White Cane Day – A Tasty Treat

In a world where every month seems to recognize a special group, October has become a busy month! Along with Breast Cancer Awareness and Infant/Pregnancy Loss, we acknowledge Blindness Awareness Month. White Cane Safety Day is celebrated on October 15th, and the entire month of celebration centers around honoring the accomplishments and success of individuals who are blind or have low vision. 

Each year, I love scrolling through my social media to see how friends, former students, and families I’ve worked with are celebrating across the country. Today, I happened upon a post that was too creative not to keep to myself. Tiffany Culbertson, TVI and Chantell Holcomb, COMS in Lewisville, Texas engaged in a fun and delicious activity to make representations of white canes out of dipped pretzel rods with marshmallow tips. Prior to the activity, students were asked to make a list of ingredients and estimate how much they would cost. They used iPads with zoom to research local grocery store items and prices for each item. Gathering a few students together for this exciting ECC (expanded core curriculum) activity made for a great celebration!

Ingredients and materials

• Pretzel Rods
• White bark chocolate, white chocolate chips, or white candy melts
• Red sprinkles or sanding sugar
• Jumbo Marshmallows
• Work tray or cookie sheet
• Foil or wax paper
• Bowls
• Spoons

Procedure

1. *Optional* Read The Adventures of Marshmallow & Peter or have a discussion about White Cane Safety Day and what it means to celebrate the accomplishments of individuals who are blind or visually impaired.
2. Gather your students and the materials listed above
3. Set up your workstation
   1. Line a work tray with wax paper or foil. 
   2. Give each student a spoon, several pretzel rods, bowls of sprinkles, and one marshmallow for each pretzel.
   3. Melt white coating chocolate in a deep cup or rectangular dish.
4. Instruct the students to:
   1. Dip each pretzel ¾ of the way into the chocolate, or use a spoon to coat the pretzel rod with chocolate.
   2. Add sprinkles to the bottom of the pretzel, about ⅓ of the way up.
   3. Stick the end of the pretzel through the marshmallow. You can also wait until the chocolate hardens to do this. 
5. Allow the pretzels to harden, and ENJOY!
6. If there are any left…. Pack them up and send them home to share!

Adaptations and extensions

• Use hand under hand assistance to support students to manipulate materials.
• Create a recipe in the appropriate literacy media for the students to follow.
• Take your students on an O&M trip to purchase the ingredients at a local grocery store.
• Encourage students to write about their own adventures with their cane as Peter did in the story. 
• Encourage students to write a “how-to” text to share the process with others.
• Use low vision or access technology devices to read ingredients and nutrition facts on food packages.