Fun Forth of July Foods Kids Can Help Make

Summer is a great time to get your kids to help in the kitchen, where they can learn some life skills as well as math (measuring, dividing recipes) and science (what happens when you bake things?) and more, and hopefully have some fun at the same time.

Making red, white and blue Fourth of July foods is fun for everyone, and here are a few pretty easy recipes you can make with your kids or that older kids can make themselves for the holiday gathering.

First, a classic, the red, white and blue fruit plate. This one from Passion for Savings uses strawberries, yogurt covered pretzels and blueberries. Kids can help assemble the flag, and older kids can cut the strawberries.

The Educator’s Spin on It has a similar idea using berries to make a graham cracker flag. Kids can make this one themselves if you prep the berries for them. So fun for a bunch of kids to do at a holiday cookout or even at school.

If it’s not too hot to bake where you live, you can make firecracker cupcakes with this recipe from Princess Pinky Girl. The cake part is made with cake mix and food coloring to make it red and blue, while the toppings add white and the firecracker bit. These are so cute and kids will have a lot of fun helping with them. And if you’re not much of a baker, you’ll appreciate the fact that they’re made with cake mix.

You’ll need a drink for your Fourth of July party too, right? How about one of these red, white and blue drink recipes collected by The Soccer Mom Blog? So many tasty ideas, and while some of these are made for grownups (please don’t let the kids help with those!) there are plenty of options for kids, too. I love the look of the Italian creme sodas from Butter with a Side of Bread, and I’m sure they are yummy, too!

My brother went through a phase where he was obsessed with maps. He loved to look at maps and he would draw maps of places real and imagined. He even drew maps that followed our route when we’d go to visit our grandparents in another state!

I assume there are still kids who go through map phases, and kids with an interest in history and how things got to be the way they are. Both kinds of kids will enjoy the book Borders: Understanding the Lines that Unite and Separate Us by Karim Ressouni-Demigneux, with illustrations by Karine Maincent.

The book describes how the original borders were natural, such as oceans, rivers, mountains and deserts, and while some of those borders are still in use today, many borders are human made, decided by treaties or carved out by colonizers. It covers the history of people congregating in one place and how city-states evolved into empires, how maps are drawn and how human conflicts can reshape borders.

There are stories about walls that reinforce borders, how borders work in the air and at sea, how people cross borders with passports or as refugees and how climate change is altering the borders of some countries.

You’ll also learn some fun border facts like the fact that if you stand in the middle of the bridge over the Zambezi River you can be in four countries at once because that’s where the borders of Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe meet. Or how there is only one border crossing between India and Pakistan that’s closed each night in an elaborate ceremony.

The book talks about time zones, border towns and places where countries and parts of countries are inside other countries and places where borders are less important such as the European Union.

While there are serious subjects in the book, it’s still a fun read that’s sure to interest those kids around ages 8-12 who like travel, maps and weird but true facts.

About the book: 72 pages, hardcover, published 2026 by Blue Dot Kids Press. Suggested retail price $21.95.

Have you read?

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