15 Jul 3 Fun Food Themed Sensory Activities For Kids
Weekends are a great time to invest in some food related activities that are fun but also educational and serve a purpose if your child is a bit hesitant with getting things on their hands.
Growing up in a household with a schoolteacher for a parent, I had no idea that the fun home activities that my brother and I did were purposefully designed to achieve an educational outcome.
You can be smart with the activities you guide your kids towards by having some kind of objective.
Activities don’t need to be expensive or require specific craft tools. The best activities are those made from things sourced from around the house.
They only need patience, time and be prepared for a bit of mess. Mess is ok. It’s part of the sensory experience.
Below are 3 food themed sensory based activities for kids.
These are designed for:
- Feeling different textures that have a residue
- Working on fine motor coordination
- Increase knowledge and understanding of process to plate (and then to mouth!)
Get in touch to find out how we can support your child with more personalised sensory based food activities or to increase acceptance of new foods.
1. Grow little herbs from seeds
Parsley is a great herb to plant as it can be planted all year ‘round. It can be eaten raw, added raw to food (potato salad, green beans, pasta) for flavour or used in cooking. When your little one asks, “what is that green stuff?”, you’ll be able to say, “it’s the parsley you grew, see how it adds flavour to the food”.
What you’ll need:
- Egg shells or left over egg cartons
- Soil
- Parsley seeds (flat leaf or curly leaf), can be purchased or sowed from existing parsley plants
- Spray bottle of water to mist soil
Method
- Half fill the egg cartons or eggshells with soil
- Add some parsley seeds
- Add some more soil onto the top, pushing down gently
- Choose a location that gets about 3hrs of sunlight per day and keep soil moist by misting
- Watch them germinate over 1-2 weeks!
If you grow the herbs in eggshells, you can draw some faces on them and give your creations funny egg-themed names like Eggwina or Eggward!
2. Make Mini Pizzas
- Use store bought dough or make your own if you feel inspired (see our blog for the recipe)
- Jar of tomato passata sauce
- Grated mozzarella (or grated parmesan cheese)
- Olive oil
- Herbs such as fresh basil, dried oregano or rosemary
- Toppings of your choice: pineapple, white or red onion, shredded left over chicken, mushrooms, red capsicum, thinly sliced potato, pumpkin or zucchini. For a white pizza (pizza al bianco) for those with FODMAPS, brush the pizza dough with olive oil instead of using a red sauce base.
Method:
- Fill your kitchen sink with warm water and place dough in a covered bowl and wait for 1-2 hours for dough to rise
- Cover hands in olive oil and take a small amount of dough to stretch onto a tray or tin (tip- using butter on your tray or tin stops the dough from retracting back)
- Let this sit for 30-60 minutes while you prepare the ingredients. This is called ‘the double rise’ for a lighter, fluffier dough
- Brush the top of the pizza with olive oil
- Add 3-4 TB of tomato passata spread evenly across the pizza face (this step can be skipped if you have FODMAPS or want a pizza al bianco)
- Add ingredients of your choice with your hands. Great flavour combinations include:
- tomato, cheese and basil
- olive oil, sliced potato and rosemary with a small pinch of salt flakes
- tomato, capsicum, onion, mushroom and olives with herbs
- tomato, chicken, pineapple and cheese
- Sprinkle a handful of mozzarella on top
- Step for adults: bake for 10-15 minutes at 250 degrees or 230 degrees fan forced oven.
Did you know that Italian Doughnuts or ‘zeppole’ are made from pizza dough, cooked in olive oil then sprinkled with cinnamon sugar?
3. Make juice the old fashioned way
If your little one doesn’t eat fruit, one of the principles of accepting a new food is trying it in a different presentation way, then working with your dietitian, speech pathologist or occupational therapist to transition to the food in its whole form or the way that you like to serve it in your family. Making juice from oranges (and/or lemons) is a good first step to introducing these flavours to those kids who are hesitant. Please note that whole fruit is always better than juice as it includes fibre and you can see the amount of juice made from 1-2 oranges is a very small amount.
What you’ll need:
- 1-2 Oranges (optional add 1 lemon)
- Old fashioned juicer or just use your hands
Method:
- Cut the oranges/ lemons in halves if using a juicer or quarters if using hands
- Squeeze into a bowl
- Decant juice collected into a cup
- Try initially with a spoon or drink directly from a cup