It's Raining M&M's!

It's been raining here the last couple of days and the kids are beginning to go a bit stir crazy, so I decided to pull out the big guns..That's right CANDY! 

Instead of them each working on their individual math lessons, we did a group lesson in M&M math.

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What you will need:

Paper (we used legal size, you can tape two pieces of regular paper together)

M&M's (one pack per child)

Markers, crayons or colored pencils in: Red, orange, brown, blue. yellow,and green

Black Marker or pen

Cup

Ruler

or...you can use our printables (coming soon) and a pack of M&M's

First have your child trace the cup one circle for each color M&M (you can do this for them if they are on the younger side)

Next have your child print or trace the name of each color above it's corresponding circle.

Under each circle have them draw a line (they will be writing the amount of the color here)

Next give the instruction "You may eat the m&m's after we finish our math game. 

DO NOT EAT THEM BEFORE!" This may need to be repeated.

Have them open their pack of M&M,s and empty it in front of them, ask them to look carefully and estimate how many they have. Write that number on the top of the paper. They can also estimate how many they have of each color.

Now have them start sorting by color.

When they have all been sorted have them count each color and write the numeral on the line below.

If they estimated each color, have them see how close they were.

Next we will graph them (The graph was made ahead of time using the ruler, each square is 3/4 of an inch and numbered up to 19) Have them color a circle for each M&M at the bottom of its row.

Then have them place the M&M's inside the graph and mark where they ended. They can use this graph to check there counting from the previous sorting and counting exercise.

Ask the questions: Which has the most? Which has the least? Are there any that are equal? Older children can also be asked if there are any that are half the amount of another color. Have them note their answers on the graph. For young children, you can lead them and just have them make a mark with the color that is the most or least. 

We stopped there half way through they M&M Math Book....they did so well that we decided they could go ahead and eat them! We will follow up on our next rainy day with the remainder of the book Multiplication and Division..we will see how our 3, 5 and 7 year-old handle that.

P.S. Spiderman woke up today asking to do math, more specifically, M&M math. He took our math seriously and the M&M's were an added bonus.

CREDITS: Photos and text by Mama Voyager