One of my favorite winter treats is crushing a mini candy cane and adding it to my coffee or hot chocolate. If you haven’t tried it, you should. It is delicious. When I think of December, I think of candy canes. There are so many fun things you can do with candy canes so I made an entire Candy Cane Day loaded with activities your students will love. Here is a peek at this fun holiday theme day.
As they walk in the door on candy cane day, I have a sign hanging on the wall and I have pipe cleaners at the tables. Students are encouraged to make a candy cane using pipe cleaners.
The first thing we do together is read a candy cane-themed story. There are a few favorites for me below or take a closer look at my Candy Cane Day favorites in my Amazon store. Then I pick whichever focus strategy we need to work on to go along with the book.
Next, we do a little candy cane experiment together. We work on the prediction portion and getting it set up. We leave it to sit and move on to candy cane taste testing. There are so many fun flavors of candy canes, this is always a fun treat.
After we taste test, we make a class book by creating our own candy cane flavors. We keep this in our library all year. There are also writing activities for the taste testing and the experiment too.
Then we do a little craft together. I like to do the polar bear candy cane craft as a whole group activity as it is a little more detailed. I save the other two candy cane crafts for centers in the afternoon.
Once we return from lunch, the children begin centers. I go over the directions for each station and give them a center checklist. I have signs around the room. I group the children and start them all at a different center. I set a timer and they rotate when the timer beeps. During this time, I work with children on end-of-the-quarter assessments.
There are several phonics centers open. They can work on syllables, alphabetizing, vocabulary, punctuation, and making words. I also have two scoot activities one for real or nonsense S blends and one for decoding and spelling CVC words.
In the poetry center, students read the poem and work on sequencing, rhyming, answering questions, filling in the blank, and illustrating.
There are several math games they can play and a few worksheet activities to work on and review their math skills. In addition, there are candy cane puzzles to complete.
I also open two candy cane craft activities they can visit. The sweet holiday cheer makes a great door decoration. I have included letters to display with the crafts as well.
At the end of the day, we complete the candy cane challenge to see who can pick up the most marshmallows using two candy canes. I like to save this for the end because it does get them a bit excited.
Do you need a little Candy Cane Day Freebie? These google slides will help your students build a number using tallies by dragging and dropping them in the space. You can customize it by adding the numbers you want them to build.
This is what a few teachers had to say about Candy Cane Day…
“We had so much fun on candy cane day! This helped to make 1/2 days before winter break fly by with learning and fun still happening!”
“This was such a fun way to spend one of the days before Winter Break. Candy Cane Day is our new favorite! Thanks!”
“My students enjoyed this resource and it was so nice to have during a very busy week. They found it engaging!”
Candy Cane Day sure is sweet! I also have a Digital Candy Cane Day. They pair nicely together. And if you like this day, you may be interested in my other Christmas Theme Days.
Or pair them with my Winter Theme Days for a fun 12 Days of Christmas event in the month of December.
Read about more holiday fun here on my blog:
- Top 10 Christmas Activities for the Classroom
- Gingerbread Activities for First Grade
- 5 Fun Holiday Crafts for the Classroom – with a printable student ornament freebie
