Halloween is right around the corner. Even though it may look a little different this year, there are still ways to make it fun! If you have little kids at home, Halloween can even be educational! In this post, we’re going to show you three ways to teach kids about traffic safety topics using leftover Halloween candy. Let’s get started!
1. Stop Signs
Learning about stop signs is a great first step in teaching kids about traffic safety. For this activity, you will need red rope candy, like Twizzlers or Red Vines. You’ll also need a piece of paper. You or your child should write the word "STOP" in the center of the paper. Then, cut the rope candy into 8 pieces, and ask your child to arrange them into an octagon around the word "STOP." Depending on their age, you may have to help them make the shape.
They’ve made a stop sign! Now you can explain that the stop sign is red and red means "stop." Stop signs always have 8 sides. Next time you’re out for a walk or a drive, have your child count how many stop signs they see!
2. Traffic Lights
For this activity, you will need a piece of rectangular candy, such as a Kit Kat or Hershey bar. You’ll also need colorful round candy, like M&Ms or Skittles.
Ask your child to open up the candy and sort it by color. Make sure you have at least one each of the round candy in red, yellow, and green. Take a moment to review what each color means, and the order of the colors on the traffic light. You could even make a little song out of the colors to help your child remember the order. For example, instead of singing, "The wheels on the bus go round and round," you could change the words to, "The colors on the lights are red, yellow, green." Pairing important information with easy-to-remember nursery rhymes is a great way to teach your child about a new topic.
Once you’ve explained the meaning of the colors, it’s time to assemble the traffic light! Have your child arrange the round red, yellow, and green candies on the rectangular candy so that it looks similar to a traffic light. Next time you’re in the car with your child, ask them to spot all the traffic lights and see if they can recall what each color means!
3. Wheels
We all remember the infamous house that would give out pencils or apples instead of candy each year. While trick-or-tricking may be different in 2020, the healthy treat tradition can live on in this activity! We used apple slices and grapes, but you can use whatever you have on-hand that is a similar shape. Get creative with it! You will also need toothpicks to hold everything together. The goal of this activity is to teach your little one that cars have four wheels. The apple slices are used to make the car, and the grapes make the wheels! As you assemble your fruit car, have your child count out four grapes to make the wheels.
Use the toothpicks to attach the grapes to your apple slice so that there are two grapes on each side. Now your child has a healthy toy car to play with as you practice counting together!
We hope you and your family have a fun and safe Halloween! If you try out any of our Halloween candy activities, let us know on Facebook! Looking for more traffic safety topics? We offer convenient online courses for traffic school, defensive driving, auto insurance discounts, mature driver improvement, and driver education. Check out our website to see which courses are available in your state!