Pumpkin Candy

 Just a simple idea that I thought that I would share my ideas about! I picked up these pumpkin candies at Walmart for $1.99 last weekend and decided to incorporate them into my pumpkin unit. (They've been around forever! And you can also get a small bag of the 'harvest mix' that includes Indian and candy corn in it for $1 at the Dollar Tree) and they're a pretty good representation of a pumpkin!

 I put the entire bag in a small container and made a simple classroom graph on my dry erase board. Each day my students looked at and analyzed the container and 'estimated' and 'guessed' how many pumpkins they thought were inside. On Friday we counted them as a class. (There were exactly 75 candies in the bag! I couldn't believe it!) My preschoolers loved counting that high with me! And to my surprise (and luck) two of the pumpkins were 'different'. One was smashed and melted looking and one was a great replica of a pumpkin but didn't contain the green coloring at the top for the leaves and stem. It worked out wonderful because my students were able to look at the entire bag placed on a large cookie sheet and find the ones that were different. It turned out to be a good lesson about identifying and recognizing differences. Students were also able to point out a pattern based on how the candies were laid out! (Unintentional of course but it made the lesson even better!) 

 You could definitely incorporate these candies in a number of activities! I saved half of the bag and we used them to weigh and see if 4 pumpkins weighed more than 5, etc. It turned out to be a worthwhile lesson for my students. We kept it somewhat simple as I had a lot of other activities planned for the week - but now my mind is spinning for next year! :) Just thought that I would share!