Creative Kid Snacks

make fun of lunch!

Shapes Lunch

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Lunch and snack time are an important part of the day which can be used for purposes beyond simply providing sustinance for our children.  Why not use this time as an opportunity to teach your child new things?  At Creative Kid Snacks, we are about leveraging meal time to connect with our kids on a deeper level, while serving super healthy food in a fun and engaging way.

Today’s snack can be used to help your child learn to form shapes.  This skill goes beyond simple recognition, (which would be great for a younger child), and extends into the area of fine motor skills.  Read on to see how to do it!

Practice forming shapes during lunch time using superfoods #healty #creative kids food

Step 1:  Create the “examples”

On a plate, form each shape as shown using the following supplies:

Star:  1 baby carrot (sliced into thin strips)

Square:  string cheese sliced in half width-wise, then sliced into 4 flat sections of equal length

Triangle:  blueberries sliced in half so they lie flat on the plate

Oval: Avocado, 2 sliced sections

Heart: Red bell pepper, sliced horizontally accross from standing position.

Step 2:  Provide the kids’ materials

Collect the same ingredients sliced in the way described above and place all onto a plate.  Provide enough for each child to make one of each shape.

Step 3:  Model how each shape is formed, and allow the kids to try!

One shape at a time, show the child how to form the shape using the food.  (Example:  For the triangle, I said “Take one blueberry and lay it on your plate for the tip of the triangle.  Next, take two blueberries and make a row right underneath your first blueberry.  (showing them the second row of blueberries on the example plate), and so on).

Practice forming shapes during lunch time!

Step 4:  Correct any mistakes and praise a job well done

The point of this is to learn the right way to form shapes.  Gently nudge your child along until they correctly make the shape.  If they make a mistake, place the food in the correct place on the plate, hand it back to the child, and have them place it there themselves.  Sometimes it takes patience, and there are some things a younger child might be able to do.  For example, the star was too difficult for my 3 year old to make, but my 5 year old got it with several corrective directions from me.  She was SO proud of herself when she got it!  We snapped a picture of her joy shown below.

Practice forming shapes during lunch time!

Enjoy teaching the kids to form shapes using this delicious and healthy food.

Health Benefits of this snack:

Health benefits of red peppers

Health benefits of avocado

Health benefits of carrots

Health benefits of blueberries

Health benefits of cheese (particularly combining cheese with fruits and veggies as we did in this meal) 

Practice forming shapes during lunch time using superfoods #healty #creative kids food

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Back to School Snack Ideas

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Creative and Cute Back to School Snacks for the Kids

After the 4th of July comes and goes, summers for me have always taken a speedy nose dive into fall – which means back to school.  I suppose that being a school teacher before staying home with my girls has continued to remind me of the ever-repeating school cycle.

This fall, my oldest will be heading to kindergarten (Sniffle)!  Actually, I’m really very excited for her.  I know she will thrive in school setting; she absolutely loves to learn and loves making new friends.  I’m thankful to have reasons to actually look forward to her being able to start school!

In honor of the start of a new school year, we have a back to school snack for you today!  Make this snack the day before school begins, or after the day is out, whichever you feel like!

Creative and Cute Back to School Snacks for the Kids

Ingredients:

1 slice of colby jack or cheddar cheese

1 tbsp jam (spooned into plastic baggie for piping)

2 slices banana

1 small section of apple

Directions:

Slice cheese into a rectangle, then slice corners off of the top of that rectangle as shown above to use as the main body of the bus.  Next, slice a small square with a corner sliced off to place at the front of the bus.  Add 2 banana wheels.  Take a small plastic bag with jam inside, snip off a tiny corner of the bag, and pipe two lines accross the bus as shown.  Next, pipe small dots of jam onto bananas to look like wheels.  Finally, slice a section of an apple into several small thin squares.  Arrange on bus to look like windows.

In the version shown above we placed the apples skin side down.  If you like, you could also serve the snack with the skin side up, as shown here:

Creative and Cute Back to School Snacks for the Kids

Which version to you like better?  Let the kids decide!

Other Back to School Snacks We Love:

We’ve also scoured the great world of the web to find some other back to school snacks that are sure to get the kids excited for fall!

Click on either the photo or the title to be taken to the source for directions on how to make each awesome treat.

Back to School S’mores

Creative and Cute Back to School Snacks for the Kids

Cheese Stick Pencils

Creative and Cute Back to School Snacks for the Kids

Oreo – Apple Snack Stacks

Creative and Cute Back to School Snacks for the Kids

Back to School Bus Twinkies

Creative and Cute Back to School Snacks for the Kids

Back to School Party (includes all kinds of cute food)

Creative and Cute Back to School Snacks for the Kids

 

One of my favorites from the Back to School Party

Creative and Cute Back to School Snacks for the Kids

Back to School Banana Bus

Creative and Cute Back to School Snacks for the Kids

Giant School Bus Chocolate Chip Cookie

ABC Lunch

Creative and Cute Back to School Snacks for the Kids

Edible Crayons

Creative and Cute Back to School Snacks for the Kids

What other cute ideas do you have for celebrating the start of school?  Leave your links in the comments below!  I’d love to add them to my Pinterest boards for future inspiration!

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Did you enjoy today’s snack?  Learn more about this blog here.

Learning about Cells

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I remember learning about cells when I was in 7th grade.  For extra credit, I made a cell cake.  My mom helped me decorate a round cake and create all of the cell components on top using different colored icing and piping instruments.

The cake turned out so well that my teacher decided to place it in a display case in a prominent area of the school.  I laugh thinking back at that because the cake sat in there for so long that it started to decompose, and we were never able to eat any of that delicious cell cake!

Aside from earning me those extra credit points, that cake helped me to remember and love learning about the cell.

Today’s snack is a healthy version of that same experience, and it could be done in a science classroom as a test on the parts of a cell, or at home as part of a home school curriculum.  You could also make it for your younger kids just to teach them about the cell and how it all works, like we did!

Make a cell out of healthy foods from the fridge - great for a science lesson for home schoolers, science classroooms, or simple reinforcement at home when your student learns about cells.

As I was creating this snack for my 5 year-old, I pulled up this great site which gives clear explanations of each part of the cell, along with easy-to-understand drawings and diagrams.  I modeled today’s plate after this diagram on the site:

Click photo to be taken to source

Cells have lots of different components, and can be made using just about anything you have on hand in the kitchen.   Since we were going for a healthy snack today, here is the list of ingredients we used:

Ingredients

celery (1 stalk)

turkey breast (2 slices)

yellow pepper

strawberry (1 small slice)

orange (1 slice)

carrots (2)

green grapes (1)

yogurt (1 tablespoon)

hot dog slices (3 thin slices)

string cheese (2-3 small slices)

Make a cell out of healthy foods from the fridge - great for a science lesson for home schoolers, science classroooms, or simple reinforcement at home when your student learns about cells.

Create your cell by arranging each element on the plate as shown.

The carrots are sliced in half so that they lay flat on the plate.

To create the shape of the centrioles (green grapes), slice a green grape into wheels, then slice tiny triangles out of the edges.

The ribosomes (yogurt) are made using the following technique (which we absolutely love!):

The finished product:

Make a cell out of healthy foods from the fridge - great for a science lesson for home schoolers, science classroooms, or simple reinforcement at home when your student learns about cells.

How to use this snack / activity

Challenge your (older) student to create a cell at home for a snack using some of the ingredients pictured here.  Your student can see if he can name each part of the cell and what its function is when he is done.

Teach your younger children about the human body using this snack.  You could draw the different parts on index cards, and write the function of the part on the back.  Your children can pick up one card at a time to learn what that part of the cell does.  They can even eat that part as you explain what its job is.

Science teachers could use this as an assessment activity.  Provide foods such as those pictured here, and assign students to create a plate of the animal cell, and be prepared to explain what each part is and its function.

Use resources like this to dig deeper and learn even more together with your child!

More Science Related Snacks

Solar System

Volcano

Under the Sea ecosystem

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Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

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Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is one of the most fun children’s books to read aloud!

Written by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, and illustrated by Lois Ehlert, the story is told of alphabet letters who mischievously climb a coconut tree and tumble down.  The rhythmic way it is written makes it fun to read with the kids, bouncing them on your knees all the while.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Lunch

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Kids Lunch - ideas for reading the story and making a special lunch to go with it! | CreativeKidSnacks.com

We created this lunch using leftovers a combination of leftovers from this yummy meal made the night before and fresh ingredients.  Spoon rice (or an alternative listed below) onto the bottom portion of your plate as a ground.  Next, use fresh pineapple chunks to build a palm tree.  Slice an avocado and place sections above for the palm branches.  Slice a meatball in half and lay onto the plate to look like coconuts.  (Note: I microwaved the portion of the leftovers I was going to use before assembling this lunch).

Finally, using string cheese, add the letters of the alphabet heading towards the “coconut tree”.  You’re done!

Variations:

Ground: oatmeal, hummus, cheerios, black beans, (or any other beans), turkey, or basically anything brown or black!

Tree trunk: banana, mango, peaches

Palm leaves: sugar snap peas, kiwi, green grapes, green apple slices

Coconuts: cereal, crackers (like Ritz), red or dark grapes, even sliced baby carrot wheels or banana wheels

Letters: pipe yogurt onto plate to make letters, Alphabet cereal

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Learning Activities

1) Act out the story using alphabet cards (use store-bought or make your own on index cards).

2) Dance to the story, make up moves to go along with different phrases in the book.

3) Put in order the alphabet letters: spread alphabet cards all over the floor (like the pile of letters in the story), and have your child put them back in order by lining them up on the floor.  (Make your own alphabet cards if you don’t have your own).

More Book-Inspired Snacks Ideas:

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle
Lousy Rotten Stinkin’ Grapes by Margie Palatini
Blackout by John Rocco
A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

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Egyptian Pyramids version 2

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I taught the girls a little bit about ancient Egypt last year using this lunch.  My older daughter, age 4, was very interested to discover the wonder of the amazing pyramids they built using giant stones to reach the sky.

We thought of a new version that is even more interactive.

Build your own 3D Pyramid

Teach the kids about the ancient pyramids using fresh pineapple chunks to build your own!

We tried this same snack using canned pineapple, and I will say that it definitely comes out better, (not to mention being tastier and more nutritious), with fresh pineapple.

As you cut the pineapple, try to cut chunks in as perfectly square or rectangular shapes as you can.  This will make “construction” easier as all of the pieces will fit together evenly.

Start with the base level.  Make a square.  Ours was 4×4 pineapple chunks.  Once that level is complete, move up to the next level.  The square on the next level up will be slightly smaller than the bottom level.  Continue working upward until you have made what looks like a pyramid!

The amount of pineapple chunks you need will vary depending on how large you cut your squares, but it doesn’t have to be perfect, and the kids will love creating their own 3-D pyramid snack.

Fill in the plate with “sand”.  We used krispie cereal and it was a nice color and visual contrast to the pineapple.

Teach the kids about the Egyptian Pyramids by building your own for lunch!

Before we ate, we added a little camel for effect.  He completes the look and feel of the snack.

Make sure you check out our other pyramid snack in case you are looking for something a bit easier.

Additional Resources for teaching about the pyramids:

Pyramids and Tombs – Ancient Egypt for Kids

Ducksters: Ancient Egyptian Pyramids

Video – National Geographic Destination: Egypt

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Copyright Note

Please feel free to use any of these ideas with your children at home, school, church, or anywhere you are inspired to make fun of lunch. If you would like to share a post on a blog or site, you may use one picture so long as you include a link to the original post. Please do not re-post the whole article or distribute printed-out content without written permission from the original author.

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