Candy Canes

Here are two sweet projects to do with your little ones, a candy puzzle, and a sweet treat or two!

Candy Cane Mosaic

You will need:

green construction paper
glue
red and white construction paper cut into 1 inch squares

Make a candy cane shape on your green construction paper with white glue.

Have your child place the squares onto the glue line to make a candy cane.
For older children, have them glue the squares individually with a glue stick to form the candy cane on their own.

Tri-Bead Candy Cane

You will need:

1/2 red pipe cleaner

red and white (or clear) tri beads

Before starting, decide on a pattern you will use (ex:  red, white, red, white or red, red, white, white, red, red, white, white).

Take one bead and twist it onto the bottom end of the pipe cleaner up and around this bead to secure the bottom (you could use also use some hot glue to secure the bottom bead to the pipe cleaner).  Then, have your child string the beads, one at a time, in the chosen pattern.  When you get to the end, twist the pipe cleaner up and around the top bead to secure (or use a bit of hot glue instead).  Bend into a candy cane shape.  Hang on your tree.

These are great activities to strengthen fine motor skills as well as practice patterning.

Here's a sweet number puzzler for your older preschooler:

I think this idea came from an old issue of The Mailbox Magazine.  I printed out candy cane pieces onto cardstock and laminated them.  I used a piece of red construction paper and wrote numbers 1 to 30 on the paper and laminated it as well.  Use your candy cane pieces to construct the numbers and mark the ones finished with a peppermint candy.  This is pretty challenging, but a good thing to work on together. 

When you're done, make your own peppermint bark.

Peppermint Bark

You will need:

melting chocolate (or almond bark)

candy canes

double boiler

waxed paper

Melt any white chocolate or almond bark you prefer in a double boiler (this will help you to not burn your chocolate).

Crush several candy canes.  Our favorite method is putting them in a plastic bag and smashing them with a rolling pin or ladle.

Pour candy canes into melted chocolate.

Spread out on waxed paper and let cool.  When cooled, break into pieces and enjoy.

Sweet!

*And if I'm feeling a bit ambitious, I might be making these while my babes are asleep.  Peppermint Candy Cane Brownies from the girls at Our Best Bites, yum!!