| Do all the sweeteners in candy corn leave you | | | | How much does each individual piece of candy |
| wondering whether or not it is healthy for your | | | | cost? That is an excellent math/life problem. |
| kids? In some ways, it just might be. Candy corn | | | | Which store charges the best price? Try weighing |
| just might boost thinking skills and improve grades! | | | | the candy corn - or maybe try weighing the kids |
| After letting them eat their fill, have your kids use | | | | after they have eaten a few pounds of it! |
| the sweet treats for some math exercises this | | | | A huge bucket chock full of the sweet little |
| Halloween season. | | | | rascals provides an excellent guessing/estimation |
| On a very basic level, the orange, yellow, and | | | | math exercise. And the whole thing could be |
| white parts can help teach colors and shapes. Mix | | | | awarded to the kid with the best guess. There is |
| them with some M&M's for a sorting exercise for | | | | some mathematical way of making a pretty |
| little fingers. Have children rearrange them | | | | accurate guess. Is the candy worth the trouble of |
| together to make new shapes. | | | | doing the geometry calculations? Hopefully the |
| Need an exercise that's a smidgen more | | | | sweet candy corn prize will be suitably motivating. |
| challenging? You could try using the small candy | | | | Some geometry students might enjoy the |
| corn for board game markers. Candy corn bingo | | | | Internet Math Challenge from the University of |
| is a lot of fun - with the numbers on the grid | | | | Idaho. The challenge involves assuming the piece |
| providing answers to equations and the candies | | | | of candy is a perfect cone and reconfiguring its |
| marking the spots. Kids can graph different | | | | color's dimensions. With each stripe of color being |
| amounts of candy corn. Making spinners from | | | | 1/3 the height, determine what fraction of the |
| cardboard with the arrows shaped like candy corn | | | | total height each color would occupy, if the candy |
| can provide another fun way of working with | | | | corn colors were flipped. |
| numbers. | | | | Mathematics and candy corn unite in the world of |
| Have you ever noticed that candy corn - after | | | | imagination. Check out the book The Candy Corn |
| flipped on their sides - look like "greater than" and | | | | Contest by Patricia Reilly Giff for some interesting |
| "less than" signs? Kids may enjoy unequal math | | | | reading and exercises in logic. In the book, a |
| much more when using candy for the answers. | | | | student can't stop thinking about his class contest. |
| Next, what about a couple story problems? | | | | Whoever estimates the right number of |
| Tommy has 25 pieces of candy corn. If he is | | | | yellow-and-orange candies in the jar gets to keep |
| given his brother's 20 pieces, how many will he | | | | them all. The only catch is that each guess |
| have in all? Since the math story is quite versatile, | | | | requires the kid to read a page of a library book. |
| candy corn is still helpful when the degree of | | | | Talk about brain food! Maybe candy corn will turn |
| difficulty is stretched a little. Maybe the kids should | | | | into the poster candy for teachers all over. Not |
| find the square root of the number of pieces of | | | | likely. But, maybe, adding a little tasty |
| candy corn that Tommy has. Or maybe | | | | entertainment to a math exercise may develop |
| Tommy's candy corn savings account is going to | | | | thinking and learning. It could also give the old |
| grow exponentially over the entire month of | | | | excuse "the dog ate my homework" a bit more |
| October until Halloween! Lucky Tommy. (And | | | | credence. |
| Tommy's dentist too...) | | | | |