This week we did a very simple math activity as part of our special Gumdrop STEM blog hop. My kids are currently five and two years old, respectively, so I wanted to do a simple home learning activity without too many tricky parts. Luckily for me, the kids love counting and coloring, so a little sorting and graphing activity seemed right up their alley. It was super simple. I mean, really really simple. But they loved it. Because CANDY.

Gumdrop Graphs | Candy Math The Science Kiddo

First, we took the gumdrops and put them in a bowl. Then we sorted them and counted how many of each color we had. This was the part that the two-year-old enjoyed most. (She’s not always sure what comes after ten, but she sure loves to count.)

Gumdrop Graphs | Candy Math The Science Kiddo

On paper, we made a table of all our delicious data:

Gumdrop Graphs | Candy Math The Science Kiddo

Second, we made bar graphs of all of the data points, using free printable graph paper from this site. We filled in one square for each gumdrop. (Note: It’s a good plan to wait until after counting to label your graph axes–you never know how lopsided your candy bag will be!) We didn’t do a lot of decoration on ours, but if you or your kid has a particularly artistic mind, you can do all kinds of interesting things with these graphs.

Gumdrop Graphs | Candy Math The Science Kiddo

After our graphs were completed we talked about the results. Which color did we have the most of? The least? I pointed out how a bar graph makes it easy to know this data at a quick glance. If your kids are older you could also do some beginning statistics with them to figure out the mean, median, mode, and range.

Last, we ate the candy. This was the five-year-old’s favorite part. (Naturally.)

Gumdrop Graphs | Candy Math The Science Kiddo

STEM Saturday

Building Structures with Candy Gumdrops from Lemon Lime Adventures
Gumdrop Bridge Building STEM Activity from Little Bins for Little Hands
Gingerbread & Gumdrops Grid Game from Stir the Wonder
3D vs. 2D Shapes from Suzy Homeschooler