You may find yourself often asking, “How does arts and crafts help a child’s development?” Of course they’re fun, but how is it truly beneficial? 

Arts and crafts are a form of sensory place that helps children explore preferences, practice fine motor skills, understand math concepts, explore literacy, develop cognitive skills, foster confidence, and better express themselves! This is why creativity always has a place in our home. 

Of course, there are traditional crafts that use art supplies, and we love those. However, kids are always playing with their food, anyway. So, why not make an activity out of it? After all, food is one of the safest crafting tools for toddlers and young kids, since it can be ingested. Plus, how fun is it to eat your creation after you make it?

I have lots of food crafts on The Mothercould in Your Pocket resource, but today I am going to share a handful of my family’s favorites! Here are edible arts and crafts for your toddlers:

Creative Bites: 10 Fun Food Crafts for Toddlers

If you’re looking for the perfect way to engage your toddler in a way that’s beneficial, inexpensive, and easy no matter the day or time, food crafts are the best! Food immediately captures their attention and excites their curiosity. 

Plus, when you put together a craft with food, you don’t need to worry about them eating or licking any of the materials. Of course, lots of kid’s art supplies are non-toxic, but that doesn’t mean it's edible! Edible means that not only can your little one eat, they’re encouraged to!

What Is Food Craft?

A food craft is simply an edible art project! Your kids construct their creation, experiencing different textures, tastes, and smells along the way, using foods that are safe to eat. Often, when the child is done, they can eat the craft! So fun!

10 Edible Crafts for Toddlers 

Edible Marshmallow Slime 

Slime is all the rage right now, for kids of every age! Slime specifically is a favorite of toddlers, because it’s open-ended and has a super engaging texture. The texture of this  marshmallow slime is soft, stretchy, and just slightly sticky.

This yummy slime uses marshmallows, coconut oil, and powdered sugar, making it 100% edible! However, it’s a LOT of sugar, so you don’t want your toddler to eat too much! But, ti is a lot of fun to squish, mold, and squeeze!

Edible Beach Sand

Edible beach sand allows you to bring the outside in! Cooked flour, water, oil, and food coloring make vibrant edible beach sand that can be manipulated like the real thing. You could create water using blue Jell-O and even create an entire summer scene with swimming goldfish crackers, sunbathing teddy grahams, and more! Get creative and let your little one pretend play away!

Frozen Sea Rescue Mission 

For this activity, we’re putting a spin on my frozen sea rescue activity! Just shave plenty of ice and then add some natural flavoring. Think like pineapple juice, apple juice, watermelon juice, or really any fruit juice you have!

Then, hide all sorts of sea creatures inside the ice for your child to dig out with spoons and tweezers! You can either use plastic toys or gummy sea creatures for your little explorers to uncover. Either way, they’ll love this cool activity and eating up all the yummy “snow!”

Ice Painting DIY 

Here’s another refreshing sensory activity! Originally, I used frozen water and food coloring, but you can make this ice painting activity more appetizing by using frozen fruit popsicles with a dash of additional food coloring!

Your little ones can paint all over their paper or canvas with the boldly colored popsicles and have a nice cool snack as well! They’ll love to create and observe their masterpiece while enjoying their fruity treat.

Marshmallow Monster Treats 

I feel like since having kids, holidays actually became exciting again! And nothing screams festivity more than some kid-friendly sweet treats. 

These halloween marshmallow treats are really easy to customize, which means your kids will have as much fun as you will! Because let’s be real… we’re really the ones most excited about these. 

These aren’t just specific to Halloween, though! You could get some red candy melts to make Santa, yellow candy melts to make Easter eggs, or even red, white, and blue sprinkles for the Fourth of July. Feel free to let your holiday-themed indulgence run wild with this activity! 

Ice Cream In A Bag 

I’m a BIG advocate for home made things for many reasons. But a main one? To keep away from all of the unhealthy, artificial, fake ingredients and stabilizers in store-bought items. Not that everything I make is healthy, per se, but at least we know everything that goes in it.

Not all tummies are the same, which is why there are also dairy-free alternatives listed as well. Everybody’s included here! The fun of it is all the same. 

To make this activity a bit craftier, you could make it with themes! Similar to the Halloween treats, you can customize your bag of ice cream however you’d like. You can keep any of the healthier mix-in ideas, but maybe add some themed sprinkles to personalize it more! 

M&M Experiment

This craft is always a hit. Nicky is still amazed when I do this, even though we’ve done it more times than I can count. 

The M&M experiment is another craft that can double as a learning experience. It’s a great way to talk to your kids about color mixing, how it works, what patterns are, etc. One of the most exciting things about this activity will be how versatile it is. You can make all different shapes with all different colors. It’s an activity your little ones will enjoy for hours! 

Colored Noodles 

This activity may not be the tastiest, but it’s still edible! You use colored spaghetti noodles for the ultimate toddler-friendly sensory activity. Trust me, they won’t be able to get enough to digging their hands into piles of cooked spaghetti noodles!

For my version of this, I created a summer scene. To make the craft project a little more appetizing for your kids, try adding “dirt” with melted butter and cinnamon sugar! Then, add these adorable fruit snacks for edible bees, bugs, and butterflies. How fun?!

Colored Blocks 

In my original post about this, I emphasized using gelatin to make these taste-safe as opposed to edible. But, why not switch it up and make it a snack that your kids can enjoy after playtime? Jell-O blocks are easy to make, and it’s a fun new texture to introduce your little ones. 

They can stack, match, and munch on these tasty edible blocks! I recommend making a lot of different colors to add to the sensory experience. It just makes it more engaging and allows for even more play opportunities!

Note: Jell-O can be a choking hazard. So, as always, supervise your children carefully.

Beading Activity

This craft is a great activity for the whole family to enjoy. Not only is it fun, but beading and creating patterns is a fantastic way to promote the development of cognitive skills and fine motor skills. 

For the string, you can use cotton twine, or if you want something edible you could go with fruit peel-a-parts, though they won’t hole up quite as well. Then, your child can practice lacing using things like pretzels, cereal, and even certain cookies! Get creative with anything with a whole in the middle.

Food crafts are a great way to engage your toddler in beneficial sensory play!

We all love when activities can double as learning opportunities! Sensory play is the perfect way to create entertaining activities for your kids that are also beneficial for their growing minds. You can use all sorts of materials, including food, to create these unforgettable play opportunities. I hope these food crafts for kids helped you make your afternoon a little more exciting! 

For more fun-filled crafts of ALL kinds, visit the Mothercould blog. Also, don’t forget to download Mothercould In Your Pocket for plenty of activities, hacks, crafts, meals, and more! I’ll help you level-up playtime for you and your children!