How to Make Cupcake Crunch for a Valentine’s Classroom Snack

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Cupcake Crunch is a super easy snack to make for a classroom snack on Valentine’s Day. Here’s how to create this easy snack for your Valentine’s party.

This cupcake crunch recipe is a snack mix that’s both easy and very popular with young kiddos. Let me show you how to make it and give you a freebie so your class can make it in a center or in pre-made baggies.

What is cupcake crunch?

Cupcake crunch (or Cupid’s Crunch) is a snack mix. Really, it can include whatever works for you and your classroom (considering allergies).

Think of a basic snack mix or trail mix recipe and add in pink or red items like seasonal m&m’s or freeze-dried strawberries to bring out the colors associated with February and Valentine’s Day.

How to Make Cupcake Crunch for a Valentine's Day Classroom Snack Ingredients

As a teacher, I like to use larger amounts of cereal, popcorn, and pretzel-type items since those are less expensive to buy in large quantities. The key is then to sprinkle in some of the other, sweeter ingredients — just like we do at Halloween with our monster munch.

Cereal for Valentine's Day Classroom Snack
Pick a Valentine-themed cereal (usually found starting in late January) to make the snack both filling and economical.

Just remember to balance the sweet and salty factor so it’s tasty. A trail mix-like snack is popular in kindergarten because they can help make it and often has lots of kid-friendly ingredients included.

How to make it

To make cupcake crunch, pick 4 or 5 items from this list to make your Valentine-y snack:

  • Cereal (Berry Cheerios, Chocolate Strawberry Cheerios, Froot Loops Sweethearts)
  • Plain or salted popcorn
  • M&M’s or chocolate chips
  • Pretzels
  • Freeze-dried strawberries
  • Mini-marshmallows (pink or white)
  • Berry flavored yogurt melts (usually found in the baby food section) or yogurt-covered raisins

Here are some sample combination ideas:

Valentine's Day Classroom Snack Mix Pretzels Marshmallows Cereal
  1. Cereal + Pretzels + Marshmallows + M&M’s
  2. Popcorn + Pretzels + Marshmallows + M&M’s + Berries
  3. Popcorn + Cereal + Yogurt Melts + M&M’s + Berries
  4. Cereal + Pretzels + Yogurt Covered Raisins + Marshmallows + Chocolate Chips
  5. Popcorn + Yogurt Covered Raisins + Marshmallows + Chocolate Chips

Then pick a scooper to match the quantity of each ingredient you want in your mix.

Tablespoons, 1/4 cups, handfuls, and plastic spoons all work nicely in kindergarten.

You, the teacher (or parent volunteer), create your own “recipe” by scooping set amounts into a baggie or container until you like the ratio.

Now – you can either prepare this as a center or station or pre-make baggies for students (or have a parent volunteer make it).

How to make the snack mix as a center activity

If you want to put out the ingredients and scoopers so students can make this on their own as a center or station activity for a Valentine’s Day party, then here’s what you do.

First, download these editable recipe cards. You agree to these terms of use by doing so. [downloading help] You’ll need to open them in Powerpoint or upload them to Google Slides.

Valentine's Day Classroom Party Snack Center Activity for Room Moms

Then, copy and paste the clipart (the numbers and food ingredients) onto the page(s) you like the best. Duplicate any slides you like or need more of.

There are:

  • large table cards if you want to put one ingredient with one card like a buffet line.
  • a recipe card with a white background (as pictured above)
  • recipe card with gray lines for steps

Last, print the recipe cards, and students will count or scoop (based on your instructions) the items into a Ziploc bag, small plastic cup, or onto a napkin, or plate and shake, stir or mix it up before eating.

Easy activity and snack all in one!

How to premake the snack for a class party or gift

This snack mix is best when it is made fresh or the night before. That way dry things like pretzels and cereal don’t have time to absorb moisture from any of the other ingredients and get stale.

If you’re including marshmallows – wait until the last possible minute to add those since they can get rock-hard when mixed with other ingredients.

Simply use the ratio of ingredients you created for your “recipe” and place them into individual snack-size or sandwich-size Ziploc bags.

Print these cute printable cupcake crunch toppers for Ziploc bags to make these ready to go.

After you print them, cut the toppers out and fold them over the top of the filled, sealed baggie. Then staple in the middle to secure the topper on.

You can easily send this home since it’s already all contained. It makes for a great gift too.

Let’s wrap it up

There you have it. An easy snack mix that’s easy and just right for February when you add a few Valentine-colored treats. I hope that directions for how to make it and the freebie make it a cinch to use as your Valentine’s Day classroom snack.

Looking for more activities for Valentine’s Day? Then check out these 21 Valentines Day Freebies for Kindergarten.

If you like what I do here on KindergartenWorks, then be sure to subscribe today. I look forward to sharing ideas with you weekly.

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