Putting The Pretty In Preschool

Finding Beauty In Everyday Early Childhood Experiences

Paint Pour Ice Cake Sensory Play

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Drip cakes are a popular trend at the moment. After seeing a fascinating drip cake-decorating video online, I thought it would be fun to try a similar technique with tempera paint and a three-tier ice cake. It turned out to be a paint pour ice cake sensory play invitation, and the icy activity was a huge success. I highly recommend giving it a try.

It is winter in my part of the world right now, and this paint pour sensory activity fits the season. But it would work any time of the year indoors or outdoors using of-the-moment seasonal colors.

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Supplies To Collect

To set up a paint pour ice cake sensory activity, gather the following supplies:

  • sensory tub
  • small square coffee table
  • waterproof tablecloth
  • tarp
  • round food storage containers in various sizes
  • a variety of ice cube trays
  • tempera paints in turquoise, pink, light purple, and white hues
  • small soda or water bottles
  • shovels
  • toy dinosaurs

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Setting Up The Paint Pour Ice Cake Activity

This sensory invitation is easy from start to finish. The first thing to do is collect round food storage containers and gather all the ice cube trays you can find. Freeze water in them outdoors on a cold day or in a freezer to make ice. This will take about 24 to 48 hours.

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Next, pour tempera paint in turquoise, pink, light purple, and white hues into clear bottles with narrow spouts. Small milk or soda bottles are perfect for this activity. Mix a little water into the paint colors to make them easy to pour.

Then cover an area of the floor with a tarp or large round waterproof tablecloth and set down a small coffee table.

Cover the table with a waterproof tablecloth and place a sensory tub on it. For the featured activity, I used an inexpensive saucer sled. It is just the right size to fit four to six little learners around it. An active world tray would be a fine alternative.

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When the ice shapes are frozen, stack the large cylindrical ones into a three-tier cake in the middle of the tub. Spread ice cubes in various sizes and shapes around the ice cake.

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Paint Pour Ice Cake Sensory Play

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When the ice cake sensory play invitation is all set up, invite little learners to gather around.

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Have your little charges take turns pouring paint from a bottle on top of the cake. The children will be enthralled by the dripping hues.

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After all the paint has been poured, include shovels and dinosaurs in the tub for added sensory play opportunities.

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The paint colors will eventually tone down and blend, allowing little learners to experience a color-changing science experiment.

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More Winter Sensory Play Activities

Polar Animal Sensory Play

Winter-themed Treasure Blocks

Winter Playdough Recipe

Kid’s Winter Wonderland Tablescape

LLama-Inspired Winter Sensory Bin

Snowy Owl Sensory Bin

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Giant Snowflake Printmaking

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This giant snowflake printmaking project gives children a chance to paint on a different canvas and practice a printmaking technique in an ombre color scheme. A large, slatted wooden snowflake is the inspiration and unique find for this printmaking activity.

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Snowflake Printmaking Craft Supplies

For this gigantic snowflake printmaking activity, gather the following supplies:

  • large slatted wooden snowflake
  • turquoise, red, blue, and white tempera paints
  • paint pots and paintbrushes
  • spoons
  • large sheets of paper

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The Giant Snowflake Printmaking Process

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To do this snowflake printmaking activity, select a large, wooden snowflake for the canvas. This oversized snowflake with four wooden slats works perfectly for an ombre painting activity.

Next, choose tempera paint colors. In this ombre design, the chosen colors are shades of blue, pink, and turquoise.

Then stir white paint into the red, blue, and turquoise temperas to create hues to your liking. Varying amounts of white mixed with blue tempera paint make the light and medium blue hues. White added to red makes a pastel pink shade. And white added to turquoise makes the lighter hue.

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Afterward, set out the paints in pots and add a paintbrush to each one.

Paint each slat a different paint color. Apply the colors generously, and make sure to give the outside edges an extra good coat.

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Finally, carefully flip the wooden snowflake over onto an 11-inch x 14-inch piece of sturdy art paper, or an 11-inch x 17-inch piece of copy paper. Press firmly on all parts of the unpainted side of the snowflake, and then lift it off carefully.

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Tip: You may want to make two prints for your first try with this painting technique. The tempera paint will transfer over better on the second try.

When the paint print snowflake is dry, trim the top and bottom edges of the paper. Or cut the colorful snowflake out.

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The wooden snowflake canvas can be used over and over if you are introducing this printmaking activity to a group of children.

Large printed snowflakes positioned at different angles display beautifully together.

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Helping Little Learners Experience The Printmaking Process

Little learners will need help when performing this giant snowflake printmaking activity in the following ways:

  • painting each slat the appropriate color
  • applying paint to all areas of the wooden canvas
  • flipping the snowflake over to make a print on paper

In this activity, they can label and match colors, learn about an ombre color scheme, and practice a printmaking art activity.

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Variations Of This Giant Snowflake Printmaking Activity

To follow up this art experience, invite participants to paint the snowflake canvas any way they would like to allow for individual creativity.

A second idea is to offer wooden snowflakes in a smaller size. This gives little learners a chance to make snowflake prints independently.

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More Winter Activities

Winter Playdough Recipe

Spray Paint Snowflake Silhouette

Blue Candy Cane Science Experiment

Winter-themed Treasure Blocks

Igloo Camping Pretend Play

Polar Bear Small World

Winter Sensory Trays

Painting Ice and Snow

Winter Wreath Paper Plate Craft

Ice Drum Musical Instruments

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Snowflake Cafe Dramatic Play

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The weather is super snowy and cold in my part of the world right now, and this Snowflake Café dramatic play center fits right in. The center incorporates many loose parts, which little learners love to use in imaginative ways.

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Snowflake Restaurant Supplies

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The following supplies are in the snowflake café set up:

  • acrylic snowflakes and gems
  • white styrofoam balls
  • felt, foam, and wooden snowflakes
  • ice cream play food
  • iridescent bead necklaces
  • snowflake-themed bells
  • metal trays, cookie pans, and muffin tray
  • frosted disposable goblets
  • disposable plates
  • clear spoons and forks
  • play coffee machine and cups
  • play money
  • restaurant signs and menu items
  • table and chairs with a vase of flowers

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The Snowflake Cafe

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The color scheme for the winter-themed Snowflake Café dramatic play center is blue, white, silver, and gold.

Snowflakes in various sizes and materials make up a large part of the play food. In checking my supplies and scouring stores in our area I found them in felt, foam, acrylic, and wood.

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The wooden snowflakes are painted with gold, silver, or shades of blue acrylic craft paint to match the color scheme.

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Including play spaghetti in my dramatic play centers is so fun. In the café iridescent necklaces cut into strips are the noodles, and small snowflake-themed bells are the meatballs.

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Styrofoam balls are snow cupcakes or muffins.

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Disposable frosted goblets and silver trays add elegance to the center.

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Little learners love to mix and match supplies in the snowflake café and use their imagination to decide what play food the loose parts will be. They relish in preparing food, serving it to customers, and handling play money.

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Variation Of The Snowflake Cafe

Below, the loose parts and clear tableware in the Snowflake Cafe along with a few additional supplies set the tone for an inviting dining experience on the light table.

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Related:

Winter Pretend Play Tablescape

Lemonade Stand Dramatic Play

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Snowy Owl Sensory Bin

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This snowy owl sensory bin is a fun way to teach about predators and prey and can be set up in minutes. There are plenty of mice in the hide-and-seek bin, but there’s nothing to be afraid of in this winter play invitation.

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Snowy Owls and Mice

Snowy owls live in polar regions, but some make their way further south. The majestic birds have excellent vision and exceptional hearing ability and can detect mice and other rodents traveling through tunnels beneath snow in winter. Hunting by day or night, they can dive through the snow, grab a mouse with their talons, and then swallow it whole.

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Snowy Owl Sensory Bin Supplies

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Just a few supplies are in this cheeky snowy owl sensory bin:

  • cotton balls
  • paper towel rolls
  • toy mice
  • owl figurine
  • rocks
  • small logs

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The Snowy Owl Sensory Bin

A round saucer sled works well as a bin for this winter white sensory activity. It is big enough to hold a variety of supplies, but small enough to be easy to fill.

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A large snowy owl figurine is the main character in the bin. A stuffed animal owl would be an awesome alternative.

Cotton balls spread out in the bin represent snow.

Paper towel rolls cut to shorter lengths or left whole serve as tunnels. The paper rolls signify how mice dig tunnels in the snow and travel through them to find food on the ground to eat during the snowy months. The scurrying mice also use them to get to their underground burrows.

Mice come in a variety of colors, such as white, brown, or grey. In this sensory setup, steel grey rubber mice are the snowy owl prey.

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Many snowy owls live far north above the tree line and never see a tree during their lifetime. Some snowy owls venture further south, still choosing open areas to live in. Perched on a high vantage post such as a tree or fencepost, they scan the surrounding area for prey such as mice to eat. Thus a few rocks and logs are added to this second sensory bin.

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Snowy Owl Sensory Bin Learning Opportunities

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This snowy owl sensory bin play invitation is perfect for learning facts about snowy owls and mice, and learning about predators and prey. Discussing hard and soft, long and short, and heavy and light items facilitates language. Practice in counting mice and developing eye-hand coordination when taking mice in and out of their tunnels are other educational benefits.

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More Polar Animal Activities

Winter-themed Treasure Blocks

Igloo Camping Pretend Play

Polar Bear Small World

Winter Sensory Trays

Winter Wreath Paper Plate Craft

Scissor Skill Snow Cutting Activities

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New Year’s Rice Bin

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A sensory bin is one of the easiest ways to usher in a new theme, and this new year’s rice bin does just that. I have this gold and silver-laden bin waiting for my preschoolers to explore when they return from their Christmas break next week.

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Supplies In The Bin

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The following supplies are in the glitzy bin:

  • gold and silver wrapped foam mini presents
  • silver star-shaped dessert cups
  • tiny gold trophies
  • gold play coins
  • silver beads
  • gold clip tree decorations
  • gold spoon
  • silver bell ornament

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New Year’s Rice Bin

As with many of my sensory activities on the blog, a white bus tub is the bin of choice. It is large enough for two or three children to explore comfortably and doesn’t require an exorbitant amount of sensory base.

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White glutinous rice is the base for the bin, another one of my favorite sensory supplies.

Scooping and pouring rice using the tiny gold trophies and silver star-shaped dessert cups develops eye-hand coordination.

Little learners can gather and count the gold coins.

Gold clip tree decorations and silver beads (cut from a garland) add glitz to the bin.

Spoons are a basic accessory my preschoolers always want to be included in a sensory bin.

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The silver bell is not just a plain bell. It is shaped like an octopus. To see how it is made, view my blog post Octopus Christmas Craft. There is a free template to download should you decide to make an octopus-themed bell to help ring in the new year.

Happy New Year!

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More New Year’s Activities

New Year’s Eve Sensory Tray

New Year’s All Gold Sensory Activity

New Year’s Countdown Activities

New Year’s Crafts

New Year’s Sensory Tray

New Year’s Art and Math Activities

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Octopus Christmas Craft

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Bells and Christmas go hand in hand, and this jingly octopus Christmas craft fits right in. It is easy to make and is guaranteed to be treasured by your little learners.

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Supplies To Collect

Gather the following supplies to make all three colors of this Christmas musical instrument craft:

  • red, green, and silver cardstock paper
  • large red, green, and silver jingle bells
  • small Christmas foam balls
  • wiggly eyes
  • white glue
  • scissors and pencil

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Making the Octopus Christmas Craft

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To make this festive musical craft, start by cutting out a circular design with eight curved legs from red, green, and silver cardstock paper. Feel free to download this octopus template to use for the craft.

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Octopus Craft PrintableDownload

This printable is for individual or one classroom use only.

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Next, use white glue or a glue gun to adhere a large jingle bell in the same color to the middle of the eight-legged base.

Afterward, glue a similarly colored small glitter foam ball to the tip of each paper leg.

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Finally, add two wiggly eyes to the jingle bell-themed octopus.

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Variations Of This Octopus Christmas Craft

Here are a few ways to vary the octopus craft to make it your own:

Instead of using a large jingle bell for the leggy craft, use a similarly-sized foam ball that has been spray-painted with red, green, or silver paint.

Rather than adhering small foam balls to the tips of the legs, glue on small jingle bells or large round beads cut from garland. Either of these will add a little weight to the octopus legs, allowing the metallic decoration to hang nicely when held.

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Each octopus Christmas craft can be made in two or three complementary colors instead of a monochrome palette.

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Christmas Octopus Craft Play

This jingle jangle Christmas craft is not just meant to look pretty sitting on a decorated mantle. Set the shiny octopuses out in a space your little learners can access. Tell them that this craft is a musical instrument, so should be handled gently. The wiggly-eyed octopuses will be moved around to different spots and your little charges will enjoy listening to their soft and gentle musical sounds.  

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The octopus Christmas craft also makes unique jingle bells for your little learners to use to accompany popular holiday songs such as Jingle Bells and Jingle Bells Rock.

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More Christmas Crafts

Paper Airplane Christmas Craft

Spin Painting Poinsettia Craft

Paper Bag Christmas Ornaments

Monochromatic Christmas Tree Art

CD Case Christmas Craft

Christmas Sheep Craft

Washi Tape Christmas Pots

Handprint Angel Craft

Turtle Christmas Craft

Christmas Tree Art

Christmas Dove Art

Handprint Angel Christmas Keepsake

Woodland Fox Treat Holder

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Snowflake Reindeer Craft

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This snowflake reindeer craft is a fun Christmas one to include in your rotation of festive activities. It gives little learners a chance to use scissors and paint and help create an animal craft. Download the free printable to make this craft super easy to put together.

The original plan for this activity was to create a neutral snowflake reindeer paper craft. The neutral paper proved to be a little hard to cut into snowflakes, so my little charges moved on to cutting shapes from coffee filters instead. This led to painting them in pink, purple, and turquoise hues, not anywhere near actual reindeer colors. So we ended up making brown red-nosed reindeer, and others in turquoise, pink, and purple hues.

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Snowflake Reindeer Craft Supplies

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Gather the following supplies to make this cute snowflake reindeer craft:

  • round coffee filters
  • brown, pink, purple, and turquoise liquid watercolors or tempera paint blocks
  • paint pots
  • paintbrushes
  • brown, turquoise, purple, white, cream, and grey cardstock paper
  • red, pink, and teal pompoms
  • wiggly eyes
  • glue stick
  • white glue
  • scissors

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The Snowflake Reindeer Craft

To make the reindeer craft, start by having participants fold and cut coffee filters into snowflake designs. A lovely blog post by supermakeit.com shows how to create them.

Next, invite participants to paint a snowflake light brown, using liquid watercolor paint or tempera blocks made wet with water.

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While the painted coffee filter snowflakes are drying, cut reindeer heads and legs from brown cardstock, and antlers from cream-colored cardstock. Older children can do this themselves. Feel free to download this pattern to make craft preparation easier.

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Reindeer Craft PatternDownload

This printable is for individual or one classroom use only.

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Afterward, have participants use a glue stick to adhere their decorated snowflake to the center of 8 ½ x 11-inch or 12-inch x 12-inch cardstock paper.

Then guide them in using their glue stick to tack on the reindeer’s head, antlers, and legs.

Finally, have them use white glue to adhere two wiggly eyes and a red pompom nose to their reindeer.

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In addition to having children paint snowflakes in a neutral hue, set out a few other paint colors. Purple, pink, and turquoise are good color choices for painting them. Offer complementary-colored cardstock for the reindeer heads, antlers, noses, and legs.

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More Christmas Crafts

Paper Airplane Christmas Craft

Spin Painting Poinsettia Craft

Paper Bag Christmas Ornaments

Monochromatic Christmas Tree Art

CD Case Christmas Craft

Christmas Sheep Craft

Washi Tape Christmas Pots

Handprint Angel Craft

Turtle Christmas Craft

Christmas Tree Art

Christmas Dove Art

Handprint Angel Christmas Keepsake

Woodland Fox Treat Holder

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[Read more…] about Snowflake Reindeer Craft

Candy Cane Wreath Experiment

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It’s tradition for me to do a candy cane science experiment every December, and each year I arrange the candy canes in a new way or change up the sizes and colors of the sweet treat. In this post, I debut my latest design, a candy cane wreath experiment.

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Supplies to Collect

Gathering supplies for this simple science experiment couldn’t be any easier. Just select an edged waterproof tray, and purchase a package of candy canes. You may have some on hand already. Then fill a pitcher or large glass with water and you are good to go.

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The Candy Cane Wreath Experiment

To perform this inexpensive color science experiment, arrange candy canes around the edge of a waterproof tray in a wreath-like shape.

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If you look closely, you’ll notice one or two broken candy canes in the tray and a few oddly shaped ones. This science experiment is the perfect use for them, as I wouldn’t have wanted to hand those out as treats.

Next, slowly pour water into the tray until the candy canes are just covered in liquid.

Then watch what happens. You’ll see the candy cane colors slowly spread through the water.

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Note: The color changes happen quickly. Stay by the science experiment and have your camera ready to snap a few pictures.

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After a little while, you can carry on with other activities and periodically check in on the experiment to see even more color changes and view the candy canes melting away.

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The Science Behind This Candy Cane Color Experiment

Candy canes are made of sugar. The water breaks the sugar molecules apart. Then the food colors move through the water away from areas of higher sugar concentration (near the candy) to areas with less sugar. When the sugar concentration is the same in all areas, the colors stop moving.

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More Candy Cane Activities

Candy Cane Playdough Tray

Mini Candy Cane Tree Experiment

Christmas Peppermint Sensory Bin

Blue Candy Cane Science Experiment

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Candy Cane Playdough Tray

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If you need a quick activity to do with the children in your life, this candy cane playdough tray has got you covered. A lovely peppermint smell wafting through the air is a highlight of this playdough invitation.

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Making The Candy Cane Playdough

A simple no-cook homemade playdough recipe is the base for this activity. I love the recipe featured on The Artful Parent website and use it regularly. It is easy and quick to make and keeps about as well as the cooked version.

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Next, knead in crushed candy cane bits. The playdough is ready to use. So easy!

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Or, give participants the creamy white playdough and sprinkle candy cane bits on the table. Invite everyone to blend crushed candy cane bits into their playdough. They will love seeing the playdough change colors as the candy cane pieces are kneaded in.

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Note: Some of the crushed candy cane bits appear a little sharp. They didn’t poke or irritate my skin while testing out the festive dough. When I offered this playdough invitation to staff and students, they thoroughly enjoyed it.

The more candy cane pieces that are added, the more colorful the playdough will become. And it may be a little mushy when used again on another day. If you would like the playdough to have a second or third use, be a little sparing in adding crushed candy cane bits to the white dough.

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Crushing Candy Canes for the Playdough

You can crush candy canes for this play invitation if you do not have ready-to-use crushed ones on hand.

Just stick candy canes in the freezer for about twenty minutes. Then place them in a sealed Ziplock bag and smash them on a cutting board with a mallet, rolling pin, or meat pounder. Another method is to break candy canes into small pieces after taking them out of the freezer and then grind them to the desired coarseness in a coffee grinder. Children would love to get in on the candy cane crushing.

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The Candy Cane Playdough Tray

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Offer a rolling pin, disposable knife, and a few Christmas cookie cutters to participants exploring candy cane playdough. Here are some accessories to consider adding:

  • non-breakable candy cane and gingerbread decorations
  • candy cane cookie cutters
  • green, red, and white buttons and pony beads
  • peppermint candy and gingerbread man erasers

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More Christmas Playdough Activities

Christmas Playdough

Santa Claus Playdough Tray

Orange-Scented Playdough Invitation

Gingerbread Playdough

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Paper Airplane Christmas Craft

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Children tend to get more and more energetic during the countdown to Christmas, and this paper airplane Christmas craft is bound to put some of that boundless energy to productive use. With the holiday airplane, children can transport paper passengers to the North Pole and back…so fun!

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Supplies To Collect

Gather the following supplies for this Christmas air transportation craft:

  • red and green copy paper
  • recycled Christmas or gift cards
  • number stickers
  • scissors
  • glue stick or glue gun
  • black marker

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The Paper Airplane Christmas Craft

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To make the craft, fold 8 ½ x 11- inch pieces of red and green copy paper into airplanes. I picked a basic model for the craft. HGTV has a great blog post titled “How To Make A Paper Airplane” detailing how to design it and craft a few other unique airplane styles.

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Then, select recycled Christmas or gift cards with animal or snowman characters and cut around them. A cardstock Santa would be fun to include too.

Next, use a glue stick or glue gun to affix the cutouts in the middle of Christmas planes. Then add more glue in spots that keep the airplanes folded together. As an alternative, use tape to secure the folded paper into airplane shapes.

Afterward, using a black marker, write the name of a North Pole airline on one side of the airplanes, and add number stickers to the other side. Or use the marker for the numbers too.

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Now the Christmas airplanes are ready to be tested in a flight. Little aviators can see how high, far, and fast their airplane can fly.

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Variations of the Paper Airplane Christmas Craft

Here are two variations of this festive airliner craft:

  • Use thin Christmas-themed double-sided scrapbook paper for the airplanes. This is an easy way to add color and pattern to the craft.
  • Use photo cutouts of your child and his friends to insert into the plane instead of animals, snowmen, and Santas.               

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More Christmas Crafts:

Spin Painting Poinsettia Craft

Paper Bag Christmas Ornaments

Monochromatic Christmas Tree Art

CD Case Christmas Craft

Christmas Sheep Craft

Washi Tape Christmas Pots

Handprint Angel Craft

Turtle Christmas Craft

Christmas Tree Art

Christmas Dove Art

Handprint Angel Christmas Keepsake

Woodland Fox Treat Holder

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