Getting your kids involved in the action of the kitchen can certainly be fuss-free. Below you'll find a collection of activities so quick and easy to organize that you'll wonder why you haven't got your young ones involved sooner! Our ideas will have your children exploring their creative side, developing hand-eye coordination, and working on their math skills. Jump right in for inspiration on how to immerse your preschooler into the world of food prep, baking, and kitchen familiarization!
1. Ice Drawing
Fill an ice tray with water before dropping a few dots of food coloring into the partitioned sections. Pop in the freezer to set for a few hours. Once frozen, remove the ice from the tray and give your child their colors and a piece of paper to create a watercolor artwork outside.
Learn More: Atlas Mission
2. Pots And Pans Musician
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Pull out a few pots, pans, wooden spoons, and containers, and let your little one discover their inner musician. The benefits of creative music play whilst young are phenomenal. Music helps stimulate cognitive development, expressive abilities, and even memory!
Learn More: Atlas Mission
3. Make Planet Cookies
This activity can be used to enlighten your little ones about the solar system as well as introduce them to the world of baking. If you're a teacher and completing this activity in class, simply allow your students to get involved in making the icing and decorating a few biscuits.
Learn More: BBC Good Food
4. Kitchen Match Up
Matching activities for preschoolers are some of the most favored and with all of their benefits, you'll soon learn why! These types of activities help to develop fine motor skills and problem-solving. Trace a few kitchen utensils and have your kids match up the objects to their corresponding outlines.
Learn More: First Chance For Children
5. Foil Wrapping Game
Another excellent fine motor activity is this foil-wrapping guessing game. Have your students wrap a few kitchen utensils in foil and then take turns guessing what's inside of each!
Learn More: First Chance For Children
6. Food Set Fun
Food sets are fabulous for introducing preschoolers to the world of food preparation. Imaginative role play between chefs, waiters, and diners using the toy food will develop healthy language and social skills.
Learn More: Amazon
7. Kitchen Utensil Rhyming
Hey, Diddle Diddle is a popular rhyme for young children. For the purpose of being a kitchen activity, have your child locate the utensils, mentioned in the rhyme, in your very own kitchen to help get them orientated before cooking.
Learn More: First Chance For Children
8. Bread Pan Guitar
This hands-on activity is perfect for entertaining your preschool-aged child in the kitchen whilst you're prepping dinner. Give them a bread tin and a handful of rubber bands to make a guitar. Once the bands have been looped around the tin, invite them to play and sing their favorite song.
Learn More: The House Of Burke Blog
9. Fork Art
If you have any plastic forks left over from takeout night, then why not use them for this fun craft activity? All you'll need to do is blob out assorted colored paints and have your little ones dip a fork into each before pressing it onto a piece of paper. Finish off the artwork by having them draw stems onto each bud.
Learn More: Fun Littles
10. Wash Fruit And Vegetables
Practicing good hygiene in all spaces of the home is important, but especially so in the kitchen. This idea provides an easy way to get your kids involved in the kitchen. It also teaches them, from a young age, the importance of taking time to properly prepare their food.
Learn More: Raising Children
11. Practice Weaving
Develop good hand-eye coordination and concentration skills with the help of this easy-to-organize activity. All you'll need is a cooling rack and a few pipe cleaners. Not only does this provide your child with a fun developmental activity, but it also keeps them occupied whilst you're busy in the kitchen.
Learn More: JDaniel4's Mom
12. Make Your Own Bubble Wand
All you'll require for this fun activity are a few basic kitchen ingredients, utensils, and water. Mix together water, dish soap, baking powder, and cornstarch before dunking a few kitchen utensils into the bubble solution. We'd recommend using utensils with holes in them such as cookie cutters.
Learn More: I Can Teach My Child
13. Salad Spinner Art
Just purchased a new salad spinner? This craft makes perfect use of the old one! Simply place a paper plate into your spinner, squirt in some washable kids' paint, pop on the lid, and spin away! Once your little one has given it a few pulses, they'll be left with a beautiful piece of art.
Learn More: Pink Pistachio
14. Make Edible Slime
Tactile learners will adore getting stuck into hand mixing this make and only requiring 3 ingredients, this slime couldn't be easier to make! Not only is it simple to throw together, but it also smells amazing. Mix together a 1/4 cup instant pudding, 1 cup corn starch, and 1/3 cup of warm water.
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15. Set Up A Garden Kitchen
Pretend play at a young age is so important because it allows a child to learn more about themselves and experiment with the world around them. Encourage your young one to take a few washable kitchen items out into the garden and bake mud cupcakes, garnish them with leaves and twigs and serve them up to you when ready.
Learn More: Tinker Garten
16. Paint With A Kitchen Scrubber
Sensory exploration comes in many forms nowadays, but one of the easiest ways to organize these types of activities is to use everyday household items. Gather a few kitchen scrubbers and sponges as well as washable paint and a few pieces of paper. Allow your children to go wild and create to their heart's content!
Learn More: Laughing Kids Learn
17. Trace food
This is a great activity for developing pre-writing, fine motor, and creativity skills. Although food such as eggs and bacon could get pretty messy, allow your students to trace around objects such as fruits and crockery adding detail such as a drink to a cup or food in a bowl.
Learn More: Play Teach Repeat
18. Ice Cream Scoop Counting
This sweet set makes for an amazing kitchen activity and gets your students practicing their counting abilities as well! They'll have a blast scooping pretend ice cream balls into holders to make a special sundae.
Learn More: Lakeshore Learning
19. Help With Kitchen Tasks
Fun cooking activities such as cutting out cookies, helping roll out dough or washing salad components are perfect for children of preschool age. Involvement in the kitchen at an early age fosters a love for food preparation later in life and also gives them a sense of contributing to the preparation of meals.
Learn More: Pathways
20. Memorize Food Flash Cards
These flashcards build vocabulary, expose kids to new and diverse foods that they may never have seen and allow them to learn the spelling of words. The 50 cards can even be used for kids to copy and create their own drawings of the food.
Learn More: Amazon
21. Squeeze Your Own Orange Juice
Getting your kids involved in the kitchen doesn't have to be strenuous. It could be as simple as helping them cut up a few oranges to squeeze and enjoy as juice over snack time!
Learn More: Sugar Spice And Glitter
22. Make A Pizza
Basic recipes are sure-fire winners with young children. They'll adore making their own pizza dough, rolling it out, and decorating it with their favorite toppings before popping it in the oven to bake.
Learn More: The Montessori Notebook
23. Make S'mores
Easy baking activities such as this one are a great introduction to the kitchen and who doesn't love a s'more? All you'll need is a microwave, marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate to make these ooey-gooey treats!
Learn More: Real Food Tesco
24. Cut Up An Apple
Slicing up an apple has never been easier! This apple slicer is safe for kids to use and a great way to encourage them to eat more fruit.
Learn More: Amazon
25. Dip And Decorate
A perfectly suited activity for preschoolers is marshmallow decorating! They can complete this one in class as a reward for good behavior at the end of a week. All you'll need is skewers, marshmallows, melted white and milk chocolate, and assorted sprinkles.
Learn More: BBC Good Food
26. Popcorn Necklace Making
Popcorn is a healthy snack and makes for great decorations and jewelry. Relying on good hand-eye coordination and a whole lot of patience, your little ones will thread their popcorn and other treats onto a piece of fishing line or string to make a necklace.
Learn More: Tots Family
27. Avocado Boat
This activity provides a great opportunity to open your kids up to a discussion about recycling and how we can use certain foods in a non-traditional manner. Using half an avocado skin, a bendy straw, tape, and a piece of cardstock, they'll be able to make a cute boat.
Learn More: Plate In 28
28. Fruit Kebabs
We all know that getting our kids to eat fresh fruit isn't always the easiest. By getting them to prepare their own fruit kebabs, that look like rockets no less, they'll be more inclined to want to indulge.
Learn More: Eats Amazing
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