Mystery Bucket and Sensory Exploration - Video

This video features two activities that often go together in ChildcareAlive! nutrition activities: The Mystery Bucket and Sensory Exploration. The mystery bucket is a playful way to introduce a featured food to children and encourages them to use their senses to guess the “mystery food.”

In sensory exploration, children actively use their senses to experience a food. This works very well when following the Mystery Bucket activity. With intentional guidance from adults, sensory exploration is a great way to increase children’s familiarity with a new food – which can lead to a greater likelihood of tasting the food.

While sensory exploration is encouraged in several of the ChildcareAlive! Curriculum activities, including Trying New Foods, Vary Your Veggies, and Get on the Whole Grain Train, it can be used as a part of any food experience. Make sure you lay down some ground rules before practicing sensory exploration, such as only doing it as a group and doing it separate from a meal time, so children know when it is time to explore a food, and when it is time to eat. See pages 14-16 in the ChildcareAlive! Curriculum for more details.