Almost Camp Food: S'mores and Fire!

What kind of activities does summer bring to mind? Swimming, fishing, camping? I always think about making s'mores around a camp fire as the sun sets. 

Well, its hard to do an actual fire or sunset in the library. But, we did make s'mores on a stick, and some edible fire. We did both activities for our 3-5 grade group, but younger kids and a couple older kids were also interested in doing it.

The S'mores on a Stick recipe we used was really simple, and came from food.com. Melt some milk chocolate chips (add a little bit of shortening, so it melts right), and put it into a crock pot or fondue pot to keep it warm. Skewer a large marshmallow (we used popsicle sticks cuz we had them handy), and dip it into the chocolate. Have some graham crackers crunched up, and roll the chocolate-covered marshamallow in them. Put it on a cookie tray and put it in the fridge so it hardens. Simply awesome!

Doing s'mores on a stick didn't take very long, so we also did Edible Fire. The link is to an explanation I found. Instead of just having the kids make the fire and then eat it, the site suggested walking the kids through the making of an actual fire. Then they do the same steps to their edible fire. So get the kindling, light it with a match, add more logs, etc.

That particular explanation asks for a lot of supplies. We just used pretzel sticks, Red Hots, red licorice, candy corn, and some black licorice mounds for rocks. You can be as simple or complicated as you would like to be :)

Both activities are super simple, and the kids really had a great time with both of them!