Tag Archives: Food as crafts

August 3, 2010

Growing New Ideas

Wow!  What a great response to our Food As Crafts piece!  So many thoughtful and well presented ideas – I am so excited to be working in a field with such passionate and committed individuals!  There was one comment that particularly caught my eye, and that was the idea presented by Vicki Cravens for having the children raise a garden and use the food and food by-products as natural materials for crafts.

What intrigued me about this idea was the possibility of also teaching community service, or even of having the kids be able to learn basic food preparation and then take home what they have prepared as an offering to their own families.

I thought how great it would be if the kids could raise a garden, use the food to create something edible to take home or donate to a local shelter, and then use the by-products of the food to make craft items!  What a wonderful and holistic lesson that could be!

Thank you so much for your feedback and your ideas.  We ALL benefit when we share information and ideas and different points of view.  Please share with us any ideas you have about teaching children the fundamentals of giving, community service, gardening or any other ideas these articles spark! Together, we really do make a difference.

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July 25, 2010

Difference of Opinion…

We seem to have a difference of opinion…

Last week we ran what we thought was a cute craft idea called Edible Food Crafts. We received wonderful feedback on it and many of the other articles.  However, everyone did not share our enthusiasm for this craft idea.  The following thoughtful response was sent to us by one of our loyal followers and we wanted to share it with you.

Thank you for your newsletter. I enjoy reading the articles and features. One additional note — edible crafts sounds interesting, however (and I do not want to be negative or to stymie anyone’s creativity, but), using food for crafts has some severe drawbacks: children may be inclined to eat the supplies; this is a ready means to spread germs as children handle, trade, horde, or negotiate over the food before using and/or eating eat it; and in this case it involves giving the children sugary edibles which poses a variety of heath issues and may contradict our efforts to encourage healthy eating habits. Additionally, some authorities believe it sends the wrong message to have an activity that uses food in ways that could be considered wasteful (if the food is not going to be eaten.)

Our goal at Childcare Bridge is to bring collaboration, a sharing of information, resources and ideas to all of our mutual support.  We are grateful when other opinions and ideas are presented so that every idea has a voice and each professional can choose for themselves what works for them from a variety of ideas and solutions.  Please click this link to see what one of our guest authors has to say about food as crafts.

We are opening this subject up for comments and encourage everyone to weigh in with their feelings on the subject and any ideas about how to successfully navigate this issue.  Please let us know about your experience with this topic.

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July 25, 2010

Using Food as Crafts

When early childhood teachers combine food and crafts in the classroom, they get a recipe for sensory and creative experiences that have lifelong benefits for children. On any given day, it’s not uncommon for kids in childcare classrooms to paint with pudding, spaghetti sauce or yogurt; make collages out of dry beans and rice; use fruit and veggies to make imprints; craft spiders out of Oreo cookies; or create snow scenes with marshmallows. Continue reading →

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