Snack necklaces are fun preschool or kindergarten snacks to make at home or in the classroom. Kids anywhere from toddlers, preschoolers, to kindergarteners will have fun threading snacks onto stretchy string, turning snack time into a creative activity.
Get ready for a new and improved snack time! These healthy snack necklaces for kids allow for crafting, learning, and snacking all at once.
Helping younger kids learn to thread snacks onto a necklace is a fun and exciting activity that is also great for fine motor development.
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Snack necklaces are the ideal preschool snack for any teacher, parent or caregiver looking for an engaging activity for kids to complete at home or at school.
Equipment Needed For Preschool Snack Necklaces
- yarn needles
- elastic string
- scissors
- food-safe markers
Snack Necklace Ingredients
This list of ingredients only touches the surface of the possible snacks for kids to include on their snack necklaces. We recommend swapping any snack for the ones listed to accommodate for food likes/dislikes or food allergies in the classroom or at home.
- 1 cup green grapes
- 1 cup purple grapes
- 1/2 cup blueberries
- 1/2 cup cheese cubes
- 1/2 cup pretzels
- 1/2 cup mini marshmallows
More Snack Necklace Ideas: cheerios, fruit loops, mini cookies, dried fruit popcorn, mini pepperoni or olives.
PRO TIP: Cut the green and purple grapes into smaller pieces for younger kids.
How To Build a Healthy Preschool Snack:
- Measure the elastic string. Measure the length you’d like the necklace to be, then double the length and cut.
- Thread the needle. Thread the needle and fold the string in half.
- Add your snacks. Use the needle to thread the snacks onto the string, making sure to stop pushing the fruit or cheese down well above the end of the string. Repeat until you come just before halfway, then add enough marshmallows to spell the name you’d like to add. Continue adding snacks leaving plenty of room to tie the necklace.
- Tie the necklace. The elastic string can be tricky to tie. The easiest way is to form a loop around your finger and push the string through. Pull VERY tightly. If you just pull as you normally would, it will come undone right away. The trick is to pull hard enough.
FUN FACT: Put each snack into a separate bowl to encourage kids to grab and thread a variety of snacks onto their necklace.
Tie a Snack Necklace
One challenging part of this necklace is the tie. The only other challenge is keeping the kids from eating all the snacks before building the necklace!
We found the easiest way to tie is to form a loop around your finger and push the string through. Then, pull VERY tightly.
However, here is another method that you might find easier:
FAQs
A simply yet tasty snack. This snack necklace checks both boxes! Other snacks could include sliced fruit, fruit cups, small sandwiches, applesauce pouches, drinkable yogurt or pretzels. Always consider allergies at your child’s preschool before bringing any snack.
Pack preschool snacks in lunchboxes, a thermos, stasher bags or ziplock bags. As a mom, I recommend having your kid practice opening any new snack container at home before taking to preschool to be sure he/she can open it.
More Creative Preschool Snack Ideas:
There are SO many fun and creative preschool snack ideas that it can be overwhelming to pick the best one. We complied some of our favorite ideas to help narrow down all the possibilities. All of these snacks are kid-approved!
- Yogurt Parfait For Kids
- Pudding Slime
- Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes
- Celery Snails & Caterpillars
- Owl Rice Cakes
- FroYo Bites
- Gluten-Free Snacks For Kids
Looking for more ideas? Check out these engaging 25 Preschool Cooking Activities!
Healthy Snacks for Kids:
- Healthy Pumpkin Spice Pancakes
- Healthy Banana Muffins
- Easy S’mores Banana Boats for Kids of All Ages
- Healthy Energy Balls
CKC Features both Gluten-Free Guidance and Kids Cooking Instructions: If you’re new to eating gluten-free we understand it’s overwhelming trying to figure out which foods may contain gluten and which ones don’t. All of our gluten-free recipes marked with this symbol ✅ represent foods that need to be checked for gluten or cross-contamination.
The ⭐️ symbol in the recipe below denotes the steps in which kid cooks may need a helper (depending on age). If there is no ⭐️ symbol, that step (or recipe) doesn’t require a helper.
Snack Necklace for Kids
Equipment
- yarn needles
- elastic string
- scissors
- food-safe markers
Ingredients
- 1 cup green grapes cut if serving to young kids
- 1 cup purple grapes cut if serving to young kids
- 1/2 cup blueberries
- 1/2 cup cheese cubes ✅
- 1/2 cup pretzels (gluten-free if needed) ✅
- 1/2 cup mini marshmallows ✅
Instructions
- ⭐️Measure the elastic string. Measure the length you'd like the necklace to be, then double the length and cut.
- Thread the needle. Thread the needle and fold the string in half.
- Add your snacks. Use the needle to thread the snacks onto the string, making sure to stop pushing the fruit or cheese down well above the end of the string. Repeat until you come just before halfway, then add enough marshmallows to spell the name you'd like to add. Continue adding snacks leaving plenty of room to tie the necklace.
- ⭐️Tie the necklace. The elastic string can be tricky to tie. The easiest way is to form a loop around your finger and push the string through. Pull VERY tightly. If you just pull as you normally would, it will come undone right away. The trick is to pull hard enough.
Notes
Nutrition
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Kit says
We did this with a small group of preschool aged kids. They loved it so much we will be using more of the string to thread more snacks.