Old Candy? Do this!

Published January 28, 2026 | By Ms. K

What teacher doesn’t love clearance items? After Christmas I scooped up some clearance candy canes…you know the cute little ones. With candy you will always hold student attention. While I didn’t promise candy canes to the children, they were still very attentive.

1.Here’s what I did in one of my favorite lessons.I taught SCAMPER (an acronym to help creative thinking) and what it stands for. (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Rearrange.) Click link for a free worksheet. I had already made a similar one.

2. I show the children this video which explains SCAMPER. (sometimes I’m not sure if the man intentionally included a “pun” on the word “nuts” to mean something inappropriate to children, but I’m pretty sure young children don’t pick up on this, so I show it anyway.

3. You could do SCAMPER with any item, but I hold a large candy cane and ask students to help think of ideas for what we could do with the candy cane to increase sales. We do two examples together–usually substitute and combine. If someone has a great idea, I give the child lots of praise. Then the ideas keep coming. I even ham it up and tell the children they are advertising executives trying to make a company money with their original idea. I have them practice (pretend) walking like an executive, straightening out their tie and business suit as they walk back to their chair.

4. After children get started, I allow them to create their own ideas. I only read the word like ADAPT, MODIFY, PUT TO ANOTHER USE etc. and have the children write their idea in a complete sentence. I pause after each word to allow the children time to think and write.

5. I have children draw their favorite idea and students share their ideas in closing.