As you prepare Thanksgiving dinner, make brunch for camped out family, serve snacks for watching the football game, or bake holiday cookies, no matter the age, the kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews can—and should—help in the kitchen too! The benefits and memories of getting hands on experience making a family meal like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Hanukkah are extraordinary. Here are several Thanksgiving cooking activities for kids as well as other fun Thanksgiving activities for them to try.
Age Specific Kids Cooking Activities
Katie Workman, of theMom100 blog and cookbook, shares a few holiday meal tips on how kids can help with the Thanksgiving meal. I love her age specific Thanksgiving cooking activities for kids and I hope you and your family enjoy preparing your Thanksgiving feast together.
Age specific Thanksgiving activities for kids get them helping in the kitchen, learning and having fun! When young children learn to follow a simple recipe, they are learning invaluable life skills. It is a great way to build their confidence and teach them to take pride in providing for their family. Younger children with little hands can help out too. They just need age-appropriate cooking activities and close supervision.
Thanksgiving Cooking Activities For Preschool:
- Pour, dump, stir and sprinkle ingredients and spices you have gathered together.
- Whisk the eggs for breakfast.
- Sprinkle the spices.
- Wash the potatoes with a scrub brush or scrub gloves for little fingers.
- Take out the pots, pans, measuring cups, and bowls you need.
- Tear up the bread for the stuffing.
Thanksgiving Cooking Activities For Kids 5-7:
- All of the kitchen skills from the preschool list above, plus those below.
- Cut soft fruits and vegetables with kid-safe knives like ones from Zyliss or Curious Chef.
- Knead bread or roll the dough for pie crust
- Cut out cookies
- Crush graham crackers for making cheesecake crust
Fun Cooking Activities For Children 7-9:
- Assemble the ingredients for a recipe
- Measure the ingredients for a recipe
- Mix ingredients
- Once they have literacy skills, children should be able to follow simple kid-friendly recipes- like mixing the ingredients for a pumpkin pie filling.
- Preparing the egg custard to dip French toast in, is a rewarding activity.
Cooking Activities For Older Children
- Start lessons on math and chemistry while cooking. Cooking is really just a series of edible science experiments! If you don’t know the answer to some questions – get them on the computer looking it up! What does baking soda do to a recipe? What is the difference between unsweetened and semi-sweet chocolate? Why does flour thicken the gravy?
I hope you kids enjoy These thanksgiving cooking activities for kids. They will be learning and feel important and involved as part of the family making things happen.
If you want more ideas for fun Thanksgiving activities for kids, there are lots of other ways for kids to get involved and help. Here are some ideas.
More Fun Thanksgiving Activities For Kids:
- Make Thanksgiving crafts to decorate your home
- Make a menu on an easel
- Take guests coats
- Make place settings
- Make a cornucopia for the table centerpiece
- Pass out appetizers on a tray
- Take drink orders (they love this!)
- Take photos – imagine the narrative your photos will tell when taken from their perspective! It will be the best holiday recap you’ve had.
- And help with CLEAN UP!
Still want more fun activities for kids? Check out The Highlights Book of Things to Do. It was recently featured among TODAY’s best gifts for 7-year-olds. The book features over 530 activities developed to encourage children to explore, play, discover and keep them active!
The book shares fun Thanksgiving activities for kids like clean up games, leftover pie ideas, and instructions for folding napkins into creative shapes. Whether you’re planning on having a large, small or virtual gathering this Thanksgiving, fancy napkin shapes are sure to impress your kids and guest. Like this fun tutorial for how to fold cloth napkins into silverware pockets.
There are many benefits of cooking with your children. It is a great opportunity for them to improve fine motor skills, learn about healthy eating, and meal preparation. Being able to prepare their favorite snack and learn to follow recipes will serve them well for the rest of their lives.
Happy Holidays! I hope you and your family have a great time cooking together, working together and celebrating together! You may want to pin these Thanksgiving cooking activities for kids so you can find them easily on the big day!
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