March 2025

Here Come the Peeps!

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Academic Standards

 

Reading Objective:

Students will recognize that Peeps are made in steps by workers in a factory where the candy is mixed, shaped, and packaged.

 

Reading Level:

Lexile: 430L; GRL: L 

 

Next Generation Science Standards:

Next Generation Science Standards: K-2 ETS1: Engineering Design

2-PS1-2: Materials have properties that are suitable

for an intended purpose

 

Vocabulary:

whipped, conveyor belt, nozzle

Use these questions to check students’ understanding and stimulate discussion:

1. How does the marshmallow mix change when it’s whipped?
(It gets light and fluffy.)

2. How do the Peeps get their shapes?
(A machine squeezes the marshmallow mix into shapes.)

3. What makes the warm, sticky Peeps turn yellow?
(Answers will vary.)

4. What kind of Peep would you make for your favorite season?
(Answers will vary.)

Go online to print or project the Reading Checkpoint.

 

  • It took 27 hours to make a tray of Peeps, until Bob Born, son of the company’s founder, invented the Depositor, a machine that made Peeps in six minutes!
  • Yellow is the original Peeps color and still the most popular.
  • The Peeps’ eyes are made from a vegetable wax that’s safe to eat.

Materials: 1 package of Peeps/marshmallow candies; 3 clear cups/jars; 3 different liquids such as: water, vinegar (recommended), or juice; pencils, copies of the skill sheet

Overview: Students explore the ways in which we humans succeed or fail at communicating to groups of people by playing the telephone game.

Directions:

  1. Remind students they read about a scientist who thinks elephants have names they use to communicate with other members of their group.
  2. Grab the package of Peeps. Gather the students. Remind them that they read about making Peeps, which are full of sugar. Sugary things dissolve in water. That means they break up and look like they’re disappearing. But the sugar has just mixed with the water to make a solution.
  3. Pass out the skill sheets for kids to record their observations. Put a Peeps candy in each cup of liquid.
  4. Observe the Peeps now and over the next few days. What changes? Color? Size? Texture? Students can record observations on their skill sheets.