“Don’t play with your food.” I heard that advice often as a kid, but I never understood it. Why not make your mashed potatoes into a mound and pour gravy over them so it looked like a volcano erupting? How creative! As a parent, I decided to make it a policy to not scold my kids when they experimented with food. Over the years, I’ve seen a grape poked with a shish kebab stick as a medieval battle was explained to me. My favorite was a line of gummy bears depicting the battle of Thermopylae. Mealtime at our house is never boring! While you might not want an entire battle set up on your kitchen table, it’s fun to play with your food. Here are 5 Fun Food Games To Play With Kids.
5 Fun Food Games To Play with Kids
Playing with food doesn’t have to be messy. Plus, it comes with some pretty cool side benefits. You’ll be teaching your child fine and gross motor skills, sensory skills, and mathematics. You’ll have less gummy bear soldiers after you eat some, right? It can also help picky eaters try new foods and open a dialogue on healthy eating choices. A recent study by the University of Alberta suggests giving kids responsibility in the kitchen proved that kids who help in the kitchen try new foods. So let’s start playing with our food!
1. Use food pieces as game markers.– Play tic-tac-toe with red and green grapes, or bingo with colored mini marshmallows. Experiment with different fruits or foods. Slip in a new food often and encourage taste testing. It’s a sneaky way to get them to try new foods!
2. Sing “foodie” songs. One of my favorites is “Bingo” with new words. “There was a farmer who had a fruit and Grape was its name. G-R-A-P-E, G-R-A-P-E, and grape was its name.” Of course, share some grapes or whatever fruit, vegetable, or food you use. Other good songs are “I like to eat apples and bananas,” or “C is for Cookie.” Substitute any letter and food for “C.” You can use “A is for apple,” “C is for carrot.” You get the point.
3. Make Jewelry. Remember all those pasta and cereal bracelets and necklaces we made as kids? Now is the perfect time to start a new tradition with your kids! You can also color the pasta and allow them to create their own masterpieces.
4. Have a Scavenger Hunt. – Talk about getting kids to help with cooking! Hide utensils or ingredients around the house and give kids clues to find it. When they’ve found the items, bring them to the kitchen to help you prepare the recipe. Hint: The best way to do this is to make simple recipes. If I’m making three ingredient peanut butter cookies, for example, hiding a jar of peanut butter and a bag of confectioner’s sugar is good. Hiding an egg somewhere in the house, not so much.
5. “Paint” and Decorate Your Food. Let out your child’s inner Picasso or Monet! Kids can decorate anything from cookies to pancakes, to ice cream. We’ve done this at parties and the kids love it. One way I’ve learned to make the painting easier is with Noshi Food Paint. Not only is it organic, gluten-free, vegan, and healthy, but it also has a low sugar content and tastes good. The best part? It comes in tubes so it doesn’t make a mess. Available in three flavors, strawberry, peach, and blueberry, you can use it to decorate food or fingerpaint.
We planned a “paint party.” The six kids and I made cupcakes, pancakes, and vanilla cream pudding to decorate. As soon as we tried it on the pancakes, Jen said, “I just tried the peach flavor and it is really good!” ‘A’ told me she liked it so much she was going to use the grape to make grape frosting for her cupcakes. Even Critter got into the action, telling me, “This is fun.” She decorated her muffin and ate all of it. All the kids were eager to make more goodies so they could keep using the paints. We’d planned on just making pancakes, but they were having such a good time and enjoying their food so much we made pudding and cupcakes too!
Want to learn more about Noshi? Check out their Amazon page. Get social with them by joining in the conversation using the hashtags #noshifoodpaint, #noshiforkids, and #ColorMyFoodNoshi.
What are your favorite fun food games to play with kids? Do you cook with your kids? How do you encourage the kids to eat healthily and make healthier food choices?
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I participated in this campaign on behalf of Wendy’s Bloggers. I received Noshi Food Paint to facilitate my review, but my opinions and creative content are my own.
What a fun activity to do with the kids. I know my daughter will take any chance to play with her food! So doing this!
Oh my goodness!! All of my nieces and nephews would love this because they love to play with their food! LOL!
Oh yes! This is a great idea! My kid loves playing with food, and this is the perfect game for any child. Thanks for tips!
When my kids were little, we used to do these type of fun food games. Our kitchen was a always a mess but it created fun memories.
These are some fun ideas that kids would love for sure. I remember playing airplane when I was feeding my niece before and we both had a blast. 🙂
My daughter loved the Apples and Bananas song. We’d swap out all the vowel sounds (Epples and Benenes) and just belly laugh over it.
What a great list of food fun! My kids would have loved Noshi Food Paint when they were younger. (And who knows, maybe they still would.)
So much fun for kids. What a different way of teaching creativity through food. I wish these were around when I was a kid!
I love all these ideas. My kids would enjoy them all. We do scavenger hunts often because my kids really love those the most.
These are great games to play with kids to get them to be more involved in the food they eat. I love the idea of painting food, and I used to play a game called concoction when I was a kid, where we would put unusual food items together and challenge each other to eat them.
Wow! This is such a great idea to gather family members and have fun while eating takes place later. You’ve given us such an amazing activity to have at home and have family moment together. Thank you for sharing this to us.
My kids would love to do all of these things. Playing with your food can be fun!
Perhaps this will get my picky eater to try new foods? I’m loving this post more than I can even explain right now. I am going to give it a try.
I have boys, and they are all about playing with their food! I will have to try a few of these ideas with them.
This looks like a new take on making things with dried macaroni , rice, and beans. Fun for kids.
I remember when I created a rooster “painting” in Vacation Bible School by using different colored beans. I’ve always enjoyed playing with my food and these are all fun games to play.
This would be fun for kids! I can see my daughter enjoying these. She always likes to create things.
Those little paint tubes are perfect for my grandchildren to use and have fun with. We are always decorating cookies and don’t forget the pancakes and waffles.
I always tell my kids that they cannot play with your food. They would be excited if I let them do something like this. I might just surprise them with something fun like this for Friday family night.