Candy.
There is candy spilling over from the large Tupperware bowl in the cabinet.
Pieces fall out when I open the door to get items out for lunch. I toss them back in quickly, before the kids catch a glimpse and think they should have sweets instead of the crunchy baby carrots and cubes of cheese I’ve laid out on their plates.
Even with giving away all the candy that contains nuts (husband is allergic), all the super chewy, choking hazard pieces, and the 2 sandwich bags full of treats I sent with the husband to leave out for people at work, we still have way too much candy.
Part of me is thinking maybe the candy fairy should come collect some and leave a non-cavity inducing gift behind. Of course, all that candy did come in handy last year when we made our graham cracker gingerbread houses… And sometimes that little piece of chocolate is the perfect pick-me-up on a bad day…
So what else to do with it?
Why learn, of course!
With so much candy, I decided today would be “candy day” for my preschoolers.
They knew right away that candy started with the letter “C.” They practiced writing the letter with dry erase markers (like they did with “M” when we did monster math). Then we used M&M’s to form the letter “C.”
While they each enjoyed 1 piece of candy, we sorted through old magazine pictures to find things that started with “C.” There were lots of cats and cars!
After that we worked on sorting M&M’s by color and then did simple patterns. (I emptied two little bags ahead of time so I could create patterns that would work with the M&M’s we had.)
Then we flipped our papers over to do some candy addition.
Finally we had fun playing tic-tac-toe and doing some artwork.
By then they were itching to eat some M&M’s! (Smarties, sweet tarts, and other candies that would work well for this, too.)
Have you done anything creative with your candy?
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Laughwithusblog says
November 7, 2012 at 10:10 amFun! We always use M&Ms for math!
OneMommy says
November 7, 2012 at 9:06 pmI thought it was funny that mine were so excited to see candy since they just had Halloween, but it was definitely a winner!
Cortney says
November 7, 2012 at 11:04 amI love this idea! And I’m also loving the “candy fairy” concept 🙂 I actually was just reading about a candy brittle you can make with leftover halloween chocolate. Unfortunately we were only left with the fruity candies after the trick or treaters were done. Fortunately the hubs loooooves sugar, so it’s already gone lol
OneMommy says
November 7, 2012 at 9:08 pmI love the candy fairy idea… I’m thinking we need to invent an “old toy” fairy here, too. It’s hard to get them to let go of anything.
Dawn says
November 8, 2012 at 11:28 amSometimes I have to go through the toys when they are in school to get rid of any broken ones or toys I haven’t seen them play with in a while. They have so many that they usually don’t notice that the older (and not played with) ones are gone. If I do it with them home, we get rid of nothing tho!
OneMommy says
November 9, 2012 at 3:11 pmSame here — I pick things up and hide them for a month or two. If no one asks about it, then I figure it can go. LOL
Dawn says
November 8, 2012 at 11:26 amWhat a cool idea! Or should I say yummy idea 🙂 Our school uses drawing pictures for the math (in the younger grades) and they make it difficult sometimes. Like in a little space they may have to draw 10 flowers or ducks – there have been times I told my youngest to just draw circles because there was no way she was fitting all the objects the paper said to draw!! Tho her teacher is cool about it. It is math and not drawing class lol.
I have used candy a couple times or their toys. More or less to help with math homework. It does help them out without giving them the answers 🙂
Miss Courtney says
November 8, 2012 at 12:45 pmOh, no, you made me do math with the spam protection, lol. We’ve been doing activities with candy, too. We’ve stuck to sorting/counting the individually wrapped candy. This is a great idea with smaller pieces, too.
OneMommy says
November 10, 2012 at 9:45 pmWe should try counting all of ours. Or maybe half of it at least… It would be good practice for both of them.
shari lynne @ Faith Filled Food For Moms and Grandmothers says
November 9, 2012 at 8:42 amLove this OneMommy…my Grandson would totally love it too 🙂 Boy am I looking for LOTS of ways to keep his little mind busy these days 🙂 Thanks for the great ideas you always have!
Blessings!
OneMommy says
November 9, 2012 at 3:07 pmOh, you got to keep those little minds (and hands) busy! 🙂 They seem to find their own mischievous ways to stay busy otherwise!
Lora/Kids Creative Chaos says
November 10, 2012 at 5:50 pmI wish M &M’s fell out of my cabinets. We’ve had the same peppermints and Tootsie Pops for years in a jar!
OneMommy says
November 10, 2012 at 9:43 pmLOL — Glad to hear someone else can have the same candy around for a long time….
Donna DM Yates says
November 13, 2012 at 12:35 pmSmart use for m&ms. You think of the best things.