Candy Cane Day!

This week has been candy cane week at our house!  Here are a few things we've done with candy canes:

Game
"Santa Mouse" hid candy canes all around the house for us to find!

Pretend Play on the Felt Board
 I cut candy cane shapes out of white felt and then stripes out of several different colors for the girls to make their own candy canes on the felt board!

Science
The girls poured water in a plastic cup then I gave them each a candy cane.  I had them stir and dip the candy cane in the water.  We even tried smelling and taste testing them!  After a few minutes, we noticed that the red stripes were coming off and the candy cane was almost white!  We put the cups in the middle of the table so we could work on our art craft (see below).

Miss M pouring the water into her cup.

Miss L stirring her candy cane in the water

Art
I had the girls put several candy canes into a plastic bag.  Then I gave them a plastic hammer from our pretend tool set.  I told them to hammer the candy canes into little pieces so we could have "candy cane glitter"!  I had to help them crushed them up more using a real hammer.

I had already cut a candy cane shape from white tag board.  I also added some blue painter's tape for the candy cane stripes.  The girls helped me add more painter's tape.

 Then I gave them red tempera paint mixed with white glue.  They painted the white parts of the candy cane red.

  Then we sprinkled our "candy cane glitter" on the paint.  It smelled so good!  Then we pulled the painter's tape off.  They were amazed by this part!  I think they turned out great!

Ok...then this is the best part.  They went back to the science experiment to discover that all the red stripes were off the candy cane.  They decided to paint the candy cane with their red paint to "put the red stripes back on"!!!