Food & Utensil Exploration

Activity Overview

Allowing students to begin an activity with hands-on guided exploration helps them to build an understanding of new materials, even if they do not yet know their purpose. Their physical nature, color, shape, weight, and texture all provide information that the child synthesizes with their existing knowledge to create deeper understanding. This activity begins with open exploration in the sensory bin with familiar foods. As students begin to practice manipulating items with different utensils, they’ll harness fine motor skills that they have been developing all year, and will continue to develop for many years to come. This activity scaffolds a student’s knowledge-building experience from the point of being exposed to a new tool to using it successfully with a group of people. Watch as the students build their understanding through making choices, brainstorming ideas, and practicing with their new tools.

What You Need

• Sensory bins: Two transparent tubs, such as Tupperware or Rubbermaid containers

• Utensils: spoon, fork, chopsticks, ladle, tongs, spatula, slotted spoon

• Filler food: one bag or container of a filler food (rice, beans, or pasta from the Rice & Beans Sensory Bin activity or Pasta Sensory Bin activity)

• Focus food (real or pretend): nuts, croutons, cereal, fruits, vegetables

• A device for using the digital spinner

Note: Please be mindful of food waste when engaging in this activity. Consider choosing dry foods that can be stored easily and used again during play. Please do not discard fruits and vegetables after this activity. Instead, wash them well before consuming or substitute pretend toy foods.

Steps

1. Invite your student to place each focus food inside one sensory bin. As they handle the foods, encourage them to explore the textures with their hands and fingers, verbalizing how the foods feel. Then, ask your child to pour the filler food into the same tub. Once all foods are inside the tub, guide your student to again explore how the foods feel and to move them around within the tub as they desire, mixing the foods together.

2. Using the utensils, guide your student to practice picking up the foods with different utensils. Encourage them to independently explore this process.

3. Tell your student to spin the spinner. When the spinner stops, guide your student to use the corresponding utensil to pick up and transport some food from one tub to the other tub. This part of the activity is designed to be fun, silly, and a bit challenging!

4. Repeat Step 3 with other utensils until all foods have been transported from one tub to the other.

Guiding Questions

• What is this food?

• What does it feel like? How does it feel between your fingers? Describe how it feels.

• Can you find the [ladle]?

• Try using the [spatula] to pick up the [apple].

• Is there a different utensil you might try to transport the [pasta]?

Extensions

• Play a Simon Says game with a utensil and food. For example, say, “Pick up the pepper with the chopsticks.” Mix and match foods and utensils that may present less or more of a challenge.

• Invite your student to serve people at the lunch table using a specific utensil of choice. For example, Try serving sandwiches, grapes, and applesauce using a spatula! Switch it up and try a different utensil each day of the week.