Candy Cane Christmas Fun!

Christmas is right around the corner! I have been super busy prepping and planning for the Ohio K-3 Literacy Conference, which I will be presenting at on Tuesday in Columbus. I love talking “shop” and sharing ideas with teachers! We will be diving into science, comprehension, writing, and reading, and discussing ways to bring learning to life through concrete experiences and critical thinking. Eeekk!! I am so excited!

For many of us, this is the last week before our winter breaks, and our classrooms are filled with the sounds of happy, busy, and excited students! I adore this week of school because we can have so much fun integrating a multitude of learning activities. When you mix academics with holiday fun, a little bit of “classroom magic” fills the air!

Because a BIG part of what I’m sharing on Tuesday is about integration across the content areas, today I am excited to share a fun, integrated theme day I like to use during this last week before break: a Candy Cane Mini Unit! Your kids will love the engaging topic, and you will love how easy the activities are to implement – just add candy canes! Let’s take a look inside!

Here’s a super simple science experiment that is perfect for making observations! Check out what happens when you drop a peppermint candy into a bowl of water! My Candy Cane Unit contains a lab report that your students can complete as they participate in this fun experiment!

What a great opportunity for making observations, forming a hypothesis, and drawing conclusions!

This pack also contains the experiment: The Disappearing Stripes. Again, just add the candy, print off the lab reports, and you are ready to go! Discuss which water temperature they think will cause the stripes to disappear the fastest.

Place a candy cane in cold water and a candy cane in warm water, and watch what happens!

Ta-da! After a few minutes, the warm water caused the stripes on the candy cane to completely disappear. This is a great opportunity to discuss the definition of dissolve.

Looking for a SWEET, hands-on word work activity this week? Fill a bin with white sugar, add a candy cane “pencil,” and get ready to practice those spelling words! (Tip: Leave the wrapper on the candy canes to eliminate sticky hands haha!) Your kids will love this little holiday twist on your word work center.

How ADORABLE is this little Santa Candy Cane craft?! You’ll need to tape or glue the candy canes together, with the hooks facing outwards. The pack includes labeled template pieces and directions to put the craft together. These would make cute little treats or gifts this week!

Of course, you know that no unit of mine would be complete without a lot of writing activities and passages for small groups! The pack includes candy cane fact cards for an informational research and writing activity, creative writing, three text evidence reading passages, and more! Here is a tiny glimpse of all the activities included!

I hope this blog post gave you a few candy cane ideas you can use this week in your classroom! If you’re looking for printables and lab reports to match the activities in the post, you can find them HERE.

Thanks for stopping by! I am going to get back to prepping and packing for the SDE conference! 🙂 Weston has been a great helper! In this picture, he’s helping me pack and sort some goodies for all of the amazing Ohio teachers I get to meet on Tuesday!

See you soon, Columbus!