Candyland!

Sign made our amazing art teacher!

The beginning of November, I had an idea to turn our grade level hallway into Candyland.  My partner-in-crime (Mr. Mason,) and I were getting ready to pitch the idea to our team when I had an even BIGGER idea - turn the entire school into Candyland!  Teachers could then incorporate Candyland into what they were teaching.  Activities would be done the last week leading up to winter break.

We went to admin for approval and they LOVED IT!

We shared Candyland activity ideas with teams.  Everyone was super excited!  

Mr. Mason was in charge of planning out the decorations.  Starting Friday, 12/10, Mr. Mason and I worked before school and stayed late after school hanging up the decorations.  We put the finishing touches on 10 days later.  We were so incredibly lucky that many of our colleagues helped us decorate!  Each day as the scholars came in, they were wowed by the new decorations!  Actually, I'm not sure who was more excited - the staff or the scholars!  

I am going to divide up the remaining part of the blog into four sections.

1. Video tour
2. Pictures
3. Classroom activities
4. Thank yous!

Part 1 - Video tour

Please check out this video tour of Candyland! It is 11 and 1/2 minutes long.

Part 2 - Pictures

This will be the longest section of the blog. I am breaking up the pictures by hallway / Candyland area.

Peppermint Pass

A full view of the hallway.

Balloons were provided by our Beth and DeeDee. There are peppermint garlands on the windows.

How cute is that gingerbread person?



A better view of the peppermint garlands on the display case windows. (The case was already set up like that - we just added the peppermint.)

Another adorable gingerbread!

View of the back wall. There are peppermints and snowflakes on the tree.



Peppermints hanging from the ceiling!

Cupcake Commons

I love the cupcake garland!

We are so happy we put the cupcakes on construction paper.  It really made them POP on the wall!

Ice Cream Slopes

I love the ice cream hanging from the ceiling!

Gummy Hills

I LOVE this garland!  We have one at the other end of it!

We purchased the gummy bear fabric and cut it into four pieces so we could place it around the hallway.

Gingerbread

We also put the gingerbread people on construction people.

Cutest gingerbread garland EVER!

How cozy!

Another garland to end the hallway.

Licorice Lagoon

I love the simplicity of this hallway.

Lollipop Woods

Hodge-podge - This area encompasses four different Candyland sections.  So we just decorated it with our school colors and then some sweet treats on the walls / windows.

Ice Palace

My favorite decoration EVER!

Instead of hanging the white garland, we thought it would be better to put it on blue paper and then we would hang the paper.  We have a few of them around the hallway.  It looks amazing!

Chocolate Mountain

I just love this garland.  

Brown snowflakes created by my teammate.  

Candy Castle - We cannot take any credit for Candy Castle. We have an amazing before / after school program and the ladies that run it (Beth and DeeDee) are PHENOMENAL! They took care of decorating this space and I couldn't be more thrilled with their décor! <3

Part 3 - Activities

Aside from playing the actual Candyland game, teachers incorporated Candyland into what they were teaching.

Here are some of the activities:

• Learned about the history of Gingerbread
• Wrote about how to capture the Gingerbread man
• Created snowflakes (like the ones in the chocolate hallway)
• Division Land math - lots of word problems surrounding gummy bears, peppermints, and other items found on the game board.
• Solved math problems about the game pieces in the hallway (multiplication, division, measurement, estimating, etc...)
• Created gingerbread houses
• Skittles multiplication and place value
• STEM boat building project to see how many lifesavers it could hold without sinking
• Wrote about their favorite decorated area after a tour of the school
• Wrote poems - and they got to choose which kind of poem
• Candyland cartography 
• Candyland math review
• Candyland scavenger hunt

Here are some pictures of the scholars in action!

Part 4 - THANK YOU!

This transformation was a labor of love!  There are so many people to thank.

I have to first thank Mr. Mason for seeing my vision and bringing it to life.  Thank you for going up and down the step ladder a million times to hang up streamers!  Thank you for EVERYTHING!  Now, let's have some peppermint hot chocolate!

Thank you to my administration for giving us the green light on this project and supporting us all the way.

Thank you to everyone who helped decorate! People were blowing up balloons, hanging streamers, putting paper on the walls, reinforcing all wall decorations, and every little task in between.

Thank you to those who made decorations or gave us decorations to use.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Mr. Mason and I wanted to thank our volunteers so we made cute little Candyland theme bags, complete with peppermints, fruit snacks (for the gummy bears), miniature chocolate, lollipops, and a cookie.  We also got cute little ice cream thank you cards.  We put labels on the bags that said "You helped make Candyland sweet.  So please enjoy this treat!"  We really cannot thank them enough.

Meanwhile, two staff members decided to thank me and Mr. Mason.  They got each of us an edible version of Candyland!  Who knew those existed?  Oh my word!  Thank you both.  You are so sweet. :-)

One final thank you to all who helped us.  We could not have done this without your help.  

Have a wonderful holiday - no matter what you celebrate.
Have a Happy New Year.

Please stay safe and healthy!

~Stacey~