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I can't believe I haven't posted since last Wednesday! I hope you are having a fabulous December so far. My daughter and I went on a girls trip this past weekend and I am slowly recovering now that we are home.
Today I wanted to share a simple candy cane counting and hunt activity that we did over the weekend.
If you subscribe to our A Very Toddler Christmas Newsletter, then this isn't a new activity for you, but I will be sharing a few new candy cane resources that I have curated, so scroll down!
Materials Needed:
candy canes (see... I said it was simple)
How to play:
Count together and figure out how many candy canes you have. Then have your child cover their eyes and count to 10 while you hide all the candy canes around the room.
Next, help your child hunt for all the candy canes. My daughter needed a few hints here and there... and we helped by playing hot/cold with her. Eventually she found them all.
Once all the candy canes were found, she counted them up to make sure she'd found them all.
This activity was quick, completely engaging, and got my daughter practicing simple counting skills. Although she can count to 15 verbally, she is still learning about 1:1 correspondence and doesn't count objects one at a time very well yet. This activity gave her a chance to practice.
We have played this game by hiding candy canes around the room or all around the tree. Both have been fun!
Here are a few other candy cane ideas we like:
Candy Cane Playdough via Growing a Jeweled Rose
Candy Cane Rice via Learn Play Imagine
Candy Cane Sensory Tubes via Teach Preschool
Candy Cane Banner via Christmas Your Way
Our Candy Cane Hunt is part of the Move and Learn Series that I am participating in along with Hands On: As We Grow, The Pleasantest Thing, and Coffee Cups and Crayons. I loved that it got me moving along with my kids!
Make sure to check out this week’s other Move and Learn activities below and then join the four of us next week for even more move and learn ideas!
Find and Write Letter Scavenger Hunt via Coffee Cups & Crayons
10 Active Ideas for Toddler Counting via The Pleasantest Thing
You can also check out our Move and Learn Pinterest Board for more inspiration! Or see the other posts we've shared in this series...
Christmas Music Workout with Kids
Turkey Alphabet Race Game with Alpha-Bits
Addition Crawling Game for Kids
Alphabet Jogging Game for Kids
Sight Word Target Practice (guest post at I Can Teach My Child)
Fall Leaf Number Movement Game
In addition to doing simple Christmas learning activities like this one, we are also Keeping Christmas Cozy and are doing some fun advent activities with my older and younger kids. You can buy your own printable set for a recently reduced price of $3.99. Check out my Making the Holidays Cozy post for more details.
My 2 year old and I did this today, and he absolutely loved it! He also loved hiding the candy canes for me (even though he kept hiding them in the same spot)! Thanks for sharing a great activity!
So glad he enjoyed it Stacy!! Thanks for taking a sec to let me know. We did it again today too.