Cooking Activity: Apple Snails

Crunchy and sticky, this apple snail recipe packs healthy ingredients into fun energy bites. Join "Cooking Counts" chefs Patty Rodriguez and Oliver as they explore early math concepts like discovering shapes, counting ingredients and using spatial vocabulary.

Find this and other recipes and fun music videos on our YouTube channel @FamilyMathKids.

Learning Objectives

Practice counting, shapes, and spatial sense skills while preparing a fun snack.

What You'll Need

*Makes 4 servings

• 1 Apple
• 1 Celery stalk
• 4 Pretzel sticks
• 8 Chocolate chips or raisins
• ½ Cup of nut butter spread (you can substitute with your favorite spread)
  

Note: You can replace any ingredient with your favorite fruits or toppings.

Steps

• Cut celery to make 4 short sticks.

* Talk together: “We started with one long celery stalk. How many pieces do we have after cutting it? Let’s count the pieces together!”

• Slice the apple into round circles, then cut them in half.

* “What shape do we have now? It’s called a semi-circle.”

• Scoop a spoonful of nut butter spread into the inside of each celery stick.
• Stand an apple slice (flat side down, round side up) on top of the nut butter on each celery stick.
• Add 2 chocolate chips or raisins to form the eyes of each snail.
• Cut pretzel sticks in half and add 2 pretzel pieces to form the antennae of each snail.

Talk Together

Help your child grow their spatial sense vocabulary! These are words that describe objects’ features, location, and position. You can say:

• “Will you please hand me the spoon next to the bowl?”
• “Let’s place the apple slice on top of the celery stick”
• “Now that we are done using our spoon, let’s place it inside the sink.”

Fun Fact

Did you know snails have eyes on their antennae?