These are wobbly, realistic jelly worms that a child can squeeze, poke, and eat, served up in a tray of crushed “mud.” They take a bit of planning, because the jelly has to set overnight inside drinking straws, but the payoff is a plate of bendy red worms that look uncannily like the real thing. It is equal parts gross-out, sensory play, and snack, which is exactly why it goes down so well. Ages 2 to 5.
Making the worms
The shape comes from setting jelly inside straws. Make up a batch of jelly, and stir in something creamy to give the worms a more lifelike, slightly opaque body. Whipped full-fat coconut milk works well and keeps it dairy-free if that matters for your crowd. A little food coloring deepens the red.
Stand a bundle of bendy straws upright in a tall glass, bendy ends down, with an elastic band around them to hold them together. Pour the jelly mixture over the top so it runs down inside the straws and fills them, topping up the glass as it goes. Then put the whole glass in the fridge to set overnight.
Setting them free
This is the satisfying part. Take one straw at a time and squeeze gently from the top, working the set jelly down and out of the open end. The worm slides out in one long, wobbly piece, complete with the ridged texture the straw leaves behind, which is what makes them look so convincing.
Lay the worms out on a bed of “mud” as you go. A box of raisins makes a good one, and crushed chocolate cookies work too if you want something that looks more like soil. The contrast of the shiny red worms against the dark mud is half the fun.
Then let them at it
Hand the tray over and stand back. There is a lot packed into a plate of jelly worms: the squish of picking one up, the wobble as it dangles, the dig through the mud to find them, and the small thrill of eating something that looks a bit revolting. Even a cautious child often dives straight in, because a worm you are allowed to eat is too good to resist. The whole thing is taste-safe, so there is no need to police what goes in mouths.
For another taste-safe sensory activity with a surprise built in, our color surprise playdough hides a blob of color inside white dough. And to carry the creepy-crawly theme onto paper, our free animal coloring pages have plenty of bugs and minibeasts to color.