Counting sweets is still counting
Halloween maths
The one week of the year when children voluntarily do large-number arithmetic, because it is their sweets and they want to know exactly how many. Use it.
The sweet audit
Everyone pools what they collected and the class works out how to count it without counting every piece. Sort by type, count one pile properly, estimate the rest against it, then check. The estimate almost always comes in low, and asking why is more useful than the number: a pile is deeper in the middle, and children estimate by area. Then the sharing question — split the total between everyone, fairly, and see what the remainder does to the argument.
You need: A pile of anything countable; sweets are optional and pasta works
What to use alongside it
- Estimation and rounding — beginner worksheet Estimating first, then checking, is the whole activity
- Division — beginner worksheet Sharing out, and what to do with what is left over
- Data and graphing — beginner worksheet The sorted piles are already a bar chart
- Dice For the arguing-about-fairness part
- Shut the Box A quiet game for the ones who finish early