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Kids Fun, Art and Healthy Wellbeing

Healthy Fruit Pineapple Sun Sculptures

Our healthy fruit sculptures is held at our school once a week, we create beautiful, fruit sculptures which the children look forward to each week.

 

You will need:

  • Wooden board
  • Knife ( for adult use only)
  • Plastic plates
  • Sliced pineapples cut in circles
  • Extra pineapple circles cut in small triangles

 

 

To do:

  • Ask your child to assemble the circular pineapple slice on a plate and assemble the triangle slices on the sides to make a bright, beautiful sun!

 

Start healthy habits for your child now, in a fun and creative way!

Banana Octopus Fruit Sculptures

Written by Julia Gorham

Encouraging healthy eating habits for young children.

You will need:

  • Ripe bananas
  • A chopping board
  • A knife ( Adult use only)
  • A marking pen

To do:

  • Place a banana on a chopping board and slice 8 slithers of the banana from top to bottom.
  • Cut the banana underneath the skin in half .
  • Place the banana upright on a plate and spread the 8 slithers of the banana on the plate.
  • Draw a smiley face and round circles on the slithers of the banana peel.

Fruity Flower Sculptures

Fruity Flower Sculptures

Written by Julia Gorham

These colourful fruit sculptures were a great hit in my classroom and the children loved eating their pretty, fruity flowers too!

You will need:

  • Naartjies
  • Purple grapes
  • Green apples
  • A wooden board
  • A knife (For adult use only to slice the apples and grapes)
  • Plates

 

To do:

  • Wash the fruit
  • Peel the naartjies
  • Cut the grapes in half
  • Slice the green the green apples into long slivers for the stems and smaller slices for the leaves
  • Place the different fruit onto a main plate, ready for your child to assemble.
  • Ask your child to place the grape in the middle of the plate and to place the naartjie pieces around the grape to form a complete petal flower.
  • Place the apple stem beneath the flower with the two smaller cut pieces of apples on either side of the stem.

 

Watch  your child marvel at their beautiful fruity, flower, healthy creations and enjoy the tasty fruits too!

 

Encouraging healthy eating habits for young children is important and this is where it starts!

 

 

Butterflies from Apples and Celery

apple celery butterfly

apple celery butterflyHow do you persuade your children to enjoy healthy food? It often helps to create interesting forms to ignite their curiosity and desire to try different foods. Today we will share how to make a butterfly out of apples, celery and a bit of cottage cheese.

What you’ll need:

  • apple
  • celery
  • knife (adults only)
  • chopping board
  • cottage cheese / peanut butter

Method:

  1. Cut the celery into strips just a bit longer than the length of the apple.
  2. Cut the apple in half and then make thin slices with your knife. You can trim the edges to make the wings slightly smaller too. If your butterfly falls over because they are too thick you can always cut them in half again. 
  3. Fill the middle funnel of the celery with cottage cheese. You can also use another filling such as peanut butter.
  4. Place two apple wings in the celery stick.
  5. Cut two small pieces of celery for the antennae. 

Let the children taste it and enjoy!

 

celery apple butterflies

food sculptures

 

 

Crab food sculptures made from apples

Creating food sculptures is an excellent idea to promote healthy eating habits for young children in a fun and creative way!

You will need:

  • Apples
  • A wooden board
  • Knife ( Adult use only)
  • Plate

To do:

  • Slice an apple in half
  • With the other half the apple, cut thin round slices
  • Cut the 6 slices into 6 thin round strips
  • With one slice cut out 3 small triangles in the middle, for the claws
  • Place the one half of the apple on a plate
  • Ask your child to assemble the slices of apple with five legs on either side and the two slices that are cut into claws on the top to create a cute apple crab.

 

Open ended modelling activities for young children

Written by Julia Gorham and Heather Step

 

During our Holiday Crafts programme, the children made pinch pots with homemade clay. They loved rolling the clay between the palms of their hands and pushing down hard with their thumbs in the middle to make pinch pots. 

 

Sensory interaction between child and materials are foremost. The goal should be as much direct contact with the hands and materials as possible.

 

Impressions: Give your child objects with interesting textures to press into the dough or clay. For example: Plastic forks, lids, keys, coins  potato mashers and other washable items.

Stick sculptures: Use a lump of clay or dough as a base in which to insert materials such as sticks, toothpicks, pipe cleaners, straws, buttons and we also use natural items from our nature walks with pine cones, acorns, twigs, dried grass etc.

Playdough with colour: Let you child colour their own playdough by dropping a small drop of food colouring or liquid paint onto the homemade playdough and allow them to mix it.

 Geometric shapes: clay on the table and then moulding it. This is a great Montessori extension with the Montessori geometric solids. Older children can use clay to make forms such as cubes, spheres, prisms etc. by tapping the clay on the table and then moulding it. This is a great Montessori extension  for the Montessori geometric solids.

Pinch pots: Get your child to make a ball, press his thumb in the middle of the ball and then pinch the clay or playdough gently between his fingers and thumb to make a pinch pot. Making sure that your child widens the centre and thins the sides equally. Your child can then roll small dough eggs to place inside the pinch pot.

 

Clay recipe:

This recipe is taken from Family Education

Modeling Clay

Materials

 

  • 2 cups salt
  • Two thirds of a cup water
  • Saucepan
  • 1 cup cornstarch
  • 1/2 cup cold water

Directions

  1. Stir salt and water in a saucepan over heat 4-5 minutes.
  2. Remove from heat; add cornstarch and cold water.
  3. Stir until smooth; return to heat and cook until thick.
  4. Allow the clay to cool, then shape as desired.
  5. When dry, decorate with paint, markers, glitter, and so on.
  6. If you like, finish with clear acrylic spray or clear nail polish.
  7. Store unused clay in a Ziploc bag.

Note that it is better to use the clay immediately as it doesn’t keep well, even in a Ziplock bag. 

We painted the clay and also sprinkled glitter on it.   I used cupcake liners to contain them. 

Other people have created beautiful pinch pots with thinner sides – check out this other stunning picture to the right. It really shows that there is a lot you can do with this idea. 

 

 

 

 

Dolphin fruit sculptures with bananas and grapes

These cute dolphins make a tasty snack and will aid in your child’s love of healthy food.

What you need:

  • Bananas
  • Grapes
  • A polystyrene/ paper or plastic cup
  • Marker pen
  • Knife ( for adult use only)

 

To do:

  • Slice the end of the banana.
  • Draw eyes on either side of the banana
  • Place the banana in a cup filled with grapes
  • Place a grape inside the dolphins mouth

Pineapple Food Sculptures

What a great way to promote healthy food sculptures for young children!

 

You will need:

  • A ripe pineapple
  • Wooden board
  • Knife ( For use by adult only)
  • Plate

To do:

  • Cut the outside skin and top of the pineapple
  • Placing the pineapple sideways, slice several thin round slices of the pineapple
  • Cut small triangles with the rounded slices
  • Set aside the round cut slices and triangle cut out slices of the pineapple
  • Ask your child to assemble the different sizes to make a pretty yellow sun on a plate

Kids Best Vanilla Biscuits Ever

vanilla biscuitsTry this flop proof, easy recipe to make yummy, vanilla biscuits with your child

 

You will need:

  • 150 grams butter
  • 125 ml sugar
  • 1 large egg lightly beaten
  • 5 ml vanilla essence
  • 500 ml cake flour
  • Pinch of salt
  • Cookie cutters
  • Icing and sprinkles
  • Rolling pin
  • Baking tray (buttered)

To do:

  • Cream sugar and eggs together and add vanilla essence
  • Sift dry ingredients
  • Mix into creamed mixture to form a soft dough
  • Roll with a rolling pin until smooth and add extra flour on the surface if necessary
  • Press cookie cutters and place on buttered flat plan, leaving spaces in between
  • Bake at 180 degree for 12 to 15 min
  • When cool, decorate with icing and sprinkles

Watermelon and Cucumber Sticks

Let your child have fun with colourful watermelon and cucumber flower sticks!

You will need:

  • Watermelon sliced into thick slices
  • Flower cookie cutters
  • Sliced cucumbers, cut in half
  • Kebab sticks

To do:

  • Press a flower cookie cutter into the sliced water melon
  • Remove the cut out watermelon flower
  • Slide a kebab stick into  the water melon flower, to the top of the kebab stick
  • Slide two halves of the cucumber underneath the flower