Xplor pedagogical resources
Our games and workshops ignite children's curiosity and engage their senses through interactive activities that encourage them to taste, smell, touch, and explore the world around them. Xplor's mission is simple: to make learning fun! Our world is now increasingly filled with screens—even at school—and dominated by electronic gaming and solitary activities for kids, along with the rise of artificial intelligence tools that can sometimes eliminate the need to think. We believe that fostering curiosity and social interaction are essential skills for the future. Our games are perfect for bringing families, students, and friends together, inspiring a love for cultural and culinary exploration. Discover below how Xplor can benefit both home and classroom settings, and find our package offers available for purchase online.
With Xplor, children embark on exciting adventures inspired by great explorers. As they roll the dice, they move forward, backward, and even meet pirates! They learn history and geography in a fun way, memorizing world capitals, animal origins, ingredients, and more. Every game is a new exploration, turning learning into an exciting and enriching adventure!
How to eat varied diet?
Our Xplor ingredient cards help children discover a variety of fruits and vegetables, including those they may not have tried before. These cards spark curiosity and encourage them to try new ingredients. By introducing exotic options like Buddha’s hand fruit and snake fruit from Asia, children can learn about food diversity and develop a more adventurous and healthy approach to eating. It’s a fun way to explore new tastes and support a varied diet!
Be creative with cooking!
Our 162 ingredient cards introduce new foods and help both children and adults explore creativity in the kitchen. With over 800 possible flavor combinations, the game encourages experimenting with taste like a true scientist. For example, the date card shows that dates pair well with honey and cinnamon, inspiring a healthier cake with less sugar. Similarly, pineapple can be combined with basil in a smoothie. The possibilities are endless!
Xplor fun and historical facts!
The cards contain fun facts and historical information that make learning engaging. You can also use them during meals to make mealtime more enjoyable by having children find the ingredients from the cards in their food and discussing nutrition. Did you know that tomatoes, potatoes, and strawberries didn’t exist in Europe before the discovery of America in the 1400s? Many fruits, vegetables, and spices marked with blue cards (over 90 exotic ingredients!) originate from the Americas and were unknown in Europe. It makes you wonder—what did Europeans eat before these discoveries?
Ever wondered how enjoyable food can be when you truly savor every bite? In my workshops, we explore Mindful Taste—a technique that helps you connect deeply with your food. It’s about slowing down and using all your senses to appreciate the texture, aroma, and flavor of each ingredient. Benefits include:
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Enhanced Enjoyment: Discover new flavors.
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Improved Digestion: Eating slowly helps your body process food better.
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Better Food Choices: Being mindful helps you choose healthier options.
Not convinced? Try a piece of dark chocolate with sea salt or pineapple with basil for a flavorful twist! Contact us to book a workshop and transform your relationship with food.
Origin-based sorting
The Xplor cards are color-coded to help children understand the importance of the origin of many cuisines throughout history. Blue cards represent foods from the Americas, pink for those from Asia, and yellow for those from Africa. This system allows children to grasp why, for example, Mexicans prepare tortillas with guacamole, as corn, avocado, red bell pepper, chili, and tomato are all native to this region. They will also understand why Indian cuisine is so rich in flavors, given that many spices, such as 15 spices originate from there.
Menu planning and tracking
Our Xplor cards offer a fun way to explore and create menus based on different themes, like using seasonal products or ingredients from Africa, Asia, or the Americas. Whether you're cooking with your children at home or teaching a class, Xplor cards let kids choose the menu for the day, making the experience enjoyable and educational. The instructor can also track the ingredients and spices used, helping children remember when and how they used them. This approach sparks curiosity about the origins of ingredients and fuels creativity in the kitchen, turning each session into a culinary adventure around the world.
Sorting by seasons
We are all in agreement that local Norwegian strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries taste far better in summer than the imported ones we buy during the winter! Each card features a seasonal calendar, enabling children to sort foods based on their availability throughout the year. This helps them understand when foods are at their best in taste, encouraging seasonal eating that not only enhances flavor but also helps reduce CO2 emissions from transportation.
Reducing Food Neophobia
Did you know that the Xplor game and workshop helps children overcome the fear of trying new foods? By participating in social and fun activities centered around food, children become more open to tasting new fruits and vegetables. After the game, everyone gathers to taste the ingredients together. This collective tasting experience is incredibly beneficial, especially when children see their new friends trying the food in front of them. It creates a social dynamic where trying new food becomes exciting and less intimidating. Studies show that children who participate in workshops and games like Xplor become more curious and willing to explore new flavors.
Nutrition-based sorting
Learn which fruits and vegetables are rich in specific nutrients, such as essential vitamins, proteins, calorie content, and more. We have ranked each food item with gold, silver, and bronze medals for each nutrient, allowing children to discover which foods are the best sources on their own! For example, guava (228 mg/100 g), awarded a gold medal, contains about four times more vitamin C than an orange (52 mg/100 g), which ranks only 5th among all fruits!
Ultra-processed vs whole food
In a world dominated by ultra-processed foods (around 60% in Norway), it is essential to return to simple and healthy cooking. Xplor Games offers fun and educational workshops where participants learn to make homemade tomato soup without additives, and discover the true flavors of fruits and vegetables. Instead of products full of additives and low in nutrients, Xplor Games gives children, the opportunity to explore natural flavors with simple, seasonal ingredients.
Create your own games!
With our 162 cards, divided into 8 color categories representing fruits, vegetables, and spices, children can create their own games. These cards offer the opportunity to play variations of classic games like Crazy Heights and The Wildcat, while learning about the origins of food. The countless combinations make the cards an ideal tool for sparking creativity and exploring different ingredients in an engaging way.
Ingredient sorting
Name that food!
Use the cards to play a fun naming game. Simply show a card, and let the child guess the name of the fruit, vegetable, or spice depicted. This activity not only helps children learn the names of various foods but also strengthens their recognition and memory skills.
Wake up your spices!
Wake up the spices lying dormant in your cupboard with Xplor Spices cards! Use these cards to explore the properties, combinations, and recipes for each spice in your kitchen. They are suitable for all levels and will inspire your daily cooking, reduce food waste, and enhance your creative culinary joy. Join our workshops to learn how to master spice blending like a pro. Turn your kitchen into a unique sensory adventure!
Another fun and educational way to use the cards with younger children is by having them sort the cards into three categories: fruit, vegetable, or spice. By sorting the cards into these categories, children begin to understand the basic classifications of food, making it an ideal exercise for introducing them to healthy eating habits and fostering early learning about ingredients.
Quiz Nutrition
Our expansion Xplor Quiz Pack allows children to play a game by answering questions about nutrition. It can also be used independently to reinforce knowledge about nutrition, origins of foods, and to understand the benefits of a balanced diet in a fun and engaging way
Xplor History and Geography!
Xplor turns learning into an exciting adventure by blending history and geography with fun, interactive gameplay. Children explore key facts such as the origins of all the ingredients and where they are native from, capitals, and animals, while gaining insights into explorers' contributions and the discovery of new territories. With nine explorer cards—from Columbus to Vasco da Gama, Vespucci, or Erikson—you choose one explorer, read his card, take his boat, and you're ready to travel the world to make the same discoveries as he did in the 1500s.
Voyage with Xplor cards!
The Fruit, Vegetable, and Spice pack includes 162 cards, offering children the opportunity to embark on a journey through the origins of various ingredients. They’ll discover, for instance, that in Asia you can find Buddha's Hand fruit, rambutan (a small, hairy fruit in Malay), and even snake fruits. Who knows, one day they might try these during their travels, or perhaps find them in an Asian market!
Never stop Xploring!
To further explore world cultures, we have created a special pack featuring 54 countries. One side of each card displays the country's flag, while the other provides historical facts, information about the population, capital city, the country's area, and spoken languages. This pack is the perfect tool for history and geography teachers and for conducting truly cultural workshops.
Our Xplor tools
In addition to the games and ingredient cards, we offer food-related activities and a set of ten educational tools. These include taste evaluation forms, anatomy diagrams, seasonal charts for fruits and vegetables, and nutrition tips. All of these resources are included when you purchase our game for schools, making it easy for teachers to conduct workshops alone. A unique tool for food and health educators who want to create engaging and educational experiences for their students.
Buy Xplor Games + Cards
