String Cheese Pencil Stubs Back to School Snack Idea

The house is being taken over by backpacks, new clothes, and lots and lots of school supplies. Plans are being made as children enter a new grade at the start of the school year. Parents everywhere are trying to make this Back to School time as memorable and fun as possible, myself included. One way I love to make this transition special is to make fun Back to School snacks, like these String Cheese Pencil Stubs.

 

 

These edible pencils are so fun to make and eat. The kids can even help assemble them, which is a wonderful fine motor activity.

More fun fine motor activities!

 

 

If your school allows for children to have toothpicks/appetizer sticks, these can be sent with lunches or as a classroom snack as well, otherwise they are perfect for after school snacks.

 

Read our other Back to School resources, craft tutorials, and lunch ideas.

 

An alternative, if you do not wish to use a toothpick but want to send these along in a school lunch, is to place the pieces in a plastic food baggie and push out the air so the pieces stay together, or toss all the pieces in separately and allow your child to assemble it to find out what it makes when lunch time comes around!

 

 

String Cheese Pencil Stubs Back to School Snack Idea

What You Need

• Mozzarella string cheese
• Cheddar cheese stick
• Beef stick
• Black olive
• Appetizer-size toothpicks/mini bamboo skewers

You can get packs that come with cheddar cheese sticks and beef sticks together and these are perfect for making String Cheese Pencil Stubs.

 

Want a Back to School teacher treat the kids can help with? You’ll love this “Ten Apples on Top” Apple Cake Pops gift.

 

Directions

1. Slice a beef stick into coins. You can get about six per stick generally. These will be the eraser.

 

 

2. Carefully cut a small slice in the side of the beef stick coins, just enough to pierce through the casing of the beef stick, then peel off the outer casing. You’l find it looks quite a lot like an eraser, in color and texture, and my kids even preferred it peeled.

 

 

3. Cut the cheddar cheese stick into three pieces (the short way, not the long way). 

 

 

4. Stand the cheddar cheese stick up like a tower (it should be rectangular, with four sides) and carefully cut the corners off the long way, all the way down, to turn it into a cylindrical octagon shape.

 

 

5. Cut the mozzarella string cheese stick into about four pieces the short way.

 

 

6. Carefully carve out a pencil tip shape. The mozzarella cheese sticks are often wider than the beef stick and the cheddar cheese, so keep that in mind when you shape it. Just cut angled towards the center for the first few cuts to make a sort of pyramid, then cut off the excess to make it rounder with a little pointer tip.

 


 

 

7. Cut several small pieces of black olive. Shape the tiny pieces into small triangles. Leave them the same thickness of the olive so you can thread them easily onto the toothpick.

 

 

8. Carefully thread each piece onto the appetizer pick: beef stick coin, cheddar cheese piece, mozzarella cheese piece, black olive triangle on the very end.

 

Bookmark and pin these Caprese Salad String Cheese Snowmen for winter/Christmas time!

 

Note: be sure to thread each in the very center and slowly. The cheddar cheese is not as tough as the other items, so be careful not to crack it when you thread it on. If you wish to use regular toothpicks, which are much shorter, you can make even stubbier pencils by using very short cheddar cheese pieces.

 

 

9. Don’t waste that extra mozzarella cheese from shaping the tip! Sprinkle it around when you serve and it’ll look like pencil shavings!

 

 

Want a fun way to serve these? Try putting them in a clean pencil bag or reusable snack back that is the shape of a pencil bag! Bag shown is one of these pencil bags.

 

 

Use a clean piece of lined paper as a placemat! Want to use it over and over and even allow for the kids to write and draw on it with dry erase markers or crayons? Laminate it! I use this laminator for all our school things and placemats.

 

 

Serve up these String Cheese Pencil Stub Snacks with these Emoji Fruit Cups!

 

 

 

Are you excited for Back to School time?

 
Read also: Moon Cheese and “The Hungry Moon” Printable Placemat and 11 Fun String Cheese Wrappers for Fall