Can it! Review of Melissa & Doug's Pretend Play "Let's Play House" Grocery Cans Toys For Young Kids

Melissa and Doug has several sets of play food that work well in just about any play kitchen. One of them is the Let’s Play House Grocery Can set.

P.S. I KNOW I took a bunch of pictures of the boys playing with these, but I cannot find them. I apologize for the lack of pictures in this post. 

This set of play food cans has plastic lids that fit snugly onto the cardboard cans. The lids go on and off so the cans open can close. Froot Loop was easily able to open and close the cans at a year old. In fact, he was SO good at it that I had to tape them shut for awhile because I got really tired of cleaning up can lids every 20 seconds. They were a bit of a pain at first; however, they really are an awesome way to work on fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. 
 
There’s a set of 10 cans. There’s cherries, pineapple slices, peas & carrots, tuna fish, alphabet soup, green beans, tomato sauce, peaches, sliced mushrooms, and corn. The cans are a few different heights, but are all the same diameter. 
 
Each can looks like the real thing with cute, colorful labels. There’s even pretend nutrition labels. They’re very cute and creative. 
 
These cans are good for sorting, grouping, and patterns. They’re also good for color recognition and learning about food and food groups. We like to sort them into fruits and vegetables and other. We also sort by size or color. 

 
The cans are good additions to play kitchens, grocery stores, restaurants, and whatever else the kiddos can think of. We have the Melissa and Doug kitchen and they work perfectly with it. The boys love to open the cans and “pour” them into pans and “cook” for us. 
 
We have the other sets of Melissa and Doug play food, as well as other sets and also lots of felt food sets I’ve made and bought. I made some felt cherries that fit into the can of cherries. I’ve also made some pineapple slices, green beans, and peaches. These cans coordinate very well with the other Melissa and Doug wood and cardboard sets, but they can absolutely be played with alone too. 
 
Overall, these are a great addition or even a great starter set for a play food collection. And of course, like most things Melissa and Doug, they are well made and have held up to years of heavy use.
 
How often do you cook with canned goods?