ll have a full report for you next week on just how many kids joined the All-Right and 30-5 Clubs during October. But for now, let’s focus on the important stuff.

 

THE CANDY.

 

If you’re like most folks with kids, come tomorrow morning, it’s going to look like a Hershey’s factory has set up shop in your kitchen. So what do you do with all that candy, when it’s more than anyone could ever possibly eat? Why, you make some fun math games out of it! Here are some ideas I have about how you can can make tomorrow’s math lessons extra sweet.

For the little kids:

  1. Count candy pieces.
  2. Sort them by group (chocolate, just sugar, stuff with nuts, candy that melts, candy that doesn’t melt, etc.)
  3. Graph candy by type–this goes so well with the early years of Saxon, but is fun for kids of all ages!
  4. Weigh candy. Predict and then see if your predictions are correct!
  5. Compare weights. Compare one kids’ candy weight to the weight of another child’s candy. Compare weights of equal pieces of different types (say, 10 Starburst vs. 10 Snickers). Or, compare to the weight of some healthy foods you have in your house!

 

For older kids:

  1. Make a scale drawing of a candy wrapper of their choosing. Here’s how to do it.
  2. Use candy like skittles or M&M’s to teach a lesson on probability.

 

And of course, there’s also a number of science-y things you can do with candy. Here are some ideas to explore:

  1. How fast will a type of candy dissolve in different liquids like water, oil, vinegar, soda?
  2. See what happens when you mix skittles and water (it’s pretty cool, I gotta say):
  3. Did you know you can run a simple test to see if your candy has acid in it? This is a great way to practice hypothesizing and even graphing work.

I hope you’ve had a fun time this week, and that your candy ends up being a sweet treat not just for your kids, but for your math class tomorrow and in the coming days, too! Happy Halloween!

Talk to you soon,

Nicole the Math Lady