Monday, February 15, 2010

How much candy is in the jar?

A very easy activity I do with the kids in the library is a "guess how much candy is in the jar?" program. It's very simple: I fill a container with lots and lots of candy, put a box next to it and print out a lot of voting sheets and let the kids guess how much candy is in it. The closest guess wins the jar. I did it last summer and for Halloween and this time I did it for Valentine's Day.

I get very strange answers for my guessing activity. This time there were 843 pieces and the guesses ranged from 4 to 10 million. I'm not sure how 10 million pieces could have fit in that jar but apparently one kid thought they could. I had about 400 votes and the closest guess was 850 and when the winner came to pick up the jar his eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning. He was so excited.

I had one very disappointed kid though. He told me that he'd pay me "100 dollars" if I would just give him the candy. I told him he could buy more candy than that for 100 dollars. He didn't seem to understand this. I wonder how he would get a hold of a 100 dollars anyways. ...What kids will do for candy.