M&M Graphing

What better way to get kids engaged than bringing out the candy! After all, who wouldn't be fascinated by all the colors and the addicting smell of chocolate. This is a great activity that touches on multiple math concepts. All these steps don't have to be done at one time. If your kiddos have a hard time sitting still, I would recommend splitting the steps across a couple days.

Before starting the activity, take about 50 M&Ms out of the bag. Make sure not to have too many of one color. You want them to fit on your graph.

Count

Begin by counting how many M&M's you have. I transfer the M&M's from one cup to another and emphasize moving only one M&M at a time.

Sort

I had a cup for each M&M color. We sorted the M&M by color.

Graph

Graph your sorted M&M's. Some vocabulary words to use/explain: graph, column, row, title, more, less, same.

I did this activity during large group, but it can be easily used in a small group. Also, once the kids are familiar with graphs, they can make their own graph for their portfolio.

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