Manic Monday: Halloween Math

Sorting, and counting, and sequencing, OH MY!

I'm a nerd.  I'm probably raising my children to be nerds, but I can't help myself.  I LOVE, LOVE math.

So, we went to our church's harvest party. There was a large piñata FILLED with candy, and only 6 kids to gather it.  We came home with a ton of candy!  Last night I sorted out the stuff I'd rather my kids not have or that I thought they wouldn't like.  Doug got all the peppermint patties, andes, and junior mints.  And I took out jolly ranchers because they're like suckers without the sticks.  Choking hazard, plus super messy.  I'll eat those!

In the past, I've just sorted the candy myself, super fairly.  If there's an even number of a certain type of candy, I divide it between my kids, if there's one leftover, I take it and set it aside.  I was planning on doing that tonight after church, but decided to include the kids and nerd out with the whole thing.

Kees had SO much fun!  And Kora helped too.

First, we sorted.  I wrote down each type of candy and we wrote how many there were.  I did a little bit of TPR (total physical response) to make sure Kees knew all the names of the candies.  So I'd say, "Where are the snickers bars?"  And he'd point. Then I'd say, "Where's the laffy taffy? Then he'd point to them.  And so on, until I was pretty sure he knew what was what. That makes it easier when I had them put all the candy in one long line from least amount to greatest amount.  Since I had everything written down, I'd say, "Do the groups of 4 next, that's nerds, lemon heads, mike & ike, and  snickers."  Kora helped us with spacing the groups apart.  It was important to me, to have them in "groups", so I need there to be spaces so we could easily differentiate.  Once the LONG line of candy groups was made.  I asked Kees "How many groups of 1, and how many is that all together?"  We went through all the groups this way.  By using and emphasizing the word "groups" and "all together", I was hoping I would be preparing him for multiplication.  I know that's a long way off, but he latched right onto this concept!  Have I mentioned I love math.

Lining the candy up from smallest amount to largest amount. I had the kids put their hands down in between each group to leave spacing.

Kees finding the next group.

Kora was GREAT at this job!  Her tiny hand makes a great space between groups.

We counted ALL the candy, 81 pieces.

We took turns picking our candy.

Kora picked pink candy first.

Both kids decided to share with Doug all on their own.  Love that they like to share (for now).

Here's some of our work. 

Here's what's so fun about all this. We not only did math, but it's also pre-reading, reading, and writing.  Kora's not reading yet, but learning the names of the candies based on their packaging is pre-reading. Watching me write down all the names, shows the importance of writing, and print permanence.  When we look back over the list tomorrow, it says the same thing!

So, when you get that Halloween candy, think of ways to include math, reading, and writing.  If your kids are older you could have them make up problems using the chart you make, addition, subtraction, multiplication or division.  If there are 8 sour punch straws, how many would each child get if there are 2 in our family?  And so on and so on!  If your kids are older and not feeling the Halloween math, tell them they have to do the work to earn the candy.  Otherwise, mom/dad gets it all. :)

Craziest part about all of this, my kids didn't even get to eat any of this candy tonight.  Doug and I decided no sugar after 7 pm, just yesterday.  I was surprised how good their attitudes were about not getting to eat any of it.  But I did let them plan what their one piece will be, after lunch tomorrow. :)  They were satisfied with that.