I Run So I Can Think Of Ways To Play With Food: Gummy Worm Habitat

Sorry, non-running related post here. Let me preface this by saying that I keep up with my running so that I will have enough patience to play referee when a quarrel breaks out between my boys. Running has kept me sane and inspired enough the next day to think of fun stuff to do with my boys (because they're driving me crazy! Lol, just kidding).

With just one more month of summer vacation, what else can I do at home, for dirt cheap, to distract them from fighting over who gets to fall into the Sarlacc next? Enter the old "Gummy Worms Dirt/Mud Cake" food craft with a geeky twist, from yours truly, which was enough to delight and entertain my boys (ages 10, 7 1/2, and 4 1/2).

I told my boys that we're going to make habitats for worms. I love fun activities that have (sneaky) educational opportunities.  So the first thing I did was give each boy a small glass, like this one above, to hold our worm habitat.

Next I showed them what the layers of the soil look like:

Source

I told them we're going to make the layers of the soil out of chocolate chips, Oreos, and chocolate pudding.

Chocolate chips in action tumbling into our mouths...errr...glasses (sorry for the blurry pic).

Making bedrock with chocolate chips.

Mmmm....Oreos...

Crushing Oreos to make the Parent Material, making sure we don't crush them into too small pieces. Then we added the layer of Parent Material (crushed Oreos) on top of the bottom layer of Bedrock (chocolate chips).

Next step, adding a layer of the chocolate pudding for the Sub Soil.

The boys had a hard time not licking their spoons, so not a whole lot of Sub Soil went in.  Haha!

 

More crushed Oreos, this time, finely crushed, for the last layer in our soil matrix, Top Soil. We skipped the Organic Layer because frankly, I think this is enough chocolate, although crushed vanilla Oreos would've been perfect! Shhh...don't tell my boys!

Alas, the gummy worms that will reside in our perfectly yummy habitat...

Happy worms in Sporto's cup (10yo). By the way, for a 10 yo, he thought this was a fun food craft, and he wasn't just saying that because he loves to eat.  Proud mommy moment when he recalled details about the soil layers he learned in school!

Tank's (7yo) worms...already making a mess, just like Tank. The boy cannot stay clean even if he tried. I have to give this boy credit for imagination, suggesting that we plant a broccoli tree next time. Hmmm....if that would get them to eat vegetables, sure! Why not? Chocolate and broccoli!

Little Man's (4 yo) worm habitat.  The boy has no patience.   Look at the spoon already in the glass...the poor worms did not even get a minute to get settled in!

Little Man's worm habitat minus one worm already. Haha!


So this was our version of that Gummy Worm Mud Pies. To those with kids, do you know of any other fun food craft to do with kids? Any other suggestions to keep kids entertained at home in the summer? I would love to hear about it! 
 

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