Posts Tagged ‘candy’

Unique Box of Holiday Treats

Thursday, December 6th, 2018

box-of-holiday-treats

My daughter sent a unique box of holiday treats to her aunt last Christmas because she wanted her aunt to feel special. We bought an inexpensive box that looked like a book, and we painted it. (It looks brown like a cardboard box before it is painted.) You can get a box like this at any craft supply store.

You can use tempera paint or acrylic paint, whatever you have on hand. First my daughter drew the design with pencil on the box. Then she painted it. She had to paint the back of the box on a different day so that the paint on the front would be dry.

Since it was Christmastime, she decided to draw a cute snowman standing in the snow. She used white for the snow and light blue for the sky, highlighting the words and accessories with red paint.

box-treat-craft

After the box was finished, we made some marble fudge (with white and dark chocolate swirled together) and decorated a gingerbread man. Lastly, we added a bag of candy, including chocolate gold coins, Hershey kisses, and mini chocolate bars.

Christmas-treats

When the package arrived at her aunt’s house, she was pleasantly surprised, and she most definitely felt loved!

Candy Experiments

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010

candy-experiments

Whenever there is too much candy in the house is a great opportunity to do candy experiments. One experiment is the acid test. Pour water into several glasses, and plunk in a candy into each one. If the candy is sour, it will be more fun. Dump a spoon of baking soda into the water. If bubbles appear, the candy is acidic.

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Another experiment is to see whether candy dissolves faster in cold or hot water. (The molecules move faster in hot water, which is why it dissolves faster.)

My daughter was watching as M&M’s dissolved in a shallow pan of water. She stuck a paper towel into it and saw the color creep up the paper towel.

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You can do a sinking and floating experiment, to see which candies are denser than water. None of our candy floated, since it was hard candy. Lighter candy like 3 Musketeers would float, but who wants to ruin chocolate? Chocolate is never a left-over candy at our house.

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The most fun activity we did during these candy experiments was to throw M&M’s into some water to dissolve. (I know, I’m wasting perfectly good chocolate, but this experiment is worth it.) The M’s began floating on the top of the water, disconnected from the M&M’s. (The wax from the M’s was less dense than water.) It was almost like a magic trick.