Five Messy Food Games to Play with Children

Food games are a safe version of play that will leave your children astonished that adults are not only allowing them to make a mess, but encouraging it. These games are messy, creative and edible. You do not have to worry that they will swallow something toxic.

Set up any of these messy kid's food games inside or outside in an area that is easy to clean up. Dress the kids in old clothes, bathing suits outside in hot weather or use painting smocks or chef's aprons to keep clothes clean while they create their food game messes. Cover table and work surfaces with newspaper before you begin the projects to help with easy cleanup. For the outside activities set up in an area where you can hose down the remains of the mess.

Pudding and Gelatin Finger Painting

Pour dry flavored gelatin or pudding in small bowls, a different flavor and color in each bowl. Add a small amount of water, just enough to moisten and dissolve the powdery pudding or gelatin. Use sheets of white paper or butcher paper for finger painting. Let the kids create a work of art with the hands and fingers. Dry the pictures flat before hanging them up.

Footprints

This is a fun hot weather activity. Use buckets or plastic bins that are large enough to step in. Make different flavored gelatin in the refrigerator. After it solidifies, pour one color in each different bucket. Put sheets of heavy butcher type paper on the exit side of the buckets or bins. You can also make a continuous trail of paper leading from one container to the next in an assembly line.

Line the kids up with bare feet while wearing shorts or a bathing suit. Have each child step in a bucket of gelatin. Tell them to squish it between their toes for the sensation and coolness. Tell them to step out of the container on to the sheet of heavy paper and walk across it making colored footprints. Let the pictures dry and display the footprint art.

Food Races

Have a watermelon-eating race. Slice the watermelons and put the slices on plates. Have each child sit at a table and try to eat their piece without using their hands, fingers or arms.

Give each child a large spoon and an uncooked egg in the shell. Line them up at a starting line. Put an egg on the bowl of each racer's spoon. They race to the finish line trying not to drop the egg while balancing it on the spoon. No cheating using fingers to keep the egg in place. You can do the same thing with a potato for each racer.

Food Sculptures

Make a large batch of firm mashed potatoes. Do not make them too thin or watery. Use plates or cookie sheets. Scoop mounds of cooked and cooled mashed potatoes on the plates or cookie sheets with one plate for each child. Add some favorite plastic animals like dinosaurs or other figures so the kids can create a landscape for the characters.

In the autumn, hollow out the pumpkins, save the fruit for cooking and set aside the messy innards. Use a plate or cookie sheet for each child to play with the gloop. Let the kids build monsters out of the innards. The texture is gooey, sticky and messy.

Pretzel Building

Use small straight and twisted pretzels. Use a batch of thick frosting mix or make some using powdered sugar and enough water to mix it thoroughly but remain thick and pasty. Show the kids how to piece the pretzels together using the sugar mixture as mortar. If the kids need inspiration to come up with a building idea, print out a few pictures of interesting houses and buildings around the world or ask them to build their dream home.

An alternative is to make pretzel animals and imaginary creatures.

Add pieces of candy or sprinkles for color.

As parents, we spend a great deal of time teaching kids to be neat and getting after them to clean up. We constantly tell them not to make the inevitable messes that kids make. Sometimes though to surprise them it is fun to let a kid be a kid and make an adult approved mess. They will feel like they are having a free day. They may also wonder what happened to mom or dad's sanity. Join in the fun if you really want to shock them and create or play your own messy food game. Be a kid again.