Sierra Wilson is a children’s book author, artist, and mother of three. She’s a former art teacher who loves to be creative and doesn’t mind making a mess! Sierra currently lives in Alberta, Canada with her family. Learn more about Sierra at sierrawilsonauthor.com
We all know kids like to play with their food and this project gives kids the perfect chance to do it while learning something along the way!
This project is an edible adaptation of one of the toddler art lessons I used to teach at my town’s community art center. In my classes, I focused on basic art principles like line, color, and texture. My kids (ages 2 & 4) had a blast doing this project and keep asking to do it again. I hope you and your little ones will have a great time, too!
Materials
- Bite-sized foods
- Paper plates
- Peanut butter or other spreadable butter
- Spoons
Let’s Get Started!
- Gather foods with different textures. Just use whatever you can find in your pantry!
- Organize your foods to make them easy to access. I found that a muffin tin was a great organizer.
- Make sure all of the food pieces are bite-sized. I cut some of my foods up with kitchen scissors.
- Think about texture words for each food that you can share with your little ones. Here’s the list I had in mind:
Oats (dry, rough, soft)
Strawberries (wet, rough seeds, squishy)
Cheese (smooth, squishy)
Marshmallows (soft, squashy)
Grapes (smooth, wet)
Chocolate candies (smooth, hard)
Crispy rice cereal (crunchy, rough, crisp)
Fruit snacks (smooth, gummy, sticky)
Cheerios (rough, hard, dry)
Popcorn (bumpy, lumpy)
Cashews (ridged, smooth, hard)
- Put peanut butter into a small bowl and lay out a spoon. (For younger children, you can spread a peanut butter design onto a paper plate in advance and then let them decorate it. I made my 2 year old a peanut butter butterfly, which she loved!)
- Gather your kids!
Talk about all of the different textures and let your kids touch the foods you’ve gathered. Explain that you’re going to make edible texture collages.
- Let your kids use the peanut butter as glue to stick different foods onto a plate. They can make pictures or just explore and create abstract art. This project is more about the process than the product. They can sketch out a peanut butter picture in advance or just glue as they go. (Don’t skimp on the peanut butter—it takes a nice, thick blob to really stick down the food well!)
- Have fun! You can also keep talking about textures as you work.
- Eat your delicious art and enjoy!