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.
You've convinced me to go check it out!
ReplyDeleteI love candy math lessons.
Great ideas. My kids will do anything for candy so I will be doing this over the next few days!
ReplyDeleteThese are great ideas, thank you!
ReplyDeleteI love all the seasonal fun you guys have. What could be better for math!
ReplyDeleteI am so shocked to see candy corn on your blog :) I have to check Mathwire more often - I agree with everyone that it's great, but in the past it was not as age-appropriate. I guess we are slowly getting there. The other day I wanted Anna to do some ABC patterns with beads, but she informed me that she wants to ABBCD pattern and she proceeded to repeat it enough time to prove to me that she understands this perfectly.
ReplyDeleteIt's like digging for treasure and my, my I feel like I found great treasure here! I was not going to buy any candy but you've convinced me that candy corns is a must this fall! Thanks for sharing and linking up with math links! Love love your way of teaching!!
ReplyDeleteOh, we are doing candy corn this week too! THANK YOU for the Math Wire link- that will make the candy corn fun for ALL of my kiddos...Once again, you have come to my rescue!
ReplyDeleteLove anything to do with using candy in math. These are fun ideas. I especially loved the estimating and patterning!
ReplyDelete