What's at the End of the Rainbow? - Skittles Math

What's at the End of the Rainbow? - Skittles Math - extension activities

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This indicates resources located on The Teacher's Corner.

The activities, lessons and resources below are meant to extend student learning during this project and focus on St. Patrick’s Day as well as the Skittles. Please note that several of the activities may overlap subject areas.

Don't forget to also visit our activity pages for St. Patrick's Day and Spring.

LANGUAGE ARTS

MATH

SOCIAL STUDIES

SCIENCE

TECHNOLOGY

THE ARTS

BULLETIN BOARDS

ADDITIONAL

 

LANGUAGE ARTS
Students write stories and use one of the shaped books below to publish them.  You may want to pick a specific theme or topic for students to write about: Skittles, rainbows, St. Patrick's Day, spring, etc.  (See display suggestion in the Bulletin Board section below.)

Skittles Shape (B&W)

 

Four-Leaf Clover (Color)

 

Leprechaun Hat (B&W)

You may also want to check out these shape books online - shapes related to the activity:  circle, flower 1, flower 2, kite, rainbow, raindrop, treasure chest, and umbrella.  http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/hme/k_5/shapebook/toc.html

Students create their own “Skittles Friend”.  (See the Paper-maiche Pumpkins activity in The Arts section below. Make simple modifications for adding legs and arms. And don’t forget, they will need accessories!)  Students can help bring their Skittles to life! Display the Skittles in a “Rainbow of Color” display and assign a number to each Skittle.  Students then write a descriptive paragraph about their own Skittle.  From here you have a couple of choices:  you can read each paragraph aloud and have the students guess which Skittle is being described, or you can have students swap paragraphs.

Students can create a story about the “Day in the Life of a Leprechaun.” Here are three lined journal pages you can use with students.

Lined Journal Page - Rainbow and pot of gold (Color)

 

Lined Journal Page - Leprechaun (Color)

 

Lined Journal Page - Leprechaun (Color)

 

Have students write Saint Patrick Day or candy-themed poems.  (These could be displayed on a bulletin board.) You may want to visit the St. Patrick's Day Printables page for stationary and/or board decorations.

Students write plays for their paper bag puppets.   (See puppet suggestion in the Arts section below.)

Students can write captions for the photos you take during the project.

Students create a Saint Patrick’s Day or Skittles postcard. Depending on the age of your students you can have them create their postcards from a variety of point of views. There are several different options you can use to create the postcards:
1. Use an index card.
2. Visit Postcard Creator – allows you to create postcard and then print to add picture.
http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/postcard/
3. Send an E-Postcard form PBS for Kids (doesn’t allow for as much personalization.)
http://pbskids.org/wayback/summer/postcard/index.html

Students write an adventure story.  The story may have to do with a leprechaun, candy, or even a spring-related topic or character. Consider having students publish their work at KidPub. http://www.kidpub.com/

Graphic Organizers – Use in a variety of ways before, during, or after reading.
http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/

REMEMBER: You may also want to visit our Printable Worksheet page and create your own puzzles.
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MATH
Once your students have calculated the class total data for the Skittles, have them find the average for each color.

Create a graph of the Skittles data collected.  (See the activity suggestions in the Technology section below.)

Students can use their Skittle data to practice the fraction skills.

Challenge:  Students line up enough Skittles to measure one foot. They can then calculate how many Skittles it would take to go around the Earth, to their state capitol, to the Nation’s Capitol, or to any other location.

While looking at your data, discuss odd/even numbers, along with divisibility rules, factors, etc.

Have students convert measurements between the standard system and the metric system.

Skittles Lab - Find additional math activities within this lesson plan.
http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/3785.html

Skittles Math Lesson Plan – Students will understand the position of a numerator and denominator.
http://www.learningcentral.org/plp/nec/plpportfolios.nsf/WorkSlidesByFolder/86256D0D0059A21487256E7A00738DCB?OpenDocument

Skittles Math Worksheets - A variety of printable activities that you can use and/or modify.
http://peoria.k12.il.us/merlins_castle/SkittleMath.html

Skittles Riddles Math (Paperback) - This is a great book by Barbara Barbieri McGrath to purchase for your classroom.
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SOCIAL STUDIES
Using reference books, the Internet, and/or magazines, students can learn about the history of Skittles.
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SCIENCE
Skittle Cores - Students will work in teams of six to collect "core samples" from their region (cake/pan of brownies).
http://www.bowserlab.org/skittlecore/lesson_plan.html

Can You Taste Without a Sense of Smell? - This is an explanation of a science experiment and may be an idea you could take and adapt it to your students.
http://scienceray.com/biology/human-biology/can-you-taste-without-a-sense-of-smell/
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TECHNOLOGY
Use software like Excel or Graph Club to have students create various types of graphs to show the Skittles data they collected.  If you don’t have either of these software titles, you can use this free online resource: http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx

Skittles - Experience the Rainbow!
http://www.skittles.com/

What Color Are Your Skittles? - In this lesson the child will learn how to create spreadsheets, to chart the different colors in a package of Skittles. They will collect data, create appropriate charts and use percentages to describe quantities.
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/CIMathWhatColorSkittles-SpreadsheetGraph56.htm

Students complete a Wacky Web Tale online (like a MadLib) that is related to fall and Halloween:
Simply Delicious (A Recipe): http://www.eduplace.com/tales/content/wwt_024.html
Spring Cleaning: http://www.eduplace.com/tales/content/wwt_025.html
Main Wacky Web Tales page: http://www.eduplace.com/tales/
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THE ARTS
Paper-maiche Skittles - Students paper-maiche a balloon to create their own Skittles Friend.  Ask for students to brainstorm how they can create a stem at the top of the balloon.  Once the Skittle is dry, students can use red, orange, yellow, green, or purple paint to decorate their Skittle. Make simple modifications for adding legs and arms. And don’t forget, they will need accessories!)

Leprechaun Puppets - Use paper bags to create these fun characters.
http://www.abcteach.com/free/b/bagpupleprechauns.pdf
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BULLETIN BOARDS
Create a bulletin board to display your Skittles stats.

Students post the shaped books/stories from the language arts section on a bulletin board.  Use other cutouts and paper to decorate the board to create a special look.  (Use any of the resources we have available on the St. Patrick's Day Printables or Spring Printables pages.)

Skittles Patterns - Using the round printables above, make a large number of copies for students to color and then create Skittles Patterns. (Scroll down the page to "Patterns" for the lesson.)
http://www.thevirtualvine.com/math.html
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ADDITIONAL LINKS & RESOURCES

Here are some printables that you may find helpful in your classroom during this project. You can find additional printables on the following pages: St. Patrick's Day Printables and Spring Printables.

Coloring Page - Pot of gold with clover

 

Lined Journal Page - three-leaf clover (Color)

 

St. Patrick's Day Game - A fun activity for primary students (PDF)
http://www.abcteach.com/free/g/game_st_patrick.pdf

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