Math projects are an ideal way to consolidate learning. I recommend using them as an engaging activity AFTER skills have been learned rather than during learning. You will likely find that engagement is very high and that your students ask to do more of these!

There are many ways to use math projects in your classroom. Some of the most popular are:

•a small-group or pairs activity

•a guided math activity to allow you to see where your students are struggling

•a fun, rewarding way to engage your early finishers

•a low-prep, easy-to-implement activity for a substitute teacher

You might choose to print specific tasks to use during Math centers, or you might make a booklet out of all of the tasks and let your students choose which one to do when. 

This resource is included in PDF format for printing and in Google Slides™️ format for digital learning. This makes it useable with Google Classroom™️.

Take a look at what you’ll find inside this math project:

TASK #1: THE PLAN

You can’t believe it! Your family is buying a candy store and YOU get to help run it! Let’s think of a name for the candy store and design a poster to advertise.

TASK#2: STOCKING THE SHELVES

Your first shipment has come in and it’s your job to stock the shelves with candy! Figure out how many of each candy was ordered.

Skills: place value chart, comparing and ordering 

TASK#3: SURVEY YOUR CUSTOMERS

You decide to survey 100 kids in your school to see what kind of candy is their favorite. Interpret the graph and represent the candy with base 10 blocks.

Skills: skip-counting, base 10 blocks, graphing and data interpretation, addition, subtraction

TASK #4: THE GRAND OPENING

It’s time for the Grand Opening Event at your candy store! You have lots of fun things planned for the day. First up, spin the wheel to see what each person wins! Next, guess the number of candies in the jar!

Skills: base 10 blocks, expanded form, comparing and ordering, addition, subtraction, number words

TASK #5: THE MYSTERY GUEST

You are SO excited about the mystery guest who is handing out candy at the Grand Opening! Use the place value clues to shade the picture and discover who the mystery guest is!

Skills: tens and ones

TASK#6: THE FIRST BIG ORDER

You just got your first big customer order! Let’s take a look at the graphs to see what she would like!

Skills: skip-counting, picture graphs, data interpretation, addition

TASK#7: INVENTORY DAY

Inventory is important when you own a business! This means that we count all of the candies to see what we have available.

Skills: number words, expanded form, comparing and ordering, adding multiples of 10 and 100 

TASK #8: SURPRISE BAGS

You decide to make up some surprise bags to sell! Inside each surprise bag will be a variety of candy. 

Skills: skip-counting, addition

TASK #9: WORKING THE CASH REGISTER

Working at the cash register is an important job at the candy store! Figure out how much each person’s candy will cost.

Skills: skip-counting, addition, money 

TASK#10: CANDY SPILL!

Oh no! The gumball machine fell over and ALL of the gumballs fell. Out! As you clean up the gumball mess, you count each color of gumball.

Skills: skip-counting, number words, addition

TASK#11: GUMMY SALES

Gummy bears and gummy fish have been the most popular candies at the store so far. Interpret the tally charts to show how many packages have sold this week.

Skills: addition, tens and ones 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "As a team we noticed a need for place value review, especially for upcoming state assessments. I used this resource during our intervention time. The students were so excited to create their candy store and I loved that they were able to work at their own pace! :)" Eric C.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "Another fantastic project. My students loved working on this at home! One of my students even sent me a picture of an actual candy store she made! How adorable!" Chantal M.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "I have two highly capable first graders in my math small groups, and this has been the perfect resource for them. They worked together to complete the project and it kept them engaged and gave them just the right challenge." Ashley J.