Candy Cane Name Hunt

My son loves to sneak over to the Christmas tree when I'm not looking and steal the candy canes off of it. I thought we could channel that energy and create a candy cane activity for him... so this is what we came up with.

The main skills we worked on were:

- spelling his name

- identifying the letters in his name

- matching alphabet letters

- counting candy canes

- drawing lines (we still need to work on this a lot!)

Materials Needed: white cardstock, scissors, markers, alphabet stickers, tape, large drawing paper, and something to hang the candy canes on (we used our Christmas tree).

Directions:

1. I drew several candy canes onto paper (six- one for each letter in his name)

2. Then he drew lines on the candy canes to make stripes.

3. Next we added letter stickers. He hunted for the letters in his name and put one letter on each candy cane.

4. Then I hid the candy canes all around the tree while he went in the other room. Make sure to hide them where your child can reach.

5. While he hunted, I created a big Christmas tree on a piece of drawing paper. I drew spaces where he could trace his name at the bottom and then I wrote all the letters of his name on the tree. Once he found a candy cane on the tree he ran over to the paper tree and stuck it on top of the matching letter.

He traced his name and then found each letter.

After he discovered all of the candy canes, then it was my turn to cover my eyes and he went and hid them all over! You can easily adapt this and use other places, besides trees, to hide the candy canes.

He had so much fun hunting again and again... and again. 🙂 This is a great activity to help review different spelling words, especially your child's name. We also sang the name song we created for him while we hunted (to the tune of BINGO). Since kids can easily forget things, practicing names is one thing I like to review again and again in different fun ways.

Here are several other name activities that we've loved:

Snippin Name Ornaments

Letter Pad Name Spelling

Roll the die... and Make your name

Name Stegosaurus

Name Basketball

By the way, I had to share my little cuties with you. I am so excited for my daughter to celebrate Christmas this year- she is at such a fun age... and so is my son! I love how enthusiastic they are about everything. My son wants an LED flashlight- that's it... it is so nice how easily satisfied he is.

At this time of year I just love to take time and recognize how truly blessed I am... I especially love that I get to stay home and spend each day with these crazy kids! 

Have a great Friday!