Halloween is around the corner and if you’re like our family your kids are going to end up with so much candy it’ll last until this time next year (I literally just threw away a bunch of mini Snickers I found in the pantry from last Halloween… I know.) If you have no idea what to do with all that extra sugar, have no fear- Candyland week is here! The following activities are based around the beloved children’s game, but also incorporate the iconic Halloween candy we all know and love…M&M’s, Reeses, Dum Dums, Candy Corn… basically whatever your kids end up with in their treat bag will work here! So get ready for the ultimate sugar rush (and lots of learning too) as I proudly present- Candyland week!
–Literacy:
-Sound out candy names: I gave my little an assortment of Halloween candy and had him sound out the names of each.
-Spell names with candy: We used M&M’s for this one, but any small candy will work! You just write your little’s name on a piece of paper and have them trace the letters with the candy. My 2 year old did his first name (we took turns making every other letter) and my 5 year old worked on our last name. I got this idea from 1, 2, 3 Homeschool for Me.
-Candy ABC bingo: I printed some ABC bingo cards from Teachers Pay Teachers, then called out letters and had my littles find them and mark them using candy corns.
-Candy corn story elements: I downloaded and printed these candy corn themed story element pages from Teachers Pay Teachers and had my 5 year old respond to each area of the “title, setting, characters” and “beginning, middle, end” ones after we read “Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot”.
-Story prompt: Write a story about one of the characters from Candyland.
-Candy book list:
–Math:
-Estimate and count candy bowl: I showed my littles what 5 pieces of candy looks like, then asked them how many handfuls they thought could fit in our candy bowl (a bit easier to estimate than asking them to give a larger double digit number). Then we counted all the candy in the bowl to see if our estimating was correct.
-Sort and count Halloween candy: I had my littles sort Halloween candy into lollipops, chocolate, gummies, and pieces (like M&Ms, Reese’s Pieces). Then we counted each group.
-Halloween candy graph: You can either do this using the data from the activity above (just have your littles color a bar on a graph for each group) or take a survey of everyone’s favorite candy and graph that. After graphing, I asked my little to use the graph to identify which candy we had the most of, which we had the least of and if any were the same.
-Candyland counting: For this activity we counted the colorful squares on the Candyland board.
-Candy corn word problems: I printed this set of candy corn word problems from Teachers Pay Teachers then had my little use candy corns to act out each problem and write the coordinating equation.
–Science:
-5 senses candy tasting: We reviewed what the 5 senses are- then I took away my little’s sense of sight by having them wear blindfolds (or shut their eyes in my 2 year old’s case, which was fine!) Then I gave them each pieces of candy to taste and guess what they were without peeking. We did Candy Corn, M&Ms, Reese’s Pieces, Swedish Fish and Sour Patch Kids.
-States of matter with cocoa bombs: We reviewed the states of matter (solid, liquid, gas) and I asked my littles which one chocolate chips are and how they knew that (Hershey bars from trick-or-treating would work too!) Then I asked them what we would need to add to the chips to make them melt so we could use them for cocoa bombs. Then we melted them in a pan on the stove until liquid. Next I gently spread some melted chocolate onto the edges of each 1/2 ball of a cocoa bomb mold (if you put it in the freezer for 15 minutes first, it works really well) and put the mold back in the freezer to solidify. When finished, I let them choose one of 2 flavors: Candy Corn Caramel or Reese’s Peanut Butter. For the candy corn ones I just filled 1/2 of the bomb with caramel syrup then sealed it by slightly melting the open end of other 1/2 on a hot pan and sticking them together. For the Reese’s you can either fill them with Reese’s Pieces or 1/2 peanut butter and 1/2 chocolate syrup. If you want to add some Halloween sprinkles/a candy corn/a few Reese’s Pieces to the molds before putting in the chocolate to make them cute, you can do that too! To serve, have your little plunk a bomb into some hot milk and stir, stir, stir to melt the chocolate again.
-Inquiry: What is the effect of hot water on different types of candy? I asked my littles what they thought would happen if we poured boiling water on different types of candy (we used a Snickers, M&M’s, a Dum Dum lollypop, and Swedish Fish but any candy will do!) Then we placed each candy in a bowl and poured 1/2 cup of boiling water on each and observed what we saw, heard and smelled (they Dum Dum crackled when the water was poured on it, which was a surprise!) We talked about dissolving and what that means as we observed the candies.
-STEM build a candy castle: At the end of Candyland you arrive at King Kandy’s candy castle- so I gave my littles the challenge to build it as tall as they could using the most pieces of candy.
-Videos on how candy is made: We watched videos on how bubblegum, jellybeans and jawbreakers are made on YouTube- it’s really interesting!
–Art:
-Decorate a gingerbread man: I cut out some large gingerbread men from construction paper and had my littles glue real candy on them to decorate them.
-Lollipop craft: I had my 5 year old trace a bowl on a sheet of construction paper then cut it out (I did the tracing for my 2 year old and held the paper while he cut). Then I helped them make a spiral from a pipe cleaner to glue to their circles. Finally they added popsicle sticks to their lollies as a finishing touch.
-Queen Frostine decorating art: I printed pictures of Queen Frostine from the Candyland game, then had my littles color her and decorate her with sequins.
-Decorate King Kandy’s crown: I drew a zig zag down a piece of cardstock for each of my littles, had them cut the zig zag out, then glue pieces of candy onto it to make King Kandy’s crown.
-M&M watercolors: So you can totally make watercolor paint with color coated candy! We used M&Ms but Skittles would work great too! You just dissolve the coating off of 10 of the same color candy in a bowl, and let your littles use it to paint! My littles opted to do freestyle painting, but you can always print out a Halloween or Candyland picture for them to do if you want. I got this from 1, 2, 3 Homeschool for Me.
–Extras:
-Play Candyland: Can you even have a Candyland week without playing the iconic game? LoL
-Letter of the week: Ii, each day we do a different activity focused on our letter- introduction/have your little practice it on the chalkboard (or white board), think of words that start with the letter and make a list, workbook letter writing practice, workbook word writing practice.
-Word of the week: do, each day we do a different activity focused on our word- introduction/sound the word out/have your little practice writing it on the chalkboard or whiteboard, word family list- think of other words that rhyme with your word of the week, use the word in a sentence (have your little come up with the sentence and write it for them) then have your little illustrate the sentence, and workpage practice.
-Bible verse: This month’s Bible verse is “Let us not grow weary of doing good.” 2 Thessalonians 3:13 I write each word in the verse on a post-it, stick them to the wall then have my little point to each word and read it each day all month.
-Character trait of the month: perseverance…this word is reviewed and posted at the start of the month then each time one of my littles freely demonstrates perseverance I use the word to specifically praise what they’re doing and encourage the trait in them. (ie. “Learning larger numbers can be so tricky- I like how you’re showing perseverance and trying your best every time until you get it!”)
–Supply/shopping list:
- assorted candy (chocolates, lollipops, gummy candy, etc)
- Skittles
- M&M’s
- Hershey bars OR chocolate chips
- chocolate syrup and peanut butter OR Reese’s Pieces
- caramel syrup
- cocoa bomb mold
- candy corn
- popsicle stick
- pipe cleaner
- sequins
- Candyland game
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