With the school year rapidly drawing to a close, I thought I would compile a list of all the fun treats I came up with to send in for special holidays and birthday treats over the past 10 months. I love the chance to get creative in the kitchen, so when the opportunity comes up to bring in a themed treat I am more then happy to sign up and bake up something new.
1. Candy Corn Juice Boxes
For the Kindergarten Halloween party, I signed up to bring the juice and wanted to find a fun way to dress up the juice boxes for the holiday. With a bit of Duck Tape, googly eyes and a sharpie marker I was able to transform them into these fun little candy corn inspired boxes. I even got my son involved in the process by letting him draw on all the smiles for his friends. You can read the full DIY details here.
2. Cookie Butter Popcorn Mix
For the December birthday celebration at Kindergarten, I made up a batch of this delicious cookie butter popcorn and packaged it in individual zip-top bags.
The popcorn was mixed with pretzel goldfish, mini M&M’s and sprinkles, then coated with a delicious mixture of melted vanilla candy wafers and cookie butter. Yum! I almost didn’t want to send this one to school. Popcorn is a quick and inexpensive snack, and there are many ways to change it up as you can see on my Popcorn Pinterest Board.
3. Red & Green Fruit Skewers
For the Kindergarten Christmas party, I signed up to bring fruit. To make it festive, I stuck to green and red colored fruits which I skewered on wooden coffee stir sticks. I used green grapes, honeydew melon, strawberries, and watermelon cut into star shapes.
I love using the stir sticks because they have no sharp edges and the skewers make for easy grab and go individual servings.
4. Chocolate Pretzel Tree Topped Mini Cupcakes
After my daughter’s preschool Christmas concert, there was a large gathering of all the students and their families with treats to share. For the occasion, I decided to try my hand at these adorable tree topped mini cupcakes from Just A Taste.
The trees were super easy to recreate with a bag of pretzel sticks, sprinkles and melted green candy wafers. I kept things easy on myself by using a boxed cake mix for the cupcakes, and went with the mini size to keep it a small bite amongst all the other goodies people would be eating that night.
5. Worms ‘n’ Dirt Cups
My son really wanted to bring in worms and dirt to share with his class, so I knew it would be the perfect treat when his birthday month rolled around in February.
I used store bought pudding cups and re-distributed them amongst these cute striped paper cups I found at Dollarama. Crushed chocolate filled Oreo’s mixed with chocolate rocks became the dirt, and each cup got a wiggly gummy worm. These were sent in with small spoons to make the teacher’s life easy!
6. Chocolate Covered Pigeon Oreo’s
This was my favorite treat because they turned out so cute. For the March birthday celebration, I made these candy coated Oreo’s that looked like the Pigeon character from author Mo Willems. My son’s class has enjoyed a variety of Mo Willem’s books this year, but I chose The Pigeon Ate My Hot Dog! as my inspiration and paired the Pigeon Oreo’s with shortbread cookie hot dogs. You can read the full details on this adorable treat here.
The candy coated Oreo’s were easy to prepare a few days ahead of time and could be done in any color of candy coating and dressed up with sprinkles or other candy accents to match the occasion.
7. Popsicle Rice Krispie Treats
Rice Krispie treats are always a quick and easy option. They mix up quickly, can be transformed with a variety of mix-ins and toppings, and kids all seem to love them. To add a bit of flair to the treats for the April birthday celebration, I decided to make them look like my son’s favorite treat – Popsicles!
To make the popsicles, I cut the tray of Rice Krispie treats into rectangles and carefully pushed in the top corners of each with my hands to form the rounded tops. A popsicle stick was inserted in each and I gave the tops a quick dip in some melted candy wafers I flavored with a bit of orange Kool-Aid to mimic a creamsicle. The final touch was a small pinch of sprinkles.
8. Sugar Cookie Lollipop’s
I have had this recipe/idea from Sweet Sugarbelle pinned forever and finally decided to make them for my daughter’s birthday celebration at preschool. Her school prefers something as mess free as possible and I thought these colorful little treats fit the bill.
I packaged the finished sugar cookie lollipops in individual bags so they were easy to hand out at the end of class. My daughter chose the colors, but they could easily be switched up according to your own preference.
9. Berry Cups
If you are looking for a healthy option, fruit is always appreciated. My daughter loves berries so she asked that we also bring strawberries with the cookies for her birthday celebration day at preschool.
I did a mixture of cut strawberries and blueberries, and distributed them amongst paper candy cups. They look cute and the individual servings make it easy for the teacher to pass out in the classroom.
10. Mini Cupcake Cones
My son’s end of year kindergarten celebration included the most adorable little circus planned and put on by the kids. My son was so excited to be a tiger jumping through a flaming hoop! The kindergarten teacher sent home a sign-up sheet to bring in a treat to enjoy afterwards and I decided these Mini Cupcake Cones fit the Circus theme.
They were easy to bake up using a boxed cake mix (cherry chip) and mini ice cream cones I found at Walmart. I frosted with a vanilla buttercream and topped with some fun ABC shaped sprinkles and a sour candy “cherry” to make the perfect bite sized treat!
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Phew, this list actually ended up being longer then I had anticipated! As mentioned in other posts, I wasn’t able to get into the school much to volunteer so I tried to help out as much as possible by sending in treats. I spent a lot of time on Pinterest trying to find ideas that would be fun, tasty, and easily transportable. I know a lot of moms dread these kind of things, so hopefully I have given you some inspiration for next time you are in need of something fun and tasty (and peanut free) to send to school!
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