October is an exciting month for many children, as Halloween offers children an exciting time to be someone or something different. But for most children, the best part of Halloween is the CANDY! Who doesn’t love all access to as much candy as you can eat! This Halloween we can use children’s love of candy to integrate some math! Here’s some ideas that you can do with your child.
- Counting candy – How many candies do we have in total? How many of this type? etc.
- Sorting candy – Sorting by shape, colour, name, letter sounds, there’s so many ways to sort candy!
- The Switch Witch – Trading candy for monetary value (i.e. one candy = 5 cents, 1 cent, 10 cents) and skip counting can be used to find out how much they earned.
- Graphing – Using the sorted candy to graph how much they got in total of each type.
- Experiment with manipulatives – Use manipulatives like base tens blocks, for example chips could represent hundreds blocks, chocolate bars could represent tens blocks and small pieces of candy like gum could represent one’s blocks.
- Word Problem – Create realistic word problems that involve your child and candy!
- Candy fractions – Use candy to show fractions, print or draw basic boxes with even sections, use the candy in each fraction to show how many you could have, and how many you have (i.e. “We have 2/5 candies).
- Estimation – Use candy that has several pieces inside. Have the child guess how much candy they think is in the box, or how much candy they have in total. Then count to check.
- Create a candy shop – Have your child build a candy shop where they can “sell” their candy. It is a great way to bring in some financial literacy.
- Measurement – Use a certain candy as a unit of measurement (i.e. how many KitKats would it take to go across the floor)
