Candy Corn Contest

Here's a great October reading activity! The "Candy Corn Contest" is a book about a boy who is trying to win a jar of candy corn from his teacher by guessing how many candies are in the jar. In the book the students get to enter guesses when they read a page from their library books. I read the book to my students, and then have them answer comprehension questions about each chapter. For each question they enter correctly, they get to enter an estimate into the draw. Whoever guesses the correct amount (or the closest) wins the jar of candy! 

Minecraft Measurment

In grade six, we are learning about area & volume, as well as multiplying decimal numbers.  A big focus throughout the year has also been mental math and estimation, and figuring out strategies to solve problems. To try and tie this all together in a fun and engaging way, we have undertaken a "Minecraft Math" projects. Using Google classroom, students were given a Google slides presentation with all of the problems on it. After solving them, they downloaded the Google Chrome extension "Techsmith Snagit" to record a screencast explaining their strategies, which they then uploaded back to classroom. They also turned in their slides presentation.  I have never seen the students more on task, focused on their work, and determined to come up with a way to solve the problems. It was great!

This idea was inspired by the following project:  
http://brianaspinall.com/?p=648