I will admit that I am a nerd, and this may be a little too nerdy for the general population, but I love the idea of cheese and pretzel towers for children. It’s something my kids have used for years, and we have created some pretty cool structures.
Setup is easy. Just grab a block of cheese, cut it into cubes and then open a bag of the stick pretzels. If anyone grew up with Tinkertoys and other buildings sets, then they might know where I am coming from. Let your kids grab a bunch of cheese and pretzels and then let them stick the pretzels in the cubes to make towers and buildings.
This is a great way to make snack time fun and to teach them about building and basic engineering concepts. I am not saying your child is going to build a suspension bridge or the flying buttresses of a gothic cathedral, but it’s easy to build houses, shapes and other structures.
If you have small children, let them build shapes and see if they can name them. You can create little cube and pretzel people and play out little scenes. If you get a little crazy with the cheese, then you can carve out other shapes like wheels to be used on pretzel and cheese cars.
I know you are not supposed to play with your food, but this is the one time where it is acceptable. The good thing is that there’s no cleanup, because when you are done playing, everyone eats their creations. This can be a great after-school activity, especially if you have a group of your child’s friends coming over.
They type of cheese is really up to you, but stay away from crumbly cheese like feta. Stick pretzels are the ideal food to go with the cheese, because they are sturdy and small, but can be easily broken to accommodate whatever structure you are making. If you don’t want pretzels, then you might be able to use small breadsticks, but they might be too crumbly.
If you know of any foods other than pretzel sticks that might fit the bill for this fun snack/ craft, then let me know! I am always up for new snack foods to try.
Image Source: flickr.com/photos/38389073@N04/3546891829
About brock
