Sweet Problem Solving

You can’t get much more of a real-life connection to problem-solving than this.

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Every year I buy some chocolate bars and some non-chocolate candy (usually the Child’s Play mix), and I try to give each little ghost and ghoul a piece of chocolate and a couple of pieces of the other candy. Finally, one year, I realized it was infinitely easier to just drop a little treat bag into each out-stretched pumpkin container! Which lends itself to a great Halloween word problem:

Laura’s mom bought one bag with 40 mini candy bars and another bag with 72 pieces of assorted candy. How many treat bags with 1 mini candy bar and 2 pieces of assorted candy can she make? Will any candy be left over?

Looking at the Halloween word problem I created, can you think of ways to adjust it to make it more or less challenging? Probably lots of ways! Feel free to share your version in a comment. And if you try this problem with your students, please let me know how it went!

I’ve created a formatted sheet with the Halloween word problem so you can use it with your students, and it’s my treat for you! Download it here.

Want more Halloween math fun? Check out my Kindergarten & 1st Grade Halloween Number Combinations Bundle here.