Edible Jelly Worms – Day 63 Toddler Play Challenge

We had friends round today so I thought it was a great opportunity to do an activity which Adam may not attempt on his own. I had seen the recipe for edible worms on CBBC so decided to give it a try.

As the original recipe contained cream I needed to make a dairy free version in case Adam decided to eat. I Googled what was a suitable substitute for cream and discovered whipped full fat coconut milk would do.

I mixed the jelly, water, gelatine, food colouring and coconut milk together and left to set overnight. I pulled out each straw to extend its bendy neck and placed them in the tall glass with the bendy part of the straw at the bottom. I used an elastic band to keep the straws together. I then poured the jelly mixture over the top of the straws. The majority of the jelly went through the straw and came out of the other end and filled the glass. When the jelly reached the top of the glass I stopped pouring and placed it in the fridge over night.

The next morning I placed a bag of raisins in a shallow box to represent ‘mud’. I took the straws out of the glass and laid them on a plate.

Taking each straw one at a time I gently squeezed from the non-bendy end until the ‘worm’ came out. All of the ‘worms’ were placed on top of the ‘mud’.

The toddlers and Mums had a great time exploring the worms and mud. Amazingly Adam got stuck in straight away and played with it the longest.

The girls went straight for the ‘mud’ and several raisins were eaten.

Adam explored the jelly worms with a straw but didn’t like it when I placed one on his foot.

The activity certainly wasn’t as messy as I had expected and the plastic tablecloth underneath picked up any stray worms.

In the afternoon we went to Gorleston for a walk with Nana. Adam loves the beach and today discovered a slight hill in the sand. He loved climbing this, running to the edge of the sea and then back again to repeat the fun several times.

In the evening I managed to get a photograph of Adam participating in schematic play. He took all his moving toys from the kitchen, lined them up in the living room and then repeated the same process by taking them back into the kitchen.

Equipment:

* To make the dairy free worms – 2 packs of raspberry jelly, gelatine, hot and cold water, green and red food colouring, 2 tablespoons of whipped full fat coconut milk, mixing bowl, a tall watertight container (I used a tall glass), 80 flexible drinking straws and an elastic band

* To make the dairy free ‘mud’ – raisins. For a dairy version you could use crushed up chocolate biscuits.

* Shallow container

 

Adam was 20 months old.

 

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