Candy Heart Estimating

Estimating is a skill that we use on a daily basis. Sometimes we don't even realize we are using that skill. Children need plenty of practice with estimating so that they will be able to use it as adults. A fun way to practice estimating is with food or candy. So, yesterday during math class we did some estimating...with candy hearts in baby food jars. We spent time discussing what a good "guess" would be and how to adjust our estimations based on previous guesses and actual amounts. 

This is an activity that I used for many years when I taught first grade. The fourth graders did an excellent job of explaining (in writing) what they learned or discovered from this activity. We even took the math a step further and did some long division to figure out how many candy hearts each student would get to eat at the end of the class period. One kiddo even wanted to divide the remaining candy hearts into fractions! :)

Estimating candy hearts

What We Love

The fourth graders in my homeroom completed a little project to go along with Valentine's day. Using the website imagechef.com, we made word clouds in the shape of a heart. The kids typed what they love, chose the font and colors and the website created a heart shaped word cloud.

Here's my Valentine's day word cloud. :)

Our Classroom Door decorated with our 
Valentine's day word clouds.

Candy Hearts and Coordinate Grids

Today for Math we did some candy heart estimating. I filled three baby food jars with candy hearts and the fourth graders had to guess how many were in the jars. After counting the first jar the kids re-estimated the other two using the information they had from the first one. We discussed what made our guesses more accurate and compared the results.  At the end of the activity they wrote about what they learned...and ate some candy hearts, too! :)

Since the fourth graders enjoyed the coordinate grid pictures we made at Halloween and Christmas time, I decided to give them another chance at it for Valentine's Day. 

Last week when we went to the computer lab the fourth graders used the website ImageChef to create hearts. They typed things that they love and were able to choose the colors and font for their heart. Then, they saved the heart and inserted it into a Kidblog post. Check them out on our Kidblog!