Harriet's Halloween Candy

A favorite Halloween book is Harriet's Halloween Candy.  Harriet has a good time trick-or-treating and comes back with a big bag of candy. 

She begins to sort her candy all different ways, including her favorites!  In class, we have fun working in pairs to sort a big bag of Halloween candy too.

 The pairs worked together to find different ways to sort the candy.

At first, it's easy - you can sort by color, type of candy, and size.  However, after awhile it can get a little tricky.  This is where you have to get really creative.  Kids were sorting by smell, clear and not clear packages, and hard and soft candy.

After sorting for awhile, I gave them a  new challenge - to divide the candy between them equally.  It was fun to see how they approached the activity.  Some kids began to pass them out one by one while others just took a bunch and counted them.  Finally, they all arrived at equal amounts.

Unless, of course, there was a problem - one extra piece of candy.  What do you do with the extra piece?  Everyone brainstormed ideas such as splitting it in two, giving it to someone who doesn't have candy, or just throwing it away! 

What would you do with an extra piece of candy?