Skittles Math....Keeping Kids Motivated!

CLICK ON THE IMAGE ABOVE TO READ ABOUT MORE GREAT IDEAS THAT SPARK STUDENT MOTIVATION AT HEAD OVER HEELS FOR TEACHING!

It is that time of year when students start to get restless.  They are ready for spring to be sprung! Here in Ontario, mother nature is not taking the hint.  We are still experiencing below zero temperatures and even last week there was snow!

Novelty really helps keep middle school aged student motivated.  Candy usually appeals to ALL students, so I decided to try a new approach to teaching about the 3 M's and R (Mean, Median, Mode and Range).  I purchased this lesson from Teaching With a Mountain View several months ago and this week seemed like the right time to give it a whirl.  I purchased individual packages of Skittles at the local dollar store and we were ready.

Students tested their 3M and R skills by collecting data about the number of Skittles they had in each colour.  They experienced four rounds of "scavenging" for Skittles.

Round One involved opening the coveted bag of Skittles, and then counting and recording the number of each colour of Skittle in the bag.  After doing this students totalled their number of Skittles.  After that, they used their information to find the mean, median, mode and range of their data.

In round two, students exchanged their data with a partner.  They then had to find the mean, median, mode and range for BOTH sets of data.

Rounds three and four involved combining data with another group of two and finding the 3M's and R for the ENTIRE group of four and then group of eight.

Finally, students used the data from round three to create a graph displaying the total number of each colour of Skittles for the entire group of four.  I challenged the students to go beyond creating a bar graph, and to create a graph which was something more sophisticated.

For more AWESOME Skittle Math activities you can also purchase 

CLICK ON IMAGE TO GO TO TEACHING WITH A MOUNTAIN VIEW'S TPT STORE.

As an extension activity, I assigned the students the mean, median, mode and range posters from Runde's Room Math Concept Posters.  I posted a copy of the image from the top of this post in several key areas in the classroom. Hopefully they will recognize that they need to record it on their posters!

CLICK ON THE IMAGE ABOVE TO VISIT RUNDE'S ROOM STORE ON TPT.