Little Food Explorer: Manchester - Printable Activity Pack

Manchester: a city of ideas and kitchen discoveries

Join Mila, Theo and Aunt Jo as they prepare their own Manchester Ideas Day. Little Food Explorer: Manchester is an 80-page illustrated A4 PDF for ages 8–12 with an adult helper, bringing stories, recipes and hands-on discovery together in a magazine-style book.

This expanded edition adds 33 new illustrations, from a character-filled cover and twelve story scenes to food portraits, activity illustrations and kitchen investigations. Read a story, try its connected challenge or choose a recipe for an afternoon together. Every activity can be completed at home; visiting Manchester and tasting food are optional.

Twelve connected stories to spark curiosity

Follow the family's preparations through paper bridges, bee patterns, textile designs, pixel pictures and future-city ideas. Each story pairs a large illustration with a notebook page, a checked fact panel and a question to explore. Manchester and Greater Manchester provide the inspiration, while the characters and their adventures are fictional.

Four recipes, 32 illustrated cooking steps

• Manchester Tart: layer raspberry jam, custard and coconut in a pastry shell to share in eight wedges.
• Eccles Cakes: make eight flaky currant-filled pastries inspired by Eccles in Salford, Greater Manchester.
• Cheese & Onion Hand Pies: shape four savoury potato, cheese and onion parcels.
• Honey & Oat Biscuits: bake twelve golden rounds in a Quesbo recipe inspired by Manchester's worker bee.

Each recipe includes ingredients, equipment, eight illustrated steps, adult and child roles, ready checks, allergen and storage guidance, a kitchen investigation and space for observations.

Make, notice and discover

Twelve discovery missions and four kitchen investigations invite children to practise measuring, fractions, patterns, observation and creative problem-solving. Plan canal cargo moves, test a folded-paper bridge, finish a bee reflection, decode a pixel picture and design a future-city postcard.

Also included: six place cards, a six-stop story guide, safety and equipment guidance, a combined shopping list, session planner, explorer passport, answer guidance and a certificate. The story guide and marked fictional models are learning activities, not travel directions or real timetables.

Your download

• One 80-page A4 PDF: read digitally or print selected pages. No printed book, ingredients or equipment will be posted.
• Ages 8–12 with an adult: adults supervise, check ingredient labels and allergies, and handle heat and sharp tools. Keep reading devices safely away from cooking.
• Recipes are source-informed family adaptations, desk-reviewed but not physically kitchen-tested. Images are AI-created illustrations; imagined place scenes are not documentary photographs.
• Personal and household use: print for your own household. Do not resell, redistribute or upload the PDF publicly. Contact Quesbo for school, club or commercial use.

Read a story. Try an idea. Discover what happens next.