Candy Cane Preschool Theme

Today we talked about candy canes!  I have to remind myself (especially this time of the year) that we don't have to do every cute and fun idea that I come across.  There are just too many!

 I cute out some felt in the shape of a candy cane and some stripes so that my son could make his own using felt.  He enjoys being able to play with things on the flannel board.

 We also made shapes out of candy canes.  He wanted to make sure we had one that looked like a J. This idea came from Teach Preschool.

 I really like to read this mini book about candy canes because it helps young children understand why candy canes are seen around Christmas time at their level.

 Here is a fun candy cane matching game.  It gets a little tricky since some of the patterns are quite similar.

 I forgot to take a picture of this, but check out this link for a fun file folder candy cane/stocking matching game.

This printable pack has  a lot of Christmas activities including the stocking and candy cane counting game.

2 Teaching Mommies has a fun Candy Cane Pack to check out including this number puzzle.

 Our Little Monkey's also has a real cute candy cane pack including these writing practice sheets.

 

 Confessions of a Homeschooler has a Christmas Activity pack that includes counting these candy canes.

 My son had fun painting a candy cane red and yellow.  We talked about patterns and how you can find different patterns on different flavors of candy canes.

 Of course, we needed to taste test the different flavors of candy canes that we had!

 We put a candy cane in warm water and found out the red stripes disappear!  Teach Preschool is where I found this idea.  My son was fascinated by this.

 I painted my son's hand and we made a hand print candy cane. He got a kick out of that.

 Here are all the different flavors of candy canes we put up on our tree.  Of course, we took some broken ones so we could melt them a little and bend them into shapes.

 To melt candy canes I put them into the oven at 250 degrees for about 5 minutes.  The time will vary so you just have to watch.  Here are some instructions.  The candy canes are really too hot for little ones to touch when they are the most bendable, but my son enjoyed watching me bend and make letters and shapes.

 Here is a little foam candy cane.  It is the same idea as the felt candy canes, but using foam.

You can check out our 2012, 2011, and 2010 posts to see what we have done in the past!