Mathematics, Algebra and Function

Grade 1- 3

Objective

Students will use candy-coated chocolates or paper representations of candy-coated chcolates to make real graphs.

Directions

1. Be sure to ask parents if their children have any food allergies or dietary restrictions.
2. Tell students ahead of time that the candies you are going to give them cannot be eaten until after the activity. Provide each student with a coordinate graph and an individual package of candy-coated chocolates. Allow students to take out the chocolates and sort them by color.
3. Have students place their candies on their coordinate graphs as you call out the colors and coordinates shown below. Circulate around the class to check each student's answers.

red (1, 5)	yellow (2, 3)	blue (3, 4)	green (0, 3)	green (4, 2)
orange (1, 1)	brown (2, 1)	red (3, 2)	yellow (4, 5)	brown (5, 0)

4. Optional: Use the wall coordinate graph and the patterns or construction paper circles to show students the correct answers.

1. Allow students to take turns naming the colors and coordinates as the others place their chocolates on their coordinate graphs.
2. Have students sort their chocolates by color and record the data on bar graphs (page 7 or 8).

Resources

Purchase candy-coated chocolates for students. (Note: M&M's® work well.) If you buy a large package, you can make individual packages by placing two or three of each color (red, blue, green, yellow, orange, and brown) in reclosable plastic bags. Be sure each bag contains the same amount of each color. Keep extra chocolates in a separate bag to replace any that students drop during the activity.
Reproduce the coordinate graph (page 129) for students.
Optional: Cut out large (red, blue, green, yellow, orange, brown) construction paper circles or color and cut the patterns (page 128) for use on a wall coordinate graph.