Take a trip down candy cane lane!
This is an easy sensory art project that also teaches math skills!
All you need is:
- Red paint
- 2 pieces white paper – I highly recommend cardstock for durability – regular paper can get curly or tear with lots of paint 🙂
- A candy cane pattern – you can download mine for free here
- Tape – I’d go with either masking or painters tape that will stick but not rip the paper when you remove it
Cut out the candy cane pattern and trace it onto the white paper (you can also place the pattern print out on the white paper and use a pen to trace along the outline – this will leave a slight indent in the white paper that you can cut from thereby skipping the “cutting out the pattern and tracing” steps 🙂 )
Cut out the INSIDE of the outline so you have a paper with a candy cane shaped hole…
…and tape this on top of the 2nd piece of white paper. *I suggest taping both pieces down so once your kiddo starts painting the pages won’t slide around*
Add strips of tape across the candy cane – these will be the white stripes.
Add some red paint and let your kiddo spread it all around!
*You can also give them the option of using paintbrushes or other painting tools depending on the child or what skill you are focusing on 🙂 *
Once the paper is painted to your kiddo’s desire, slowly peel the top paper off for the grand reveal!
Once dry, cut out your candy cane and use it for a math lesson on colors and patterns while allowing your kiddos to taste some yummy candy canes for an added sensory connection!
Simple color patterns are a great tool for developing more complex math skills they will need later! Not only is it working on color recognition (fancily named “classification”) but it helps them begin to learn order and routines and make logical connections and predictions!
Who knew candy canes were so educational? 😀
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