Edible Winter Craft Fun
Baking with kids is a fun way to practice speech and language skills. especially when it’s close to the holidays! Of course, not everyone will have a kitchen that they are able to use with their classes. This means that edible winter crafts are the perfect workaround. These activities are great for small spaces and shorter session times. When working with food, be sure to check with families beforehand to make sure there are no allergies or other medical concerns that may limit what a child may eat or work with. While many of these projects include candy, it’s the holiday season, so it’s generally acceptable to splurge once in a while with your groups.
There are a wide variety of edible snacks that complement the winter season and holidays. These are a few that work well for a variety of age groups. Be sure to allow for repeating directions, time to ask questions, and describing how they are decorating their masterpieces. All of this plus the group participation will help with speech and language skills.
Reading Confetti shares how to make Sledding Penguins Frozen Banana Snack. For these to be peanut/nut free you will need plain brown and orange M&Ms, melting chocolate or chocolate chips, and bananas. The only catch to this activity is that you will need to freeze them shortly to allow the chocolate to set. Make sure to have a space ready for them to go into. While this is setting, it’s the perfect time to read a book like Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester. As everyone enjoys their snack, chat about sledding and any memories kids have with winter sports.
The Decorated Cookie shares Easy 2D Graham Cracker Houses for Christmas. For this activity, you will need graham crackers, a serrated knife, white icing, and a variety of candies. To make this easier, you could have the graham crackers cut ahead of time before meeting with the kids. The step by step directions on the post share how to make the house look 3D in an easy way. Kids will be able to follow the directions with modeling. Give plenty of time for them to decorate the fronts of each house. If there is time, allow kids to tell the story about their house and who may live inside of it.
Kid Activities Blog has their Make a Marshmallow Snowman that is quick and easy for little hands to make in a short amount of time. For this “snacktivity,” you will need large marshmallows, graham crackers, mini chocolate chips, candy corn, white icing, and pretzel sticks. To personalize these a bit more, extra candy and fruit wraps could be used to add hats and scarves for the new snowman friends.
Remember to connect to speech and language while making these edible activities. The speech pathologists should try to focus on sequencing, following directions, phrasing practice, and using new vocabulary. If there is not enough time time to enjoy the creations during the session, be sure to have items to pack up whatever has been made already to go home with each child. Think about sending home a sheet of instructions for families to try on their own. Be sure to include translations for any multilingual families.