Do you struggle with making lunches that your picky eater will eat now that they are back at school? Did you know that kids are more likely to eat snacks they help make? Here are three back to school lunch crafts that involve your children!

Bag Clip Craft: Decorate clothespins with fun materials like googly eyes, crayons, markers, puffy paints, stickers or washi tape. Washi tape comes in many different colors/patterns, and my feeding therapy clients love personalizing their lunches and sharing their masterpiece at school with friends. I try to encourage two feeding textures in some of the snack bags, for example, fresh and dried blueberries or dry and wet sandwich halves.

Ingredients:

Washi tape, googly eyes, crayons, markers, puffy paints or stickers

Clothespins

Plastic baggie

Snacks

Snack Bag Craft: I have to give credit to my mom for this craft. She had me decorating my paper lunch sack since I was a kid, and this is still one of my favorite activities to do with my feeding therapy clients. I like this craft because a toddler can do it as well as a school-age child. The key is not the quality of the art; the key is that your child is doing their part to create the meal! Note – you can decorate the big lunch bags or the smaller snack bags. Consider adding the bag clip (from the above craft) to close the sack or fold it closed!

Ingredients:

Small or large paper bags

Washi tape, googly eyes, crayons, markers, puffy paints or stickers

Bag clips

Snacks

Cheese Stick Craft: This is one of my favorite crafts in picky eating feeding courses. Take a cheese stick and have your child decorate the plastic wrapping. Permanent markers, puffy paints, washi tape and stickers work great for this craft because their art will likely be refrigerated! One of my feeding therapy clients decorates his cheese stick by drawing lines to indicate how many bites he is willing to try (cheese is a new food for him). Each week we extend the line, and he hopes to (one day) eat an entire cheese stick. That’s just one testimonial on how snack crafts can be motivating for kids!

Ingredients:

Cheese sticks

Washi tape, googly eyes, markers, puffy paints or stickers

I hope you have fun with these back to school lunch crafts! What are some of your child’s beloved lunch or snack crafts? Which of these crafts are you and your kids going to try? Comment below or tag us by using the hashtags: #ezpzfun #crafting #BackToSchool.