Here’s an activity I did last year with my 6th graders. It was a LOT of fun!
A Candy Ball!!
Anyway, here’s how I did it —
Get some candy. Anything will do! Keep in mind your students’ allergies.
Take one piece of candy and put plastic wrap around it.
Continue to put 1-3 pieces of candy inside each layer of plastic wrap.
Just for fun, throw in a layer of packaging tape every so often. 🙂
There’s really no right or wrong way to make this!
I’m guessing it took me about an hour to make the candy ball. And it was fun!
It’s the perfect DIY project for sitting in front of the TV some evening.
It’s the perfect DIY project for sitting in front of the TV some evening.
Were the directions above not clear enough for you?
Watch this video to help you out!
Watch this video to help you out!
Now for the rules when playing.
Get all players in a circle. I had three pairs of gloves (just the thin $1 type). The person trying to get the candy, and the next two students had gloves. You also need two dice.
Choose a student to start with the candy ball. That person and the next two put gloves on. (This is only so they waste less time getting the gloves on when it’s their turn. Gloves make the candy ball harder to get into!)
Student one gets to keep any candy they can retrieve during their turn. Student two is trying to roll doubles on the dice. Student three (and probably everyone else in the room) is cheering to hurry! As soon as student two rolls doubles, they get the ball. Student one then gives the gloves to the next person. It keeps going around the circle as long as their still candy left in the ball – which should be until the very end if you made it right. 🙂
I wish I could show you the video I took of this. It.is.HILARIOUS! The students were screaming, laughing, and just having a great time!
This ball lasted us about an hour.
As you can see from the blurred photo above, things get pretty intense!
This candy ball was a great deal of fun, and something I plan to do with every age level I teach going forward! It can be a little spendy for the candy, but nothing compared to what I spend on books in a year. 🙂
Let me know if you have any questions about how to make the candy ball. Hopefully I’ve explained the game well enough for you to understand.
Enjoy!
~HoJo~
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Need even more great end of the school year ideas? Try these out: 
- Kool-Aid paint, Pinatas, FREEBIES, and more!
- End of Year Memory Book – Grades 2-6
- Math Games – to end the year with your sanity! 😉
- FREE End of Year Congratulations certificates
- Showcasing Student Work – great for parents and families to come in and see all the students have done!
- Turtle Compliments – a great last-day activity!
- FREE printable end of year student gift
- End of Year Teacher Gift – for your colleague!
- DIY Student Wordle Gift idea – This one they’ll remember for YEARS to come!
I think I’m going to use this for my son’s 7th grade class. My concern is that there are 28 students and some of they are very rowdy. Would you recommend dividing them into two groups and having two balls?
We used this with a group of 6th graders (19 boys, 5 girls), and it did get a little crazy. It really depends on your preference. Two slightly smaller balls would be great! It might be a little distracting to want to watch the second group, but that could add to the fun. I’m the type who would give it a try just to see what happens. (And if you do, I’d REALLY love for you to come back and let us know how it goes!!) 🙂
I made this game for my daughter’s second grade class. To control the game a little more, as we only had 30 minutes to play, I had the kids unravel the ball with music. When the music stops, it is time to pass the ball. That helped to keep the game moving so everyone had a chance. We just kept going around the circle until we were out of time. Thanks for the idea! It was so much fun to make and to play!
This is such a great variation because you can control the “clock”! Thank you for sharing!!! 🙂
Can you temember how many layers you used?
Hmmm….not exactly. But my guess would be about 20. I did another one last year for a family get-together and that one was 3x the size. That one took me nearly two hours to make. Hope that helps! Have fun!! =)
could you put a few numbers in place of candy so they can pick favorite or allergy students? what about poker chips with the name of candy or numbers of how many?
Honestly, you can do this in ANY way! Since I originally wrote this post, I’ve made about four other “candy” balls. One was made for adults with tiny liquor bottles. 🙂 One was made for nieces/my kiddos and they all knew they would finish with the same exact items (so even if you got more on your turn, we evened it out at the end). But yes, you can do this in ANY way! Sticks of gum. Bouncey balls. Little bottles of bubbles. If it can fit in the ball, give it a try! 🙂 ~Heather aka HoJo~
Wish I had actually watched your video before I did this. I had a continuous roll of Saran Wrap and well the kiddos just rolled that candy out very quickly. Whoops. We ended up divvying up the candy evenly between the children and everyone was happy. Next year!!!!
Oh no! I’m glad you were able to divvy out the candy and still make it work for your students. Better luck next year!! I hope you have a great summer! ~Heather aka HoJo~