Strawberry Season Activities for Kids

I love strawberries, and this is the time of year that they can be found in abundance!  Most grocery stores carry strawberries all year these days, but there’s nothing like fresh picked strawberries from a strawberry farm or patch.  Picking strawberries and deciding what to do with them is a great activity for the kids too.  Here are some strawberry-themed activities and ideas to explore with the kids:

1. Go strawberry picking – strawberry season is now, so check out your many local strawberry farms.  The ones in our area provide buckets or allow your own, so let your child grab their favourite bucket, pail or basket before you go.  For older kids, the bucket weighing can be a great math opportunity too – it gets weighed before picking, and after, so kids can figure out how much weight they picked.  Depending on the quantity of strawberries you’re aiming for, and you’re child’s age & interest, this activity can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour or more.

Picking Strawberries with Kids

2. Mush up some strawberries – put some cleaned, hulled strawberries into the bottom of a pot or deep mixing bowl, and let the kids mush them up with a potato masher.  You might need to help them get started by doing the first couple of mashes, or you can cut the strawberries in half before they get started.  It’s also a lot of fun to put the potato masher aside and let the kids at it with their hands.  The gooey mushy feeling of the strawberries is a fun tactile experience for toddlers and preschoolers in particular. Make sure to use clean hands for this project so that the strawberry mush can be used as a topping, turned into jam, or included in a smoothy.

3. Make strawberry watercolours – cut a couple of berries in half and place into a pot with a cup of water.  Bring the water to a boil, boiling for 1 minute (note: an adult should do this part!).  Let cool.  Remove the berries and use the pink water to make water colour paintings in pink themes.  Think cotton candy, flowers, or sunsets.  You could also use the liquid as a natural dye for playdough, similar to the dying process used in this natural play dough

Natural watercolors for kids

4. Strawberry stamping – cut some berries in half and use them as stamps on paper or fabric.  This is a good activity to do outside on a sunny day

Strawberry stamp art for kids

5. Hulling strawberries – I’ll admit that this seems like a mundane task to most adults, but work can be fun, especially for kids, so invite them to help as you hull your berries.  We usually hull them and I slice them into a freezer bag to enjoy throughout the winter

Do you have any strawberry season activity ideas?  Let us know!

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