I snuck a math activity (inspired by Joanne Ryder's First Grade Valentines) into our Valentine's box today, loading it with small boxes of Sweethearts candy, graph paper, a calculator, a scale, and writing utensils. The children weren't sure if they were happy to see math supplies in the box, but they were intrigued by the scale, and very interested in the candy.I had the younger children open their boxes, and weigh several of the candies on the scale. The older children figured the average weight of each candy.
They weighed an empty box...
...and their full boxes...
...and used that informtation, and the calculator, to estimate how many candies each of them had in their boxes.
Then, while the younger children sorted...
...and graphed their candies by color...
...and copied their favorite candy messages down on paper...
...the older children checked their estimation by counting their candies, then sorting them by color, and expressing the information in terms of fractions, percents, and computerized graphs...
...walking through the Microsoft Works tutorial, to learn how to enter their information into a spreadsheet, and then graph it in various ways - pie, bar or line. They liked that part of the lesson almost as much as the candy.
It's great to be a homeschooler.
Linked with Math Monday at Love2Learn2Day.
9 comments:
Can you teach me math? I think I need a refresher course!
I've been following your blog for several months. I'm not sure how I stumbled upon it because I don't have kids or homeschool, but I find it fascinating to read about what you're doing with your children. This post answered a question that I had recently. Many of your posts focus on the youngest girls and I've been wondering what the older children are learning. Thanks for sharing.
How close did they come to the right answer by estimating weight?
Ticia - They all estimated one candy, or one half a candy, low.
What fun! You know this is my type of thing!
How neat that you could construct a lesson for all age groups with the same materials! I am so tempted with your digital scale.
I have been following all your Valentine fun. It all looks like so much fun.
I love how you can make a lesson work for both younger and older kids!
What a fun idea! Love all the "sweet" math activities!
We are reviewing finding averages right now, and I can totally see finding the average weight of different types of candy. Thanks for the inspiration!
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