Use gumdrops to represent the torsos and heads of familiar animals. Attach two white gumdrops together with frosting to form the body of a bird, cat or polar bear. Use frosting to "glue on" halved candy wafers as bird wings, a piece of licorice for a cat tail or white jelly beans as bear legs and arms.
Use frosting to attach chocolate chips as eyes. Attach round candy-coated chocolates as large eyes. Break them in half to make smiling mouths.
Use frosting to glue together a dozen multicolored gumdrops to form a snake body. Paint stripes on the snake with colorful frosting. Cut the end of a piece of red licorice, and attach it to one end of the snake as a forked tongue.
Set aside plenty of red, green and white gumdrops for each student. Put any gumdrops of other colors in a separate bowl, as a snack. Instruct the students to eat only those gumdrops that are not red, green or white.
Stick a toothpick more than halfway into a styrofoam cone or ball. Let about 1/2 inch of the toothpick protrude from the styrofoam, or slightly less than the height of your gumdrops. Press the gumdrop onto the protruding toothpick, with the candy's flat side facing down.
Stick another toothpick into the styrofoam cone or ball, and top it with another gumdrop. Allow sufficient space so that your gumdrops are just touching. Alternate colors for a multicolored ball. Use predominantly green gumdrops, with an occasional red or white one, if you are using a styrofoam cone. This will give the effect of a Christmas tree.
Stick a few party picks into the styrofoam ball or cone, in between the gumdrops. Press them in just far enough that the ends wrapped in metallic paper are visible in between the gumdrops. Stick several at the top of the styrofoam cone, to simulate a star on top of a Christmas tree.
Introduce your students to various basic shapes with straight edges, including squares and triangles. Show them a picture of each two-dimensional shape, such as a square -- drawn on paper and sized so that its sides are the length of toothpicks. Set a gumdrop on each corner of the square. Connect each of the gumdrops with toothpicks, and hold up the square for your students to see.
Have the students draw squares, triangles and other shapes in crayon on paper. Let them set a gumdrop on each of the corners of their shapes and connect the gumdrops with toothpicks.
Make three-dimensional shapes such as cubes and pyramids by building up from your two-dimensional shapes. Provide students with plenty of models for creating familiar shapes. Afterward, let them experiment in building their own shapes.