"Incredible Edible Craft"
Contributed by
Mary Ann Ross and Kimberly Lainson

If your children are at the age of preferring to eat their art supplies while you are trying to teach them to expand their creative skills, you'll enjoy these perfect projects -- edible crafts! (Simply snip out the projects you like and paste to colored index cards for future reference)

Fruit Loop Necklaces
A simple tool for reinforcing "patterning".

Give the children a piece of elastic cording approximately 18-inches long and a bowl of dry fruit loops. Help them sort the fruit loops into colors and decide on a pattern to string on the elastic cording (example: red, yellow, red, green, red, yellow, red, green, etc.)

Pizza Heads
Helps children to identify parts of a face and recognize that no two "people" are exactly the same and everyone is special.

• Refrigerator biscuits (larger ones work best)
• Pizza Sauce
• Cheese
• Pepperoni, sausage, olives or whatever foods you can think of

Flatten biscuit for each child and help them put sauce on it… then let them use their own imaginations for designing their person's face (example: pepperoni eyes, olive nose, pineapple mouth or teeth, cheese hair, sausage ears, etc.)

Finger paint Pudding
Starting out with clean hands is a good idea!

Just mix instant pudding and place approximately one-quarter cup on a Styrofoam meat tray for each child. Let them have fun drawing and licking as they go!

Jell-O Finger-paint
Allows the children to taste, smell, see and touch the colors.

In a small bowl, mix dry gelatin with hot water 1 teaspoon at a time until a paste is formed. This will be grainy. By adding more or less water, you can make it the consistency you want it to be.

Fall Trees
Imagination is the key!

Prepare ahead of time two or three pans of Jell-O in thin layers using fall colors (cherry, lime, lemon, etc.). Buy pretzel sticks and place one large one for the tree trunk on a paper plate for each child. Let them use small leaf cookie cutters to cut out the "leaves" of their trees from the Jell-O.

Pretzel Initials
Some children learn easier by touch and this project just helps to reinforce the shapes of the initial or letters of their name)

• 1 envelope dry yeast
• 1-1/2 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Glaze: 1 beaten egg and a little salt

Soften the yeast in water, add remaining ingredients and knead until pliable. Give each child a ball of dough and let them roll it out "like a snake" and help them form the letter (or letters) of their first initial, name, etc. Place formed dough on a greased baking sheet, brush with glaze and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

Ghost Snack
For a healthier snack use raisins instead of M&M's.

Spread softened cream cheese on slices of white bread. Give each child one slice of the bread and a ghost cookie cutter. After they have cut it out let them use various things to decorate it.(Change the cookie cutter pattern to fit any holiday throughout the year)

Marshmallow Building Blocks
Inexpensive afternoon snack.

Show your child how to stick toothpicks into the marshmallows and then allow them to build anything their imaginations allow, including perhaps a contest to see who can build the tallest tower.

Grilled Cheese People
Children can use their imaginations while helping you prepare their lunch!

Ahead of time, use a round cookie cutter to cut out circles from slices of bread. Let the children top the circles with cheese. To make each cheesy person, use two circles (one for the head and one for the body). Place them on a cookie sheet, add bacon bits eyes, noses and buttons. Broil until the cheese melts and give one cheesy person to each child. Let them then add the arms and legs (carrot and celery sticks) and the bread left over from cutting out the circles can now be used as shoes, gloves, hats, neckties, bows, etc.

Enjoy these fun projects with your children by letting your imagination be your guide… be an "un-grownup", it's fun!

Bread Dough Recipe

• 1 tablespoons quick-acting yeast
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon oil

Preheat over to 400 degrees. Measure the water, sugar and yeast into a bowl and mix. Wait two or three minutes for the yeast to soften. Stir in one cup of flour, then add oil, salt and remaining cup of flour. Sprinkle flour onto a wooden breadboard and place the dough on it. Knead dough for about five minutes. Place dough in a bowl and cover it, letting it rise for about 45 minutes in a warm place away from drafts, open windows, etc. Punch the dough down and work it into a ball. Next, separate the dough into smaller portions and let the children use their hands to roll the dough into ropes or snakes to mold dough into different shapes.

Kool-Aid PlayDough
Another sensory project for children

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup salt
• 3 teaspoons Cream of Tartar
• 1 package Kool-Aid Mix (any flavor of unsweetened)
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil

Mix dry ingredients together in a large saucepan. Slowly add water mixed with oil and stir over medium heat until mixture thickens to dough. Turn out onto a heatproof bread board or counter top and knead until cool enough for children to handle. Dough will be the color of the Kool-Aid mix and will smell like the Kool-Aid mix. (Can be stored in a tightly covered container for up to six months)

Tasty Paint

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• Several drops of food coloring

Give the children paintbrushes and paper or just let them use their fingers. The paint will be a pastel color and when it dries, it will be kind of glossy.

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