Candy Corn Contest

Our second book study is on the book, The Candy Corn Contest written by Patricia Rielly Giff.

It's almost Thanksgiving, and Richard Best can't stop thinking about Ms. Rooney's Candy Corn contest. Whoever can guess the exact number of yellow-and-orange candies in the jar on Ms. Rooney's desk gets to keep them all. The only problem is Richard has to read a page in a library book for each guess. Smelly Matthew, who sits in front of him, knows they'll never win. "We're the worst readers in the class, " he says. But Richard won't give up. He can already taste those Candy Corns. And before he knows it, he has. Three fat juicy ones.What will Ms. Rooney do when she finds out? 

This book inspired us to make our own "Candy Corn Contest". Students can make a guess for the candy corn jar (which they would win the jar and candies). We also agreed to change the rules a bit. Students can make a guess everytime they read a chapter (from a chapter book) or a whole book from our classroom library. To make sure they are really reading and not just skimming through the pages, they will be randomly asked comprehension questions about their book. If they answer the question correctly they can print and estimate for whichever jar they wish. This flows nicely with our number sense and numeration math unit as we are learning to make educated estimates of large amounts.

May the Best Estimate-r Win!