Children love to help cook. They are especially excited when they get to make a food item by themselves. The farm theme gives a large variety of cooking and food preparation opportunities for kids of all ages. Kids can be involved in hands-on and safe-cooking recipes, while learning about food that comes from the farm.
Provide warm, but not hot, pancakes and cooked link sausages, at least one of each per child. You may also provide syrup for dipping. The children will simply roll a sausage link inside a pancake. Kids may make one breakfast (or snack time) piggy to eat and one to take home. Some children will enjoy dipping their piggy snacks into syrup.
Peel a boiled egg for each child. The kids can use squeezable cheese to draw a face on their eggs. You may choose, instead, to provide pieces of pretzels, red or green peppers, or other small pieces of food for the kids to stick into the egg to form the face and hair. While the kids are enjoying the snack activity, read a story or book that tells about how chickens lay eggs. Encourage discussion about other ways the kids may have experienced eating eggs. If desired, let the kids experiment with cracking some raw and some boiled eggs to discover what the insides look like.
Let the kids make butter from cream to see a product they have tasted that comes from milk. For butter, fill a small, clean glass jar halfway with whipping cream. Add a little salt, then put the lid on the jar. Have the kids shake the jar until the cream begins to form butter. Keep shaking until at least a softball stage of butter is formed. Discuss each stage as the cream becomes thicker and thicker. Let each child make butter in her own jar, or have the kids take turns shaking up butter for everyone to share. Pour off the excess liquid, then let kids spread some homemade butter on a biscuit or cracker.
Have each child form a hen's nest from shredded carrots or celery, mixed with a small amount of mayonnaise or cream cheese. Give the kids each some white jelly beans to put inside their nests. A marshmallow chicken or chicken-shaped cracker can sit on top of the nest.
Provide farm animal-, barn-, or tractor-shaped cookie cutters, bread slices and evaporated milk tinted with food coloring. Have each child cut at least one farm shape out of the bread, and place it on a small piece of aluminum foil. Write each child's name on the foil. The kids can use clean food brushes to paint their farm shapes as they wish. Place the bread pieces on their individual foil pieces onto a cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheet under an oven broiler until the bread toasts slightly. The kids can then eat their painted farm shapes or take them home.
