Wrap the food in this fun fine motor activity for kids. Toddlers and preschoolers will strengthen fine motor skills as they prepare the food before cooking. This is a wonderful activity for cooking or nutrition themed lesson plans.
Help your children to learn about nutrition with the Healthy Eating Activity pack. This free activity pack is filled with print and play games for kids aged 2 years and up. Learn about the different food groups, everyday and sometimes food and more.
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More Healthy Eating Play Ideas
Nutrition activities are a wonderful way to teach toddlers and preschoolers about eating healthy food, without any typical dinner time fights about vegetables. Here are some of my most popular healthy eating play ideas for young children.
- Fruit Stamp Art for Kids
- Vegetable Garden Sensory Bin
- Vegetable Lacing Cards
- Veggie Building – STEM Activity
- Free Fruit Matching Game
For more ideas, visit 16 Healthy Eating Activities for Kids
Materials Needed
- Toy fruit and vegetables
- Foil
- Scissors
- A pot (optional)
How to Make a Wrap the Food Activity
Step 1. Gather your toy fruits and vegetables.
I have these lovely wooden vegetables that can be cut into pieces with a toy knife. I highly recommend them, because they last for far longer than any of the plastic ones. Our toy food has taken a real beating over the last few years, but these ones are still going strong.
2. Take your foil, and cut it onto squares.
I did most of mine roughly 4 inches x 4 inches and they fitted around most of the food. If you have larger toy fruit and vegetables, then make your foil squares large enough to fit the whole toy.
It’s so easy to cut the foil into squares, especially since you can cut several pieces all at once. However, if you do it this way, like I did, then you will have to go through and separate them since the scissors will make them stick together.
3. Set up the toys, foil and an old pot and let your kids play.
I showed my children how to place the food in the center of the foil square and then wrap it. I also then encouraged them to place the wrapped food inside the pot to be “cooked”.
This is optional, I have an old pot as part of their kitchen play set. But if you don’t have an old pot lying around, a regular bowl will work perfectly.
4. Once all of the food was wrapped, I also showed the kids how to unwrap the food again, in hopes that they could do the activity for as long as they wanted.
This step was the trickiest of them all. The kids found it difficult to unwrap the food without tearing the foil.
In hindsight, I wouldn’t use foil in this activity again, mainly because it can only really be used one time and it is such a waste.
Instead, I would probably use paper next time (preferably a food themed wrapping paper). You can still wrap the food with it and gain all of the advantages of fine motor play. Although the paper won’t stay wrapped around the food nicely, it can be unwrapped more easily and at least recycled once your kids have finished playing.
Are you going to try this Wrap the Food Activity with your kids?
Don’t forget to pin the idea for later.
