This lesson is ALWAYS a hit with the students.

How could it not be?

Everyone loves Smarties.

The first thing you need to do is buy each student in your class a regular box of Smarties. Don’t cheap out and buy the snack size or Halloween boxes though. There just aren’t enough candies in those boxes to make this a valuable learning experience.

Before you hand out the candy boxes to the students you need to be very clear about your expectations. Let the students know that these candies are to be used for math. They are not to be eaten until the work has been completed. If they cannot handle this lesson, then you will not bring food in for lessons again. You can let them know that we will be using marshmallows for an upcoming lesson as well.

Tell the students that the first thing we will be doing is making an estimate as to how many Smarties are in the box. Hand out the boxes and tell them that they can shake them, inspect them, but they cannot open them until they make their estimate.

Hand out this worksheet – http://chasemarch.com/smarties_math_challenge.pdf

There are so many activities the students can do with this one box of Smarties and the worksheet package. And this lesson is always a hit!