19 Fun Food Games And Activities For Kids

Image: MomJunction Design Team

From sneaking veggies in their food to making up food stories, you may have tried all the tricks from the book to get your children to eat. Try something different with our list of food games for kids. According to research, “It is thought that the nutrition education given to the school-age children had a positive effect on their nutrition knowledge, attitudes, behaviors.” So, instead of delivering a dull lecture, why not teach them through engaging games and activities? These games make mealtime enjoyable and act as educational tools, helping children learn about nutrition, cooking, and the significance of healthy eating habits. Let them have fun with their food in a clean and organized way (1). You may ask them to cook, pick up fresh vegetables, or guess the item by tasting. Eating food in a cheerful spirit will make them relish it. So read on for a collection of ideas for food games that can make food and fun go parallel for them.

19 Interesting Food Games And Activities For Children

Before diving into the games and activities, check for any potential allergens in toys, snacks, or other materials. Always read the labels and consult with your child’s healthcare provider if you are unsure about specific ingredients or materials. Also, when choosing games or activities, ensure they are suitable for the child’s age and developmental stage to have a truly enriching experience.

Fun Food Games Your Kids Will Love

When mealtimes are fun, even fussy eaters look forward to having their meals. Here are some fun food games to entertain your child and make them enjoy their food.

1. String the cereal

If your child is already into jewelry, then let them make a food fashion statement. You will require a ribbon or a string and some colorful cereal.

How to play:

1. Lay down the cereal on a platform.
2. Take the ribbon long enough to cover the child’s neck. Tie a knot on one end and keep the other end open for the cereals to pass through.
3. Pass the colorful cereals through the ribbon and tie a knot on the other side too, to secure it.
4. Your colorful cereal necklace is ready.
5. If there is more than one child, you can hold a competition between them – the child who strings the maximum cereals and eats them in a minute wins.

2. Match the food item

It is one of the most interesting activities for kids that will keep the children entertained and engaged. Besides, you can use this fun food game to teach your little learner about food. Gather some food items, a piece of paper, and a pencil.

How to play:

1. Write down the name of the food item on the cards, preferably in a sentence format. Make sure kids try to learn about the food item while writing their names.
2. Jumble all the cards.
3. The challenge for your child is to match the card with the food item.
4. When kids touch and feel the item, they tend to remember it better.

3. Marshmallow tower

This game of marshmallow tower is suitable for the younger kids as it requires minimal effort.

How to play:

1. Find a flat surface like a kitchen top or a dining table.
2. Stack the marshmallows into a tower, starting from a broader base for the foundation.
3. Add layers after each step and reduce one marshmallow from each layer.
4. The top layer must have just one marshmallow, and your tower is complete.

Point to consider

Making pancake faces is a fun and delectable way to get kids enthusiastic about breakfast. Kids can use blueberries for the eyes, a banana slice for the nose, and chocolate chips for the mouth.

4. Guess the sauce

The blindfolded taste test brings lots of laughs. Keep your cameras ready so that you can cherish these memories for many years. Get some sauces, food items or mix them all up to make this challenge a lot more interesting. At least two players are required to play this game.

How to play:

1. Blindfold one player.
2. Lay down all the jars of sauces.
3. The rest of the players have to make the blindfolded person taste each sauce and guess the name.
4. The player who identifies the maximum number of sauces wins.

Tip: Do not include any allergic sauce, which may upset the health of the players.

5. Eat the donut

Donuts are yummy and mouth-watering. But, how will you eat them when your hands are tied? To play this game, you need donuts, a string to tie them up, a rope to tie the hands of each participant and a gang of players.

How to play:

1. Tie the donuts on a string.
2. Hook this string up to a tree or a low ceiling roof.
3. Handcuff the players.
4. The challenge for the players is to eat as many donuts as possible, without using their hands.

6. Berries in the mouth

To play this intriguing game, you will require strawberries, blueberries, and yogurt. Set up a timer, to make it more challenging.

How to play:

1. Fill up a bowl or a plate with yogurt.
2. Strategically place the berries inside the yogurt in various parts of the bowl.

3. The players have to eat all the berries at the designated time. The only condition is that they cannot use their hands.
4. Grapes, nuts, and edamame are some healthy foods for kids you can use in place of berries to create interesting variations of this fun game for your child.

7. Slurp the spaghetti

Try this challenge if you have a children’s party at home or maybe when your little one is refusing to eat.

How to play:

1. Fill up the bowls with spaghetti pasta.
2. Without using their hands, players have to slurp and finish it.
3. The player who finishes the entire bowl first wins the game.

8. Cookie cutting

Kids enjoy munching on cookies, and they love it, even more, when they come in exciting shapes and sizes.

How to play:

1. Parents can help the kids mix the cookie dough by adding flour, butter, vanilla extract, and chocolate chip cookies. Add nuts and raisins too.
2. Roll the dough on the kitchen counter.
3. The fun begins when kids start cutting cookies in shapes of their choice.
4. Bake them for about 10 minutes. Bon appetit.

9. Making edible playdough

Kids love giving shape to their imagination with playdough, and an edible version is a win-win.

How to play:

1. Parents can help children make the dough base by mixing two cups of flour with half a cup of salt, two tablespoons of cooking oil, and two tablespoons of cream of tartar. Gradually add one cup of boiling water while kneading the dough to attain desirable consistency.
2. Have the child divide the dough into sections, add a few drops of food-grade colors of their choice, and knead each section separately.
3. Let your child have fun creating various colorful shapes and designs from the dough or make a squishy toy. Let them use plastic knives to shape the structures.

Fun Food Activities For Children

Play-based food activities provide children with fun and interactive ways to explore and learn about various foods outside regular mealtime routines (2). By engaging in these activities, children can learn about the nutritional facts of different foods, making them more aware of their food choices.

10. Decorate the cupcake

Is your child a patissière in the making? Inspire the little chefs to pursue their passion by assigning this fun activity.

Parents can mix the dough and bake the cupcakes in the oven. Once the cakes are out looking fluffy and delicious, kids can decorate them with frosting, sprinkles, and drizzle some caramel or chocolate sauce.

Cheryl Pasquier, a mother and blogger, describes how her children are having fun decorating and making their cupcakes. She says, “As soon as the kids saw the recipe card for the Little Fish Cupcakes, they were desperate to have a go at those, so I duly threw a bag of Skittles in the shopping trolley…I created one fish to show them the idea, with colored sweets for scales and half a Cheerio for a smile, then left them to get on with icing the rest. They had great fun, and let their creative instincts take over so my “model” was soon forgotten! As they used the Velvety Vanilla Cake Mix for the cupcakes, the only complicated part was being patient enough for the cakes to cool down before icing them. Juliette (her daughter) had a brainwave of putting them in the fridge, but even then, they were still lukewarm which is why the icing is a bit runny! They may look a bit of a mess to grown-ups but to the Madhouse kids, these were the coolest thing ever (i)!”

11. Chopstick challenge

If your little munchkin enjoys Chinese food, then this food activity for kids is perfect for them. Buy a set of chopsticks and serve a dish of noodles with it. Now watch your kid going crazy while trying to eat with chopsticks. Giggles! On a serious note, learning to eat with chopsticks can improve fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination in children.

Do remember

While allowing your kids to enjoy and experiment with food and eating, teach them the value of food and not wasting it.

12. Pluck’em up

Head out on a fun adventure where kids get to learn about the direct source of fruits and vegetables. Grab a basket and visit the nearest farm or an orchard. This is also a really nice way to teach kids about how farming is done. Children can learn a lot about the process of farming and appreciate nature if they have such experiences at a farm.

13. Letter your pasta

This is one of the food activities for kids, which will fascinate and enable your child to learn the alphabet and numbers. Buy a packet of alphabet style pasta from your nearest grocery store. Place all of them on a table, and let your child identify each letter and number.

14. Food art challenge

Who says you can’t play with your food? In this fun and colorful challenge, your children get to unleash their inner artists by transforming their plates into edible masterpieces. Give each child a plate to arrange the food into simple designs, like a face or an animal. With fruits, veggies, and other tasty items, they’ll create pictures so cool they might not want to eat them.

15. Jazz up your bread

Why eat a plain sandwich, when you can have fun with it? Grab a slice of bread, spread some Nutella over it and jazz it up with your child’s favorite fruits. But what’s the activity in it? Give all the ingredients to your child for them to decorate the sandwich the way they want. The only rule is they eat the sandwich once they are done with decoration.

16. Gingerbread house competition

Have fun with gingerbread, frosting, sprinkles and some candies. Let the kids compete with their friends or siblings and see who designs the most beautiful gingerbread house.

17. Cracker pyramid

This food activity tests the skills of the kids at a whole new level. Building a pyramid teaches them patience and develops their cerebral abilities. All you need are graham crackers or some wafers to build a pyramid. Place the crackers in a triangular fashion, keeping a higher number at the base and reducing one triangle at each level.

18. Smoothie challenge

If your kids dislike eating fruits, involve them in this smoothie challenge. Supply them with fruits, milk and a blender. Help the kids with chopping and peeling of the fruits. Add the ingredients to the blender and turn it on. Whoop, a delicious and healthy drink is ready.

Tip: Parents supervision and assistance is mandatory.

19. Paint an egg

Decorating and painting a fragile egg is a challenging yet fun exercise. Kids can use watercolors or sharpies and apply their vivid imagination to paint an egg.

Challenges Parents Face When Playing Food Games With Kids

Games and activities involving food can be fun for both parents and children. However, many parents face some common challenges when playing such games with their children. Let’s take a look at these challenges and explore ways to overcome them.

1. Messy affair: Food activities and games are most likely to create a lot of mess, requiring a thorough cleanup. Since this can’t be avoided, it’s better to pick a specific spot for these activities. It can be at the kitchen table or outside, and the kids can wear aprons to keep their clothes clean. Use newspaper or a drop cloth to make cleaning up easier. You can also ask children to help with the cleaning process.
2. Picky eaters: Some children might not participate in food-related games because they dislike certain foods or may not be willing to try new foods. To tackle this, playfully introduce new foods and tell your child about healthy eating and why it is good to try different foods. Let them help with grocery shopping and cooking, as being involved can make them more open to trying new things. 
3. Safety concerns: Giving kitchen tools and appliances to children can be risky. So, ensure you are always around when they are dealing with kitchen items. Give younger children plastic knives to cut soft foods like fruits, veggies, and bread. As they become more proficient, you can introduce safer alternatives, like blunt-edged knives, before moving on to regular kitchen tools under supervision. 
4. Food allergies: When your child and their friends are playing food games, it can be challenging to ensure all ingredients are safe for everyone involved. So, make a note if children have food allergies or sensitivities. Use safe ingredients and keep foods separate to avoid cross-contamination. Label everything clearly and talk to parents if you have any concerns.

Infographic: Interesting Food Games To Eat And Play

One of the favorite times children spend with their parents, especially mothers, is when preparing food in the kitchen. So, take a chance to turn this time into a fun and learning activity. We have an infographic below with some great ideas for food games that you can play while enjoying cooking. Keep reading!

Illustration: Momjunction Design Team

Illustration: Interesting And Fun Food Games For Kids

Image: Dall·E/MomJunction Design Team

Join in the fun with interactive nutrition games for kids as they learn to identify different food groups in the exciting challenge called ‘Name That Food Group.’ Help kids learn about nutrition through this interactive game.

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