The Candy Corn Contest ( Books Teachers Love )

We are getting into the holiday months, which is a super exciting time of year for students and for teachers (hello craftivities galore!) This month we are talking all about read alouds for October.

This month I chose The Candy Corn Contest by Patricia Reilly-Giff. It's a little different from the "normal" books I choose for my friends, and I only say this because it's a chapter book, but it's a book that I'm really excited about sharing with my students AND with YOU!

The Candy Corn Contest is about a boy, Richard, who can't stop thinking about his teacher's Candy Corn Contest. For every guess he makes, he has to read a page in a book. GASP! ;) Matthew, another student in his class, and Richard think that they will never win the contest, but Richard is determined. So much so that he ends up eating 3 candy corns. What will his teacher do when she finds out?

I am going to start reading this chapter book with my students the week of Halloween. In the story, the time is right around Thanksgiving, but since kids are all hopped up on the idea of candy, I want to start it then. The book has 11 chapters (76 pages) and I would *ideally* like to finish this book in two weeks.

Each chapter has one picture (usually at the beginning, but not always). I have already copied the pictures and enlarged them (size 140% of original) -- (1) so my students can color the pages, but (2) also so they can predict what they think will happen in the chapter. I am going to copy primary lined paper onto the back so we can create mini-books of colored pictures and chapter summaries.

You can grab a cover page and primary lined paper for your classroom here.

Since this story focuses on making a correct guess at how many candy corns are in the teacher's jar, I am going to fill up a jar in my classroom with candy corns. We will use this jar to make estimates, which will lead in to a math lesson about estimation. We can then use the candy corn as counters / manipulatives... BONUS --> we can then eat them as a small snack!

You can grab a free candy corn guess sheet here.

Candy corn crafts! These crafts will be great for my class since they will allow students to work on fine and gross motor skills too :)

( Credit )

( Credit )

You can grab this book on Amazon here:


Don't forget to stop by the other teacher's blogs to see their book recommendations for October. Hop around, get ideas, and make some new friends!

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