Thanksgiving fun for kids- kids can help cook and learn about seasonal foods

Get kids involved in Thanksgiving planning and cooking

Most young children enjoy being a ‘helper’ and its a fun way to spend time together. They also enjoy cooking and will be proud to share the healthy dish they helped prepare for Thanksgiving.

As you prepare for Thanksgiving you can use this time to get kids involved and teach them about new foods and healthy eating.

You can teach them about the food groups with our colorful food group printable, show them the new My Plate , or read about healthy foods that were available to the early American settlers.

It can also be fun to discuss the seasonal and local food that was eaten at the first Thanksgiving, print some of our Thanksgiving nutrition activity pages, and for a special treat take an interactive online Plimouth Plantation tour and learn about the very first Thanksgiving together!

There are plenty of fun ways to get kids involved with preparation and cooking for Thanksgiving

Kids can:

Help come up with the menuFind items on the grocery listFind different colored seasonal vegetablesWash vegetables and fruitsHelp measure and mix ingredients or cook a recipe togetherAdd fresh fruits and vegetables to plattersHelp set the tableMake cute decorations- try this idea: trace your child’s hand on colored paper and help them write notes of thanks to each guest, hang the colored hands with ribbon or yarn on chairs.Fun bilingual Thanksgiving activities for kidsSee our Kids Cooking printables and visit The Kids Cook Monday for great recipes to make with kids!

Print Kids’ Fun Cooking PDFs from our Website- Nourish Interactive

Guide to Cooking with Kids (Spanish)

Food Groups Grocery List (Spanish)

Kids Cooking Vocabulary (Spanish)

Food Safety Tips for Kids (Spanish)

You may also be interested in:

Kids’ healthy conversation card game- print out our fun conversation cards to get the whole family talking about healthier choices!

A Little About Portion Control- from our healthy family food guide

Myth or Fact Thanksgiving Quiz- from Plimoth Plantation

Thanksgiving Food History – We’re Missing the Seafood by Cape Cod Today

Meatless Monday Thanksgiving Project- Great main course vegetarian recipes, vegetables side dishes, and desserts!

Food List source: Newton KS Public Schools Wayback Machine Archives

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 16th, 2011 at 2:35 am and is filed under Holiday Nutrition Fun, Holiday eating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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Posted in: about, foods, learn, seasonal, Thanksgiving