These fantastic cooking activities for kids taste great and will keep your students interested in learning. Making food in a classroom setting is even more fun because it helps build teamwork skills too. Fostering a love for cooking and baking in children at an early age can help beat picky eating, and create a love for food and creative cooking that lasts a lifetime. Here are some of my favorite cooking activities for kids!
10 Taste Tests and Edible Science Experiments
Bread In A Bag | Your Homebased Mom
It’s pretty much impossible not to have a blast with this experiment where your kids learn how to make bread in a basic Ziploc gallon bag. Plus, in the end, you get freshly baked bread! Talk about a huge win. The kids will love smooshing the bag – it doubles as a great sensory activity!
Chocolate Slime | Little Bins Little Hands
We all know that slime is pretty much the coolest thing ever in the eyes of children. Now imagine if you could make edible chocolate slime…the possibilities are endless!
Edible Art Grape + Toothpick Sculptures | Artful Parent
This is one instance when it’s totally acceptable to play with your food. There are so many things kids can learn from the visual and tactile experience of seeing and touching food. All you need are some toothpicks and some grapes and you’ve got the perfect edible science experiment for kids.
Mini Jello Aquariums | Confessions Of A Cookbook Queen
These aquariums aren’t just fun to make—they look awesome, too. Everyone is going to have a blast making and learning about jello with this fun cooking activity for kids.
Ice Cream In A Bag | Kidstir
What is better than ice cream? Nothing! This is one of my favorite cooking activities for kids as it’s fun to make and tasty. Each child will be able to learn a lot and be rewarded for their hard work with a yummy treat in the end.
Frozen Yogurt Berry Bites | Happiness Is Homemade
Not only can you teach kids in a classroom a little bit about food and science, but you will also brush up on their patience skills as well. The hardest part will be waiting for these bars to freeze, but you can do this lesson at the end of the day and enjoy the bars as a snack the following morning.
Peeps Science Experiments |Little Bins Little Hands
There are so many fun experiments out there that use Peeps marshmallows. This post is lovely because kids can learn if a Peep will sink or float, shoot it off a catapult and see the effects of combining Peeps with heat.
How To Make Fizzing Lemonade | Learn With Play At Home
This is one of those cooking activities for kids your students will go wild over. It’s fun, educational, and the best part is your students get to sip on their science experiment when they are done!
Popcorn From A Cob | Tinker Lab
Popcorn is one of the coolest things to learn about it. We eat it when we go to the movies, but has your child ever stopped to wonder how in the world corn turns into popcorn? This is a great experiment to demonstrate the process!
Bake A Chemistry Cake | Education.com
This project is geared towards older children, and they will appreciate learning all about cake baking. This is more than just the act of baking—this includes what makes the cake rise and become the texture it is, making it educational and delicious!
8 No-Bake Recipes to Enjoy in the Classroom
Easy Apple Fruit Donuts | Hello, Wonderful
This treat is an excellent combination of sweet and healthy. Teaching kids about the importance of healthy snacks while still making them fun is a great classroom idea.
Marshmallow Treat Sushi | Jelly Toast
The children in your class will be delighted with the results of this marshmallow sushi treat. It’s a blast to make and is even more fun to eat.
Under The Sea Graham Crackers | The First Year
Part of learning your way around the kitchen is getting a little messy from time to time. I can pretty much guarantee you that the kids in your class may get a little wild when decorating their graham crackers, but that is part of the fun of learning.
No-Bake Cereal Bar Recipe | Taste Of Home
Teaching kids to make cereal bars is an amazing idea. They will eventually get to the point when they can make them all by themselves and have a fast and easy breakfast to enjoy with their family at home!
2-Ingredient Strawberry Fudge | Kids Spot
Yum! This beautiful pink strawberry fudge is so easy to make. This is another one of my favorite cooking activities for kids – they love making it and devouring every bite. You might even get lucky and get to enjoy some, too.
Banana Split Pops | Delish
These banana split pops can make almost anyone hungry! They are easy to make, are (mostly) healthy, and teach kids about melting chocolate. Plus, each kid can decorate theirs with whatever toppings they want, making it an extra fun idea for bad weather days.
Vegetable Tortilla Rollups | Culinary Hill
These veggie roll-ups are a great way to teach kids that eating healthy can still taste fabulous.
Healthy No Bake Chocolate Fruit Pizza Recipe | Super Healthy Kids
Anything with the word “pizza” in the title is going to be a hit no matter how old the kids in your class are. If you have ever had fruit pizza, then you already know how delicious it is – give this a try!
9 Delicious Recipes Kids Can Make In Classroom
Granola Recipe |Artful Parent
This is a fun one. Children will love putting together their own granola. You can give them options as to what they can add to theirs to give it a personal touch. Granola makes a great snack, and they can make it at home too.
Pizza Bagel Bites | Life Made Simple
I don’t care how old you are…eating pizza on a bagel is always enjoyable! Each kiddo is going to feel proud to be able to make his or her own food and eat it too.
Cheeseburger Soup | The Recipe Critic
This cheeseburger soup appeals to children because it has ingredients they already like. They will love the rewarding feeling of making soup for their family on a cold winter day, too.
Chicken And Broccoli Quesadilla | Step Stool Chef
These quesadillas are a great starting point to teach kids about cooking. They are easy to make, full of flavor, and you can’t help but smile when eating one. Plus, this is one of the cooking activities for kids that has veggies in it, so it’s a win/win.
Instant Pot Applesauce | Amy & Jacky
Applesauce-making has been taught in classrooms all over the world for many years. But this applesauce is made in a pressure cooker, which adds a whole slew of valuable mini-lessons to go along with it.
Homemade Mac & Cheese | Bless This Mess Please
Doesn’t everyone love homemade mac & cheese? Your students will go wild over their favorite meal, and it will mean more to them knowing they made it themselves.
The Best Easy Taco Pizza | Living Well Mom
This taco pizza is just plain delicious. This is a great tool to teach kids about cooking, and they will love proudly gobbling up every bite.
Homemade Fruit Leather | Fresh Off The Grid
Fruit leather is so much fun! You will need to have a dehydrator for this recipe, and your students will love learning about this process.
Ham And Cheese Pinwheels | Well Plated
This recipe is full of simple, everyday ingredients that most kids love. They will enjoy rolling the pinwheels up and keeping them together with toothpicks, which doubles as a great fine motor activity!
Which one of these cooking activities for kids are you most excited about? They all sound pretty fantastic to me!
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