Candy Corn Arrays

Did you know there is a National Candy Corn day?  Last week, my kids asked me what my favorite kind of candy was. Of course, candy corn is at the very top of my list! Maybe it's because it isn't around all year or maybe it's just because fall is my favorite season and it's a big part of fall. All I know is that I absolutely love candy corn!  I wish I had know that Dylan's Candy Bar created a box full of different flavors of candy corn. I would have stopped by there when I was in NYC this summer! They even have smores flavored candy corn!

When my kids found out I loved candy corn, they immediately told me about National Candy Corn day. At first, I thought they were joking. They told me to Google it and sure enough it popped up. National Candy Corn day is October 30th. I'm starting to think there is a national day for just about everything!

This week we are learning all about multiplication in my classroom. We start off by teaching students about different things that come in groups of 2, 3, 4, and so on. We then show students how to create arrays for each number sentence. I thought it'd be a lot of fun to create a candy corn arrays game. It's a simple matching game where they have to match the array of candy corns with the multiplication number sentence and a description of the array. I created sets for twelve different arrays in this game. I also decided to create a score sheet so they could record their number sentences and descriptions for each array. This will allow them to play a game and at the same time I can have a finished product to check their understanding on arrays. I uploaded it to TPT and it's free in celebration of National Candy Corn day! I put a couple of the screen shots below so you could see a sample. Click here to download it for free!

We also create 'Candy Shop' books with arrays. I got this idea from my coworker Lynn a few years back. I tell my class that they are starting up a candy factory. This year I may say it's a candy corn factory to go with the spirit of the season! Their job is to create packages to hold the candies. On each page of their booklet, they will draw all the packages they could create for that set number of candies. For example, if they are creating a package for 2 candies they can create a package that has 1 row of 2 and a package that has 2 rows of 1. They do this for each number, working their way up. My class always has a lot of fun doing this activity and they refer back to their book throughout the year as a resource. I'll upload some pictures later this week so you can have a better idea of how we set it up!

Hope y'all have a great week!