1. Use a ruler to draw parallel lines in holiday colors along the edges of your paper. Make some lines thick and others thin. Leave some white paper showing between your lines. (We used 9×12 construction paper here, but you can use any size paper you want, to make a smaller or larger candy cane. Regular copy paper works well, too!)
2. Next, think about who you would like to give this candy cane to (your mom, dad, sibling, grandparent, friend, teacher, etc.), and write a note to them in the middle of your paper. Offer to do something for them, help them with a task, or just tell them how special they are! (If you offer to do something, make sure you’re willing to follow through!!)
3. Now, turn your paper over (so that the lines you drew are on the back) and roll it up around your pencil, diagonally from corner to corner. Keep the paper snug as you roll it. Then, when you can no longer see your pencil, loosen your grip a tiny bit and let your pencil slide out through one of the ends.
4. Keep rolling…..
5. Keep rolling…..
6. When you get to the end, have a small piece of clear tape ready to secure the corner.
7. Finally, bend one of the ends to make a hook shape. Add a gift tag so you will remember who to give it to and they will know who it’s from…. This is especially important if you make more than one! Try making a variety of sizes and hang them on your tree!
Time Saving Tip! You can also draw the lines on just 2 adjacent edges instead of all 4. Only 2 edges will show on the finished candy cane. But I usually encourage kids to do all 4 edges as it creates a nice frame around whatever the child writes in the middle!
I do this with my students! But, we use square pieces of paper, and just do the lines on two sides (a corner). THEY LOVE IT!
Such a fun twist!! We used to just make paper candy canes but I love the hidden message idea. I'm going to share this one with my daughter's first grade teacher — the kids love making notes for each other!! : )
I did this today with 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders and they loved it! Kids kept asking for paper to take home to make more. Thanks for sharing a wonderful idea. I also had my class use a square of copy paper and color only 2 sides.
You can definitely do this by coloring only two edges – especially if you're in a hurry or making a lot of them! I like to color all four edges so that the message in the middle is “framed” with color… just a personal preference!
What kind of paper do you use? I'm using ordinary printer paper and can't get the hook shape to stay put. But I love the idea so much!! Any tips on how to get my candy cane hooks to stay hook-shaped would be much appreciated. And thank you for the fun idea!
I use construction paper or copy paper – either one works just fine! It can be a bit tricky to get the hooks to stay in place, so what I often do is roll the curvy part of the hook (not the end that needs to stay straight) around my finger one full turn. That tends to “over-correct” the problem, then you can finesse it a little to get it just the way you want it and it will stay that way. Hope that helps!
I did this project with my students as well and they loved it. The method we use to make the hook is to use a marker to “steam roll” one end to flatten it. Then we wind the flattened section onto the marker to make the hook. Over correction is certainly the key.
So cool! i am definitely trying this!