Smartie Math Ideas

• How many Smarties will cover a 10cm strip?
• Take 2 colours and lay them end to end, side by side. Which colour is longer? How long is each colour?
• How many Smarties does it take to cover the length of a box? the width? the depth?
• Use Smarties to measure the perimeter of your desk, book, box.
• Use the box and Smarties as non standard units to measure things around your classroom.
• How many Smarties will cover your page?
• How Much Did You Grow?: Do this at the beginning of the school year. Ask the child to lie on the floor as you stretch the yarn from head to toe. Cut and place the yarn in a envelope with the child's name on it. In June measure the children again with yarn and compare to the length taken at the beginning of the school year.
• Strings of me!: Measure each child with a piece of string. Let the children compare their string with other objects and other children's strings.
• Measure the children: Use tape measure and measure the height of the children. Use tape to mark heights on the wall.
• Group Measuring Feet: Children will get a "kick" out of measuring objects with their own feet. Pairs can help each other trace around a foot on a piece of paper. Children can use their footprints to measure the length of a table, the doorway; and other classroom items.
• Mouse Tails: Show children the picture of the mouse. Help children find partners and cut a piece of black string the length of the mouse’s tail for each pair. Show children how to use the mouse-tail measurer to determine the length of an object. Encourage them to find more objects to measure, such as a book, a block, the tabletop, or a shirt sleeve.
• Nature's Niches:  Randomly give each child a bunch of dried grasses, weeds, twigs, and leaves. Have them order them from shortest to longest on paper. Glue them down and make a forest scene from dried pieces.

Smartie Math Ideas

• How accurate is the package weight?
• Are 16 green the same weight as 16 brown?
• Estimate the mass of 10 smarties.
• Estimate how many Smarties will weigh 10grams.
• By colour, compare weights with pencils, etc.
• How much does one Smartie weigh?
• Weigh an empty box. Weigh a full box. Compare.
• Weigh each colour group. Which weighs more? less? Are any the same or equal?

• Animal Weigh: Set out an infant scale and let the children use it to weigh dolls and stuffed animals.

• Rock & Leaf (heavy & light): Set up the balance scale. Explain the concepts of heavy and light by using a large stone on one side of the scale and a leaf on the other side. Invite children to look for other items around the area that can be weighed on the scale. Encourage children to weigh their items along with those of their classmates to compare weights.

Get some different sizes of containers from the kitchen. Predict which will hold the most and the least. Test and play! Make sure you play with a variety of tall/skinny, short/fat, round, square, etc. containers.

• use different size containers