Candy Corn Math

For the Math Monday link-up, hosted by Joyful Learner, we enjoyed some candy corn themed, math. Shocking, I know.

First, as a nod to Patricia Reilly Giff's The Candy Corn Contest (click here, to see our review of the book), we had an estimation contest of our own, last night.

A estimated there were 100 candy corn in the jar.
C guessed 5.
G guessed 200.
T guessed 300.
D guessed 50.
And, E guessed 200, causing G to register a complaint of cheating.

The actual number, was 221. I made the children count them, to be certain. Luckily, commercially manufactured candy corn are not nearly as tasty as the homemade kind, slowing down the sampling.

Then today, I dumped a bag of Harvest Mix, candy corn, and pumpkins, into a bowl for the younger girls to sort.

When they had them all sorted, we worked on patterns. I labeled the different colored corn, and pumpkins, A, B and C, and demonstrated different types of patterns - "ABBA", "ABA","ABC", and so on. Finally, I asked the girls to make patterns of their own.

And, when they were tired of patterns, I gave them a couple of dice, one marked with letters on stickers...

...for a game of "Grab the Candy Corn" printed from Mathwire (Joyful Learner is correct in saying you should check that site out - it's great).

The game involves number recognition, charting, and ordered pairs, using tally marks, counting by fives, and telling greater, and lesser numbers.

It was decidedly easier for E (age 5), than C (age 4) to understand, but they both enjoyed playing it quite a bit.

It's great to be a homeschooler.