food creation Archives - JDaniel4s Mom

We had the best time reading Long-Long’s New Year and doing Chinese New Year activities! JDaniel really enjoys the book Long-Long’s New Year. It is about a very special little boy that seeks to make his family’s celebration. Despite having a coin that he is yearning to spend on himself while shopping with his grandfather, he waits and gets special things for his family. The illustrations in this book are lovely and so is its message.

Chinese New Year Activities and Crafts

Chop Stick Transfer Buffet

While browsing through Living Montessori Now’s weekly link-up, I noticed a wide variety of posts on transferring objects with chopsticks. Many had some kind of string or yarn.

JDaniel loves to use these chopsticks so, I created a chopstick transfer buffet for him. He was able to move packing peanuts, color straw segments, and yarn to create a delicious bowl full of fun.

Cupcake Liner Fortune Cookies

I found directions on how to make fortune cookies using cupcake liners on several sites online. Each used a wire down the middle to help bend and mold the fortune cookie. We didn’t have any wire at our house so, we used foil cupcake liners instead.

When I tried to take a picture of the steps we took to make the fortune cookies, the glare of the foil was terrible. I quickly grabbed some snowman liners to show you what we did.

We folded the cupcake liner inside out and then placed a staple in the center of the liner about one-half an inch in.

Then we turned the cupcake liner outside in and pushed in the center a little to make an indention. Finally, we staple the outside edges. We left openings at the top of the sides to slip the messages in.

Chinese Snake Shape Craft

JDaniel had the best time creating a snake from a box filled with triangles, parallelograms, and squares I had cut out for him. He started with the tail and worked his way up to the head. I loved watching him create and think through this craft.

Chinese Zodiac Animal Hunt

JDaniel has a wide variety of animals in his room. I printed out a Chinese Zodiac page for Activity Village and had him search his room for as many of them as he could find. He wasn’t able to find a tiger, a goat, or a rat. He really didn’t find a dragon either, but he pointed out that dinosaurs and dragons might be related. We decided the dinosaur could count as a dragon.

It was really fun to see him search through all his things to find the ones he did find. Each time he came across one it was like he was finding a hidden treasure.

Snake Snack

Crescent Roll Snake for Chinese New Year

We tried to follow a pattern for a snake pattern I found online, but it was really hard to cut the crescent rolls into the right shapes. I ended up trimming some of them with a knife after we cooked them to try and get close. Oval is not a tangram shape, but they really made great eyes for the snake.

JDaniel helped me brush the roll segments with a mixture of milk and green food coloring after they came out of the oven.

How have you explored books with children this week?

Merry Christmas! I hope you and yours had a wonderful day yesterday! I have been seeing all kinds of Christmas crafts with strips of paper and other craft materials. I decided to try to make one with food that we had at home rather than buy special foods. Next year I may try other foods that look more like strips. This one is okay, but it isn’t what I pictured.This year’s tree has plain yogurt with a star made of sprinkles, cheese bells, multi-grain crackers, ham cut to look like Christmas lights, red grapes in festive cups, and truck of a cracker.JDaniel really enjoyed this snack! He really enjoyed placing the cheese on the crackers. The grapes were also dipped in the yogurt. The remaining yogurt was eaten with a spoon. This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday.