Holiday Treats for Success
I just love this time of year, don’t you? The only down side is that it is also the time of year that students can be too excited and out of control.
So, we decided to share some ways to use the idea of holiday treats for success in the classroom.
The gingerbread man is always a favorite so we start by reading Gingerbread Man book and then we read:
Gingerbread Man
After we read these books, we made our own gingerbread man. I just grabbed a gingerbread cake mix and let the students help pour in the ingredients and then we shaped it into a gingerbread man shape. The students decorated it with m&ms and then we watched the cafeteria lady place it in the oven. The class went back to the cafeteria and watched the empty cookie sheet come out. I loved watching their little faces when they saw that the gingerbread man was gone! Of course, we went all around the school looking for the missing gingerbread man. The other teachers were great about playing along and saying they thought they saw him going a certain way. We finally got back to the room and there he was on a pan on a table in our classroom and the kids got so excited when they saw him!
Gingerbread Man STEM
We also got together with our third grade STEM buddies and came up with a plan to get the gingerbread man safely across the river. The students had to come up with a design and tell us what materials they needed to make their boats. We came back the next day and tested our boats by placing them in a baby pool of water. The students took turns placing their boats in the pool and blowing them across the pool. We had an awesome discussion about why they thought certain boats made it across and others sank.
Gingerbread Math
We created this fun gingerbread math game to go along with our week of gingerbread man fun. My students were having trouble with sequencing numbers, so these cards and manipulatives were a great way for them to practice in a math center during my guided math group time. It was a fun way to practice sequencing numbers, and then we played Scoot at the end of the week. You could also tape the cards up and have the students record their answers on the recording sheet that is included. Click on the picture to read more.
Ice Cream Cone Trees
Another fun activity to do with treats is decorating an ice cream cone as a Christmas tree. Just pick up cans of green frosting and have the students use popsicle sticks to frost a cone. You can use different candies to decorate the trees. We put our trees on white styrofoam plates and made a little snow village using large marsh mellows, pretzels and m&ms for snowmen and small candy canes for sleds. Some students placed grammy bears on the sleds. We sprinkled powdered sugar for snow.
We found a great way to take the villages home is to lay the cone trees down on the plates and slide the plates into freezer gallon size bags with the child’s name written on the bags.
This is a great center to do during your holiday party. You can invite parents in to help.
Another great math center to go along with your treats theme are these cupcake word problems. There is even a cute cupcake number line included.
We also have this fun math center with manipulatives. My students loved using the whiteboards!
We couldn’t leave you without telling you about one of our most popular games. Students love our Candy Brain Bounce! Read over hundreds of comments about this fun game! 
Read about Holidays Around the World activities here.
We hope that you will get a chance to try some of these fun activities with treats, and we wish y’all a very Merry Christmas and a great winter Break!
