Beachy Sand Cups {Digging for Killer Whale Teeth}

We finally finished our Arctic/Antarctic unit that's been keeping us sane busy so far this summer.  This is one of the treats I came up with to tie in with the theme.  I had the kids dig for killer whale teeth that I hid in the "sand" layer of these pudding cups.  They thought this was great messy fun.  (In case you're wondering... Orca's live in the Arctic... thus the Arctic connection.  Yes, I know it gets a bit confusing when it looks all beachy and tropical.)

This is just another version of worm "dirt cups", that layers pudding and crushed cookies.  It can be adapted lots of ways. These carrot patch dirt cups are one of my favorites! You could also hide dinosaur fossils in there, shells, really whatever you want in place of the killer whale teeth.  I made the "teeth" out of airheads, and my starfish out of a Starburst, but Laffy Taffys and pretty much any other flexible candy like this will work and you can mold whatever you want.  If you're going beachy you can add  one of those little drink umbrellas to the sand.  How cute would little cups of this be for a beach birthday party?

Also while we're discussing this.  I desperately need to know what the"mystery" flavor of white Airheads is.  I lose sleep over it at night people.

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This is completely off-topic so feel free to stop reading here if you don't have kids or aren't interested in educational kid type things.  You can just scroll down to the recipe and I won't hold it against you.  I wanted to post some of the things we did for our Arctic unit because I found it so hard to find preschool/kindergarten appropriate activities online!  I thought for sure someone had done this with their kids and couldn't believe the internet was void of almost anything.  I will probably post similar recaps for each of our units this summer if we ever get around to them.  Here are a few of the things we did:

Read a book about Northern Lights and painted our own:

Read a book about polar bears, then made this textured bear out of coconut and glue:

Filled out this polar bear writing sheet after visiting them at the zoo and observing their behavior:

Played an Arctic Animal file folder game where you learn facts about each of the animals, then made this comparison chart: (HILARIOUS what kids will come up with for the "acts" category.  I did not help at all and was laughing my head off about some of the things he said.)

Read a super cute book about where animals go in the winter, colored and put together this page:  (Great comprehension/recall activity because all the information was in the book!)

Read about walruses and made this guy:  (Uhhh yeah so those white things are his tusks.  I had to REALLY resist helping Chase draw his mouth LOWER so the tusks came out in the right place... I struggle with kid art.  But I think the seal with chin-teeth turned out pretty cute too, so the resisting was not totally in vain.)

Read a book about Inuksuks and built our own:

 

Read about the Inuit people and made an igloo out of sugar cubes and frosting.  Garnished with Arctic Toob people & animals:

We also played some iceberg math mat games, did some penguin time-telling and money cards and penguin pattern block sheets.  We did this AWESOME experiment that shows how blubber keeps animals warm. (We chose to put our hands in the cold water first, and then into the blubber glove second.  I think this makes more of an impact.)

One of Chase's favorites was ice fishing math.  I made a little fishing pole with a safety pin on the end and he used it to pick up two number magnets (just flip them magnet-side up so they'll attract the safety pin) and then wrote out the addition problem for the two numbers and solved it.

Since the kids have been sick for going on two weeks now... the unit took a LOT longer than planned, and I'm going to hurry us on to Africa next week.

We also made another Arctic treat that I'll share soon.  (Don't be annoyed... it's totally relevant to Christmas so it's a win-win.  Christmas in July, you know?)

  

 And obviously we wear our tuxedos to do schoolwork in.  

{not.}

Beachy Sand Cups

Recipe by: Dip It In Chocolate

 -White Airheads, or other soft candy to mold
-Nilla wafers, crushed
-Prepared vanilla or banana pudding
-Additional Airheads, Starbursts, or Laffy Taffys if desired for starfish or other garnish.


First, mold yourself some killer whale teeth out of a white airhead.  If you use Starburst or Laffy Taffy you may need to pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds, or until soft to better be able to mold it.  (Don't leave it too long!)  Once it's molded the way you like it, place it on a nonstick surface and let it set.  Overnight is great so it will dry out a bit and not stick to the crumbs when you use it.  It will "settle" a bit, but just reshape it a tiny bit next morning and you'll be good to go.  I made about 6 killer whale teeth to hide in each cup.

Fill clear plastic cups halfway with pudding.  Cover with crushed cookie crumbs.  Push formed teeth down into cookie crumbs until completely covered and smooth the top crumbs over the holes.  Garnish with starfish/umbrella/etc if you like.

You can also layer like this: pudding/cookie crumbs/pudding/cookie crumbs.  It just isn't so ideal for "digging."  Whipped cream is also great.