M&M Math
Grade Levels: 3 - 5
Objectives
- Students will represent data in a bar graph.
- Students will learn to extrapolate data from a bar graph.
- Students will use comparison math terms.
- Students will average numbers.
Materials
- A large bag of M&M's or anything else that can be divided so that every child has an assortment of about 20 items that can be sorted by different attributes (color, size, shape). There are a number of cereals that work well for these lessons as do colored tiles.
- Graph Paper
- Crayons
- Spreadsheet software (optional)
Procedures
- Give each child a piece of 1/2 inch graph paper, crayons, and about 20 M&M' s.
- Demonstrate how to make the X and Y axis, to assign number values, and attributes to them.
- The children sort the M&M's by color, counting each color grouping as well as the total M&M's.
- Have students arrange the M&M's by color from the most to the least on the graph paper.
- Direct the students to convert this data into bar graphs.
- Tell the students to write number sentences and less than/greater than statements about their findings.
- Have students find the average number of each color for the whole class.
- Students can take all of this information, put it into a spreadsheet, and generate graphs on computers.
