Food Play Activity: Valentine's Day Activity for Kids

Ever heard of love necklaces? The ones with all the little hearts that you used to give your sweetheart? Well today's Valentine's Day activity for kids is based off this concept... just in time for some Valentine's Day fun. Food play is great for helping fussy eaters explore and learn about new foods. Our 10 Top Tips for Food Play may be helpful to read alongside this post.

Level: Medium

What you will need:

• A mix of 3 or more different red foods such as strawberries, cherries, radishes, red peppers, rhubarb

• Bread

• Red food colouring

• Clear string

• Kids knives

• A plate that you don't mind getting stained

• Mini heart-shaped plunger

• Paint brush

• Two skewers

The Activity:

• Gather all the things that you will need.

• Lay out the pieces of bread together with your child and use the paint brush to paint them using the red food colouring.

• Once your bread art is ready, pop the pieces of bread into the toaster.

• When toasted and cooled, encourage your child to use the mini heart-shaped plunger to cut out small hearts.

• Next get your red foods. Decide together with your child how you want to cut them - some can be cut with the mini heart-shaped plunger while others can be cut into heart shapes using the kids knives. Some foods may need to be cut using the knife before the mini heart-shaped plunger can be used. Encourage your child to feel the textures of the different foods and smell them too.

• Now, the fun part - making your necklace. Model to your child how to use the skewer to pierce holes into the heart-shaped bread and food. Once all the foods have holes, cut a piece of clear string and thread the foods on in whatever order you choose.

• Once you have thread all the foods onto the string, tie a knot and wear it in style!!

• You can make as many necklaces as you like but we recommend making at least two: one for you and one for your child.

• Not a fan of necklaces? You can also make heart-shaped bracelets, food crowns or bunting.

What Valentines Day food play activities have you tried?

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