We are having Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year and I wanted to have a couple activities for the kids to do.
Our local library had an activity last year making butter. My kids thought it was very neat to make their own, and it was so yummy!
While we were there making our butter at the library, one of the other kids was shaking too vigorously and broke his baby food jar, but the librarian said he was the first one to do that all day. So I guess I’m not recommending a glass jar, but it’s what we’ll be using. I think using the wooden ball will help in the jar not breaking.
Please note: This butter is not quite the real thing yet. It’s fun and yummy though! I am posting this for a fun family activity to do. All the kids who participated in this thought it was fun and really neat that we all ate their “butter”. I am not a butter-making expert but we had a good time making this.
You’ll need to have a plastic or glass jar, plus a marble or small wooden bead (mine was 16 mm). I couldn’t find any marbles in my town, but I did have some wooden beads that I bought for another project that worked great.
All you have to do is pour some cream into the jar about 1/3 of the way full, add a shake or two of salt if desired, and place the marble or wooden bead into your jar.
Then replace the lid tightly and shake shake shake!!! Shake it until the bead or marble stops to move around. It took me about 5 minutes. It really doesn’t take long, but when my now 5 year old was just 4 last year, he did get a little tired of it but we just took turns…
until it was this:
Yum yum! Remove the marble or bead, and label the jar. I’m excited that we’ll be having homemade butter for our Thanksgiving dinner, made by the kiddos! You can chill it in the fridge before serving if you want it a little harder. Store leftovers in the fridge as well.
I made some labels to put on the jars and set out on the table to be cuter than a baby food jar :). Just glue or tape the label on. You can add some burlap for a layering effect (I didn’t have any) and tie some twine around it. I made the labels so you could read the homemade butter part on both sides of the baby food jar.
For our other activity, I used something that my son brought home from school called Roll-a-Turkey. The paper he brought home was from here on littlegiraffes.com. Though still very cute, I thought maybe it could use a little update, so I redesigned it for our Thanksgiving dinner next week and will just print them out for all the kids to play while the dinner is prepared.
Hopefully those two activities will find their way to someone who can use them next week!________________________________________________________________________
I love the butter, it looks so fun to do! And when I saw the post title, Roll-a-Turkey, I was all curious to see the interesting new recipe you were about to show me. Hee.
I love the roll-a-turkey game. I printed some for the kiddos to use while waiting for dinner at the in-laws’ house. (It is hard to get the turkey cooked on time!) Thanks so much.
what a great activity for the kids to do!!!! LOVE it!!!!
This is so fun Christie and perfect for the holidays, I am still feeling very prego sick and so I am just going to live vicariously through bloggers this thanksgiving!
Our ward made butter for a Pioneer Day activity and it was way fun. They however didn’t salt it at all (mistake in my opinion), and we didn’t have beads, it was just the jars that they shook, still worked though. Any idea what difference it makes?
These are great ideas! I have made baby food jar butter before but not with a marble…it made it turn out much better! I’ll be trying that next time.
Hi Jenna, in answer to your question on the marble or bead, I read a couple different reasons why. I read that it speeds up the process, especially if it’s a chilled marble with a chilled jar. I read that the fat sticks to the marble and can distribute everything more evenly. And I read something about the marble being a type of friction on the molecules…but I might just sound stupid now because I remember reading that and can’t find it now:). I’m sure it works without the marble or bead, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to use it!
That butter looks like so much fun to make! My son would enjoy that project. Do you know if you need to use it up as soon as you make it or can you put it in the fridge for later?
I can’t wait to try and make butter. I am thinking this could be a neat gift my 2 year old can make for grandparents!
I want to make this just so I can use your gorgeous labels! They are so pretty looking.
I love these ideas. I’m going to try and incorporate them. Thanks for sharing.
I read your post yesterday on this butter…woke up thinking about it today!!! lol! Perhaps I need to make some! Cute turkeys too!! ;)
That butter is going straight onto my to-do list. Even if I have to eat the baby food myself!
Having made butter before, it is my understanding that once it reaches the “butter” stage there is a liquid that separates. Your butter looks like it is still in the “whipped cream” stage.
The pictures here: http://www.thehungrymouse.com/2010/03/22/homemade-butter/
describe what happens when I make butter. Are you sure you did enough shaking?
Cathryn, thank you for sharing your link for homemade butter the real way:). I am in no way an expert in making butter and it looks like you have it down great.
This post here on making butter is merely a fun family activity that can be done with your children. And yes, it’s not as thick as real butter, but tastes just as good.
Thanks for sharing the butter recipe. Sounds so easy and one my kiddos will love trying :)
Well we made butter the other day. It took me a tad longer than you. I think it’s because I couldn’t find a decent jar so I used an empty spice jar I had. I think the shape made shaking slower. The butter also separated so I just dumped out the liquid. Then I put the whole thing in the fridge to harden a little. So yummy! I went out today and bought a jar of baby food so I could try again with that jar.
We’ll be doing this over Christmas break. Thanks!!
Thank you for sharing!
Love your dice game! Thanks for sharing.
Making butter…I remember doing that in 4th grade! Wow, almost 50 yrs ago, but it seems like just last week. Hope the kiddos remember, too!
xoxo
Joy
Oh, sorry, I forgot to say thank you for the labels! THANKS CHRISTIE! LOL! :)
What a cute game for the kiddos!! We would love for you to come link up at our link party…junkintheirtrunk.blogspot.com/2011/11/link-it-up-wednesday-3.html
Heidi @ {Junk in their Trunk}
featured these today! i will be making some this week! so fun! http://kimboscrafts.blogspot.com/2011/11/shoutouts.html
I love this idea! Thank you!! http://www.lovethisdayevents.com
Thanks so much for sharing this idea – I’ll be including it in a Thanksgiving Speech Therapy roundup on http://www.playtalklearn.com. Happy Thanksgiving – we don’t celebrate it here in Australia but it looks like a special day!
Cheers
Emily
I love the Roll-a-Turkey Printable you shared here. I teach 3 year olds and thought it would be a perfect way for them to practice their numbers and counting. I made a gigantic die from a big square cardboard box (which they LOVED playing with). Then I told them for each number they rolled, they should color the corresponding part. What a fun activity! Thank you!