Oct 12, 2026
Practical EYFS food activities using cooking, gardening, sensory play, stories, maths and imaginative play.
Healthy eating in the early years is about much more than telling children which foods are “good for them”.
Children learn best through real experiences. They need opportunities to handle ingredients, ask questions, notice where food comes from, and take part in relaxed mealtimes.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) says that food provided in early years settings must be healthy, balanced, and nutritious. Food activities can also support communication, physical development, mathematics, literacy, understanding the world, and expressive arts and design. Read the official EYFS nutrition guidance for the full requirements and practical recommendations for early years settings.
The most meaningful activities connect food with play, conversation, movement, and everyday routines. Instead of asking children to memorise which foods are healthy, invite them to notice, compare, prepare, grow, and talk about food.
This supports learning across the EYFS while helping food feel familiar and interesting.
Place a small selection of fruit, vegetables, herbs, or other suitable ingredients on a table. Invite the children to explore them through their senses:
There should be no pressure to eat anything. Sensory food education helps children use sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste to explore food and develop their own preferences. For more ideas about helping unfamiliar food feel manageable, read our guide to supporting a fussy-eating toddler.
Provide pictures, clean packaging, or play food for the children to sort. Rather than only using labels such as “healthy” and “unhealthy”, explore visible and useful features:
This encourages conversation, comparison, and early classification skills.
Herbs, cress, peas, strawberries, and tomatoes can help children see how food grows. The children can fill pots, plant seeds, water them, and notice changes over time.
Use photographs or drawings to record each stage. When the food is ready, the children may help wash or prepare it. Even if they choose not to taste it, they’ve formed a meaningful connection with it.
Choose a recipe with several safe, hands-on jobs. The children might:
Food activities should be adapted to children’s interests, developmental stages, allergies, and dietary needs. For practical examples, see our cooking with toddlers and no-bake recipe guides. The Department for Education also shares advice on planning food activities with children.
“The activities that hold the children’s attention longest are the ones where they can make real decisions. Choosing an ingredient, predicting what will happen or serving the finished food gives the learning a clear purpose.”
Yamuna Jayasinghe, Nursery Manager at The Old Station Nursery Iver
“Good nursery food is safe, nourishing, and something children look forward to. We plan every menu around how young children grow and eat, then make sure it tastes good enough that they want to come back for more.”
Lewis Allington, Culinary Consultant at The Old Station Nursery
Choose books that feature cooking, growing, shopping, farms, or family mealtimes. Pause to talk about what the characters can see and smell. Ask the children what they would cook and who they would share it with.
You could create a nursery recipe book containing the children’s drawings, comments, and favourite ideas.
Add baskets, menus, notebooks, pretend money, trays, and clean reusable packaging to a role-play area. The children can take turns being customers, cooks, shopkeepers, or delivery drivers.
This supports communication, counting, mark-making, turn-taking, imaginative play, and understanding everyday routines.
Simple food experiments can introduce early scientific ideas. Try:
Ask the children what they think will happen before you begin, then return to their ideas afterwards.
Daily meals and snacks are valuable learning moments. The children can practise serving food, pouring water with support, using cutlery, and recognising when they’ve had enough. Our guides to healthy snacks for toddlers and toddler meal ideas offer further examples for families.
The team can model calm conversation and introduce words naturally: “This pepper is crunchy,” or “We’ve divided the toast into four pieces.” Mealtimes should remain relaxed, and children shouldn’t be pressured to clear their plates or taste unfamiliar foods.
Invite parents, carers, or community visitors to share suitable recipes, food traditions, or stories about ingredients. Take care not to present one type of food or mealtime as “normal”.
Families prepare and enjoy food in many different ways. Exploring this helps the children understand that food can connect us to people, places, celebrations, and memories.
At The Old Station Nursery, food can connect naturally with every part of our All Aboard Approach. Explore the full All Aboard Approach and each of its six learning areas.
Most importantly, these experiences give the children a chance to become curious, capable, and involved in an everyday part of life.
Food activities are one example of how everyday experiences can inspire learning across the EYFS. At The Old Station Nursery, they can support communication, early maths, creativity, curiosity, well-being and an understanding of the wider world.
Find your nearest nursery and discover the experiences available there.