Finger Lickin’ Sensory Snacks

Plan a snack or a meal that can be eaten with the fingers. Nuts, crackers, fruits, and vegetables are easy. Be brave and experiment with peanut butter, yogurt, and other foods that are normally eaten with a utensil. Be sure the children have clean hands before they start this activity. Use spoons in the serving bowls. As they eat, talk with the children about how foods feel. Help them expand on their language skills by introducing new words like texture, firm, spicy, etc.

How do you like your carrots?
Prepare cooked, raw, and frozen carrots. Dice or mash the cooked carrots. Don’t add salt, butter, or spices. Serve raw carrots in sticks or rounds. Slice the frozen carrots into thin sticks or rounds. Invite the children to try each type of carrot. Ask them which they like the best and why. Try serving other foods, such as potatoes, eggs, green beans, spinach, and apples in several ways.

Touch and Size
Blindfold older children. Younger children may prefer just to close their eyes. Give children several different sizes of dried beans, uncooked pasta, or nuts. Pick foods with an aroma so children can identify foods by the way they smell or feel. Ask children to sort the foods by smell or by size: small foods together, medium together and large. This might become a math activity by comparing which foods are bigger or smaller than others or by counting the number of foods used in the activity.

Spice Traders
Children will often refuse to eat spicy foods. A good time to talk with them about spices is when you talk about foods from other countries. Pop some popcorn. Divide it into separate bowls. Sprinkle each bowl of popcorn with a different spice or herb. Onion, garlic, and seasoned salt are especially tasty, but you can try cinnamon, nutmeg, oregano and others, too.

Cooking Means Changes
You will need 4 eggs for this activity. Boil water in a saucepan. Number the eggs 1, 2, 3, and 4 by writing on the shells with a waterproof, permanent marker. Place all the eggs into the pan of boiling water. Remove egg #1 after 1 minute. Remove egg #2 after 3 minutes, egg #3 after 5 minutes, and egg #4 after 10 minutes. Crack each egg into a different bowl to show the difference in cooking times on the eggs. Explain that cooking and heat also help kill many germs. Make certain that no child eats the eggs used in this activity.

More about Temperature
Freeze different shapes of ice cubes. Why did the water turn hard? Boil water and watch the steam. When we see steam rising, what is happening? Melt the ice cubes to show children how temperature can change foods.

Eating Colors
Serve the same food in different colors, such as red, green and yellow apples. Ask the children if the different colors of apples taste the same or different. Serve different foods that are the same color, such as oranges, carrots and cantaloupe. How are these foods the same? How are these foods different? Serve different foods that are different colors, such as red apples, orange oranges, purple plums, yellow bananas. How are these foods the same? How are they different?


Caution: Young children can easily choke on raw vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts, peanut butter, hot dogs, etc. Do not give these foods to infants. Closely watch young children when they eat these foods.


Related Training:
Promoting Healthy Eating Habits - 1 hour
Express Nutrition Package - Healthy Choices (2 hours / .2 CEU)
Basic Nutrition (2 hours / .2 CEU)