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