10 Ways to Have Fun Learning With Food

Do your kids ever play with their food? Well now you will have a reason to encourage it! Seriously! Here are 10 ways your kids can have fun learning with food. From science to hands-on crafting and more, you can use items from your kitchen or pantry in new ways.

Magnetic Cereal

How much iron is in your cereal? Now you can find out. You’ll need a neodymium magnet for this learning activity. But other than that, you just need a cereal with high iron content, a bowl, and some milk. If this learning activity works correctly, your kids will be able to watch their cereal whiz across the surface of the milk when attracted by the magnet. Your kids can learn about magnetic fields with this fun activity using breakfast cereal.

Milk Swirl Experiment

Learning with food was never so fun! All you need for the Milk Swirl Experiment is whole milk, food coloring, dishwashing soap, a cotton swab, and a plate or bowl. Your kids will learn about properties of soap molecules. Don’t worry if you can’t explain the colorful explosions from this fun hands-on experiment. The full tutorial from KiwiCo was will you through it.

Peppermint Sugar Crystal Sticks

Your kids ages 9-16 can learn a bit about chemistry by making Peppermint Sugar Crystal Sticks. Yes, they’re edible! Once they learn the science behind supersaturated liquids, they’ll be able to create multiple variations of this edible treat. This would make a great gift for friends!

Find and Seek ABCs and 123s

Your little ones will love this fun activity bag! All you need is one cup of rice, a zippered sandwich bag, and some small plastic letters or numbers. Dump all the items into the bag and seal it shut. Print off an alphabet and numbers printable and have your preschoolers search for those numbers and letters! This is a great activity to work on those fine motor skills. And the mess will stay inside the bag!

Celery & Food Coloring Experiment

If you’ve never done this Celery & Food Coloring Experiment with your young kids, here’s your reminder! It’s such a classic hands-on activity for young kids. Sometimes we adults forget how mesmerizing it is to see the celery drink up the colored water. As your kids play with their food in this activity, you can talk about botany and plant growth and how plants move water.

Jell-O Building Blocks

Here is a fun alternative to Lego. How long can your kids build with Jell-O Building Blocks before they eat them? That’s the main issue! These yummy building blocks are squishy and fun plus provide great small motor skills practice for your littles.

Glow in the Dark Gelatin

Your kids can learn about the magic of fluorescent substances by making Glow in the Dark Gelatin. Seriously, the supplies list is very short:

• One packet of gelatin
• 2 cups of tonic water
• Kitchen items, like saucepan, spoon, measuring cup, jar
• Blacklight

Don’t worry if you’re unsure about the science behind this fun project. You can find the full tutorial at KiwiCo and they provide an easy-to-understand scientific explanation about why the gelatin glows in the dark.

Starburst Symmetry

While this fun learning project doesn’t technically include food, it does use items from your kitchen pantry. With just some coffee filters, washable markers, paper towels, and a spray bottle, your kids will have a blast creating designs and learning about symmetry.

Pasta & Beads Bracelets

Your younger kids will love playing with pasta in this Pasta & Beads Bracelets project. You can dye the pasta in Kool-Aid to create fresh colorful bracelets. If you use pipe cleaners to hold it altogether, even your littlest kids will be able to make these. Finally, add some pony beads to finish the look.

Surprise “Juice” Cups

For a fun prank, you can create some “juice” cups by letting gelatin set in a glass. Add a straw and watch your kids’ surprised faces when they realize it isn’t juice at all! Then grab some spoons to enjoy the treat.

 

What do you think? Have you changed your mind about letting your kids have fun learning with food? Here are some more ideas to check out:

• FREE Food Sequencing Fun Cut & Paste
• Resources for Learning About Foods From Around the World
• FREE Foods Around the World Notebooking Journal