Check out our youngest food explorers

by Wendy Jeffries, Executive Director, TasteWise Kids

Last month I had the pleasure of working with some little tasters when I visited my daughter’s class at First English Lutheran Preschool and Kindergarten. We focused on exploring our food in new ways by using our 5 senses. While this day was geared to kids 3-5, really any kid (or adult who wants to play with their food) can try out these fun activities at home.

After identifying our 5 senses, kids used them to explore 3 different kinds of apples. We talked about what we heard when we bit into a piece of apple, how they smelled, the different colors, and the difference in textures between the skin part and the flesh. We added another element by also using some pieces with skin and others without. And then the favorite part of course – a taste test! While the sweeter Fuiji apples were the group’s favorite, some much preferred the more tart (a new word for many) Braeburn apples.

To try this activity at home, check out our printable TasteWise Kids Tasting Sheet.

They also loved exploring with their magnifying glasses as you can see – this time with marshmallows to allow us to talk about all kinds of new textures, smells, and tastes.

Our next exploration was all about making art with vegetables!
Students created a plant picture using different vegetables.
We talked about what part of different vegetables we eat (carrots we eat the root, corn we eat the seed, etc.) and then used cut up pieces of the vegetables to build their own “edible plant” picture. The students loved getting to design their own plants and also did some tasting along the way.

We are working on creating more Workshops for eaters of all ages. We look forward to sharing more about this in the coming months. In the meantime, the most important thing to do is to encourage your young food explorers to try new foods and to talk about what they like and dislike about these new foods.