Candy Corn Calendars!

This is just a quick little post with our cute calendars for the month of October.  They are a super cute ripped paper craft to make a candy corn.  I used a template in the shape of a candy corn and traced it with pencil onto the black paper.  Then my sweeties went to work ripping the yellow, orange, and white paper to fill in the shape.  They glued each piece with white school glue.  I had several students tell me it was a fun job and I was happy because for once I gave myself permission to be in charge of the art table during centers.  (I call centers "jobs" in my classroom.)  The candy corns turned out so sweet! (no pun intended)

Of course I got this idea from Pinterest.  You can look at the original pin here.  I also saw a cute idea for painting a candy corn with pom poms using clothespins here.  BTW, my Pinterest board for Halloween is a great place to find ideas for activities, arts and crafts, food, and lots of freebies, not just my own.  Here is the link to my board: Happy Halloween! If you don't already follow me on Pinterest, you might want to see my other boards too.  I have lots of great boards for Pre-K through 1st grade.  Here is the link to all my boards on Pinterest.

The only thing I felt really bad about was the fact that I may be reinforcing the sugar thing by using candy as the subject of our artwork.  I teach in a community that is very healthy and I always try to reinforce this in the classroom.  So, the students and I had a very honest conversation about it during the job.  I showed them what the real candy looked like.  Many had never had one before, some had and knew what they were called.  I told them that I would let them try some on Halloween, but warned that they may not like the taste because they are VERY sweet.  We also talked about other sweet healthy treats that we liked.  It was fun to hear about the kids' favorite fruits that were in season.  We talked about how fruits and vegetables give our bodies good energy and nutrients but sugar didn't give our bodies nutrients.  It was a fun time chatting with my smart little students while they worked.

We do a monthly calendar activity in my classroom for number writing and pattern practice.  We do an art project to go with it so it is something the students can hang up at home and refer to as the month goes along.  It is a perfect way to count down to a favorite holiday like Halloween!  You can get these calendars for your classroom by clicking on the image below:

It also includes lots of ideas with photos and directions for seasonal art projects like the candy corn.  I hope you find it helpful for your class.   Thanks for stopping by and reading!

Happy teaching!