Halloween Candy Math

November 1, 2012

Playful Learning: Halloween Candy Math

As parents, we are always confronted with the same dilemma the day after Halloween—What to do with the abundance of candy that our children collected the night before?

One way for children to relish in the sheer quantity of candy that is in their possession, without eating it, is to engage them with some Halloween candy math challenges.

One of the first things that the girls like to do when they come home from trick-or-treating is to dump out all of their candy and take stock of what they have gathered. I capitalized on this natural inclination by inviting them to sort and graph their candy. A while back I purchased this large chalkboard, which came in handy for this experience. You can also create graphs online, here.

It was an amazing process to observe, as they collaborated on how to best represent the data they were collecting.

Here is what they came up with…

Playful Learning: Halloween Candy Math

Venn Diagram Depicting Favorite Candy

Playful Learning: Halloween Candy Math

 Graph Representing Quantity of Each Type of Candy

Playful Learning: Halloween Candy Math

Graph Representing Different Color Wrappers

By the time the girls had finished, they were so proud of the their accomplishments that they did not even ask to eat the candy—for the time being.

More Good Uses for Halloween Candy…

I would love to hear your strategy for dealing with Halloween candy!

Mariah

Mariah

Founder at Playful Learning
Mariah Bruehl is a parent, educator, entrepreneur, and author of the book Playful Learning: Develop Your Child’s Sense of Joy and Wonder (Shambhala Publications, 2011). In 2008 Mariah brought her expertise online, creating the Parents’ Choice Gold Medal award-winning Web site Playful Learning. In 2011 she launched the Playful Learning Ecademy, which takes virtual-learning experiences to a new level by incorporating the best practices in education with engaging hands-on lessons, bringing parents and children together from all over the world into a unique, creative community environment.
Mariah

@playfullearning

Amazing Little eCourses for Life's Big Lessons—For Children + Their Grown-Ups
Simple tips for keeping toys organized and engaging for the little ones in our lives… http://t.co/Q8tI1PK22u - 17 hours ago
Mariah

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5 Comments

  1. ~ joey ~ said on November 1, 2012 #

    Sounds like you all had a fun night! :o )
    This year I offered a trick or treat shop…
    http://madebyjoey.blogspot.ca/2012/11/the-trick-or-treat-shop.html
    ~ joey ~

    Reply
  2. Zina said on November 1, 2012 #

    I love how the “both like” section is so full. This is an awesome post. So pinning! Thanks for sharing with us Mariah. I am always so inspired. So simple, so effective… love it.

    Reply
    • mariah said on November 2, 2012 #

      Thank you so much Zina! We all had a lot of fun…

      Reply
  3. Joseph Miller said on November 13, 2012 #

    This is fantastic!

    Reply

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