Ah, the dilemma…what to do with all that Halloween candy…besides eat it.

As soon as the kids get all of that candy home they will want to dump it all out into a huge pile and sort out what they like and discard what they don’t. The kids even like to make a game of trading.

Of course I don’t want my kids actually eating all that junk. 5 kids all hopped up on sugar and food coloring, no way!! I have been at a loss of what to do because I don’t want to be “that” mean mom that just takes away all that candy straight away. I used keep it around and dole out a piece or two every once in a while but then I noticed that one or two of the kids may have been sneaking it. It was a better idea just to get it out of the house or put it into storage until next season. If you have been trick-or-treating at my house you have probably gotten last years candy…

Really, I don’t  mind the kids eating a few pieces. To keep their minds off eating all the lovely sweets they have collected but still allow them to have fun with it, I devised this little activity. Ok, so I am sure I am not the first to come up with this idea..anyhow….

After the children have eaten a couple of their favorite pieces, I had them sort the remaining candy. They may sort it however they wish: by size, by color, by type- chocolate, hard, soft. My children all decided to sort by type.

Once the candy had been sorted the kids counted each pile and charted the numbers on a graph. I found this graph that I downloaded for free at abcteach.com.

You could even make your own graph that has a little more room and they could glue candy pieces or wrapper on something like this:

Juliana decided she didn’t have enough room so she stopped.  I may end up making a larger chart for my kindergarten aged son.

The kids got to have fun with all that candy they got and brushed up on some math skills at the same time. What do you do with all that leftover candy?