Candy Cane Patterns

My 5 year old loves anything related to Christmas so these low-prep candy cane patterns had her giggling all the way to the tree.  Not only was she practicing early math skills like color sorting and patterns, but she was also strengthening her fine motor skills! (This makes a perfect holiday busy bag too!)

Getting Ready

To prep the Candy Cane patterns, I grabbed my daughters bead box and a handful of pipe cleaners.  I cut the pipe cleaners into 6 inch pieces and curved them to look like a candy canes.  I got 3 containers and handed them to her and asked her to sort through her bead box to fill the containers with red, white, and pink pony beads.

While she was sorting, I began adding some beads to the candy canes.  The first pattern was a simple AB pattern {red, white, red, white}, but my daughter found that way was too easy for her and she asked for “tricky” patterns. I handed her a candy cane with an AABB {pink, pink, red, red, pink, pink, red, red}.

Next, I gave her a candy cane with an ABC pattern and then an ABAC.  She thought it was hilarious that I couldn’t stump her so I handed her the empty candy canes and let her come up with patterns of her own.

Once she had finished making half a dozen candy canes, I twisted the end of the pipe cleaner over the last bead and she ran to decorate the tree. We will be able to treasure and remember these holiday decorations for years to come!

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