I have two fun candy cane hands-on winter experiments today. Be sure you grab more ideas for winter fun on my page winter season unit study.
Candy canes are plentiful right now and did you know that they make for a tasty, easy, and inexpensive item for science experiments?
Your kids will love tasting and exploring the world of science with these two simple hands on science experiments in honor of National Candy Cane Day on December 26.
These experiments are a great way to introduce all sorts of scientific terms like hypothesis and bonds.
You can encourage them to make educated guesses (hypothesis) document results, make observations, and learn about how experiments work in general.
Don’t forget to save some to munch on while you learn about them.
Cool Candy Cane Facts
- They were first made in 1670 but didn’t make their way to American until 1847.
- Candy canes were once white, no one is sure when the red stripe was added but looking at images prior 1900, they were always white.
- The world’s largest candy cane was 63 feet tall and was created in 2011.
- Candy canes have no fat or cholesterol.
- Two billion candy canes are made each year.
- The hooks were created by hand until 1921 when a machine was invented to do it.
- The original candy cane flavor was originally used as a medicine for indigestion and nausea and then the oil was also used to help cover up the flavor of more unpleasant medicinal concoctions.
Furthermore, add some other hands-on candy cane activities.
Candy Cane Hands-on Activities
- Before you begin investigating watch How Candy Canes Are Made on YouTube.
- Here is another fun experiment you can do with candy canes Fizzing Candy Canes.
- Make some Candy Cane Paint to add some art.
- Use candy canes as counters and manipulatives for math, measure the length, grab various sizes and let your younger child arrange them in size order.
More Winter Unit Study Resources
Look at these other winter unit study resources.
- Cardinal Birds in Winter and Birch Trees Easy Watercolor Kids Activity
- Cute and Simple Snowman Story Stones Winter Art Activities
- Winter Craft Ideas How to Make Fun Pinecone Flowers
- How to Make an Adorable Toilet Roll Snowman for Winter Crafts
- Easy and Fun Pinecone Snowy Owl Winter Craft for Kindergarten
- Free Amazing Winter Unit Study and Winter Lapbook for Kids
- Easy Hands on Snowflake Winter Craft for Kids Who Don’t Have Snow
- Winter Nature Craft: How to Make Easy DIY Bird Feeders
- 3 Fun Cocoa Winter Hands on Science Activities
- How to Make an Easy Build a Snowman Kid’s Game (free printable cube)
Now, let’s have some candy cane fun.
For these two winter science activities, you’ll want to grab the supplies below.
Two Candy Cane Science Activities
Here are all the supplies you will need to gather so that you can complete both experiments:
- Mini Candy Canes
- Clear bowls or cups
- 3-5 liquids-water, sprite, milk, vinegar, etc
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- paper/pen
Now, let’s make this first one which is bending candy canes.
1. Bending Candy Canes Science Activity
For the first experiment we are first going to let your child attempt to bend a candy cane fresh out of the package, it just breaks right? Ask them why they think that is? How were candy makers able to bend it in the first place?
Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
Spread out several candy canes on parchment lined sheet.
Bake for 7-10 minutes. Start checking at 7 minutes because you want to pull them out before they begin to distort and melt.
Immediately remove parchment paper from pan and place on a flat surface away from the hot pan.
Your child can immediately pick them up and begin bending them into shapes.
You can make letters, shapes like hearts or knots, or even a cute little candy can make like this one.
You’re just a couple of minutes the candy cane will harden again into its new shape.
You can repeat the process in the oven with candy canes after they’ve hardened or with fresh ones to continue experimenting with what you can do.
2. Melting Candy Canes
Now we are going to test and see which liquid melts candy canes the fastest.
So, you will want to check this one often. We put ours in the bowls and forgot for about 45 minutes and came back to this.
First, choose your liquids, I would suggest no less than 3 to get a good reading and probably not more than 6 to keep it manageable.
Whatever number you choose to test, place that many clear bowls or cups on a surface where they will not be disturbed. Add a mini candy cane to each.
Measure exact amounts of each of the liquids and pour over the candy cane.
This is a good time to explain that when conduction an experiment like this you want to keep everything the same except for the one variable that you are testing, in this case the type of liquid.
Write each of the liquids onto a small slip of paper and place it in front of each container to keep track.
Check after 5 minutes to see how much they have dissolved; these ones were noticeably smaller.
After the first 5 minutes you want to change to every minute or two because it seems to go so much faster after that.
At less than the 10-minute mark we had a clear winner when we came back, and the vinegar had completely dissolved it.
Be sure to have your child record their guesses (hypothesis), then list the types of liquids (variables), and finally their results.
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