Fun with candy!

Hey guys! So, I am ALL for making math as fun as possible. Recently in class we did a super fun activity using M&M’s. Not only is this project fun and engaging, but delicious too! We did this through the online course and had to go buy m&ms and submit pictures of our results but this would totally work in a classroom too! It is perfect for teaching probability.

Here’s how it works:

• Each student would be given one bag of m&m’s.
• Then, count the total number of m&m’s in their bag
• Next, students will sort out the colors and count how many of each color there are
• Record/graph
• Find the probabilities

We did have an assigned packet that went along with  this. The beauty of an assignment like this though is you can make changes and make it your own. Here’s a few examples of problems that can be solved using this data:

1. Graphing- especially for younger students this is a great way to teach them how to make a graph using their sorted m&m’s.
2. Probability (which is mainly what we used it for). Students could find the probability of finding a red m&m in their package. Ex: If there are 25 m&m’s in a package, and 6 of them are red, the probability of picking up a red m&m is 6/25 or 24%.
3. Making predictions- get their brains thinking and wondering. Students will take an educated guess on a given probability

I’ll attach some images so that you can get a better idea of what I’m talking about.