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Candy Creations
A traveling candy exhibit turns sweets into artistic experiences
Real shark skin feels like sandpaper. But Bruce the Shark is different. His blue and white skin is smooth and squishy. That’s because it’s made out of 20,000 gummy bears, licorice laces, and other treats. Artists created the shark, along with many sugar-filled paintings and sculptures, for Candytopia, a sweet exhibit that’s traveling to cities around the United States.
Candytopia has different types of rooms and experiences. Visitors can wind through a maze of giant lollipops or dive into a pit of marshmallows. An ocean-themed room features Bruce and other sea creatures made of candy.
Real shark skin feels like sandpaper. But Bruce the Shark is different. His blue and white skin is smooth and squishy. That’s because it’s made out of 20,000 candy pieces. The creation includes gummy bears, licorice laces, and other treats. Artists created the shark, along with many sugar-filled paintings and sculptures, for Candytopia. It’s a sweet exhibit that’s traveling around the United States.
Candytopia has different types of rooms and experiences. Visitors can wind through a maze of giant lollipops. They can also dive into a pit of marshmallows. An ocean-themed room features Bruce and other sea creatures made of candy.
Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images for Candytopia
Bruce the Shark is made out of 20,000 pieces of candy. This sculpture took artists 137 hours to complete.
“Candy is an incredible medium,” says Jackie Sorkin. She’s a candy artist and Candytopia co-founder. “You have hundreds of thousands of colors, textures, and types of candy.”
Each city’s Candytopia features items that are unique to the area’s culture. The location in Dallas, Texas, has a candy sculpture of Big Tex, the famous cowboy statue displayed at the state fair.
“Candy is an incredible medium,” says Jackie Sorkin. She’s a candy artist. She co-founded Candytopia. “You have hundreds of thousands of colors, textures, and types of candy.”
Each city’s Candytopia is a little different. The exhibit features items that are unique to the area’s culture. In Dallas, Texas, the exhibit has a candy sculpture of Big Tex. It’s the famous cowboy statue displayed at the state fair.
JOHN G MABANGLO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Kids play in a pit filled with 300,000 foam marshmallows!
While visitors can touch and interact with exhibits, eating the artwork is not allowed. But those with a sweet tooth are in luck. Free samples of candy are given out in each room. In fact, thousands of pounds of candy are given away each month!
“We’re on a mission to spread candy love around the whole wide world,” says Sorkin.
Visitors can touch and interact with exhibits. Eating the artwork is not allowed. But those with a sweet tooth are in luck. Free samples of candy are given out in each room. In fact, thousands of pounds of candy are given away each month!
What are some other situations in which artists at Candytopia might need to work with decimals?
What to Do
Decimals are numbers expressed in powers of 10. They are written with a decimal point. This separates the whole part from the fractional part of a number. A place value chart shows the value of each digit based on its position. It can help you compare decimals.
Example
A pink jelly bean weighs 1.261 ounces. A yellow one weighs 1.29 ounces. Which weighs more?
• Put the decimal numbers in a place value chart. You can add a zero at the end to make the numbers the same length.
• Compare the columns from left to right. The place value with the higher number is the heavier jelly bean.
• 9 hundredths is greater than 6 hundredths. This means the yellow jelly bean (1.29 ounces) weighs more.
A. At the exhibit, a candy elephant sculpture is made partly of candy hearts. One pink heart weighs 0.92 ounces. A red heart weighs 0.97 ounces. Draw a place value chart on a separate sheet of paper. Then put the numbers in the chart.
B. Which heart weighs more? Explain.
A. A candy artist uses black licorice strings that weigh 0.39 ounces each. Another artist uses red jawbreakers that weigh 1.06 ounces each. Which type of candy weighs more?
B. Which number has a greater value in the hundredths place?
For a new portrait, candy artists use 2.13 ounces of M&M’s, 2.17 ounces of gummy fish, 2.14 ounces of rock candy, and 2.16 ounces of jelly beans. Order these numbers from least to greatest.
Two candy artists each made a candy seashell for an exhibit. One artist’s shell weighs 11.130 ounces. The second artist’s shell weighs 11.094 ounces. The second artist believes that her shell weighs more. Is this artist correct? Why or why not?
Google Quiz
Click the Google Quiz button below to share an interactive version of the questions with your class. Click Download PDF for the non-interactive blank Answer Sheet.