Why not prepare a snack that you can turn into a scientific experiment for young children? Show children a candy cane. If you have several children, let each child examine a candy cane. Ask them if they have any idea how this treat was created. Allow them time to brainstorm, be silly and genuinely think about the process. Write down their ideas. Then gather the ingredients needed to make your own candy canes: sugar, light corn syrup, water, cream of tartar, peppermint oil or another favorite flavoring and food coloring. Let the children look at the ingredients and, if they want to, change their "hypothesis" about how candy canes are made. The notes will make a great review once you have actually made your own candy canes. The children can evaluate if their hypothesis was correct. Find recipe directions for candy canes at theteacherscorner.net (see Resources).
Children grasp scientific ideas and concepts best when they are discussed before, during and after the experiment. So once you have completed the cooking and creative process, return to the previous discussion about how to make candy canes. How were the children's thoughts similar or different from the actual process? Take the time to explain how the separate ingredients worked together once combined and heated.
Since snow and Christmas seem to go together even for those only wish for it, plan a science activity for a snowy day. Using a square of aluminum foil, a square of black cloth, show children how a dark cloth absorbs light and aluminum foil reflects it. Go outside to find a sunny location covered with snow. Lay the patch of black cloth and the piece of aluminum foil side by side in the snow. Wait one hour, then return to see which of the pieces has sunk deepest into the snow.
After students evaluate the results of your experiment, explain that the black cloth sunk deeper into the snow because the cloth itself absorbed the heat of the sun and melted into the snow, while the aluminum foil reflected the sun and therefore did not melt into the snow.