Healthy Snacking

With our increased emphasis on becoming a healthier school, it is more important than ever to educate our children about the importance of putting good things in their bodies. A great way to do this is to have your children be more involved in the planning, shopping and simple preparation of the snacks they bring in to share.

A wise parent last year told me of how their child wrote down the snacks he would like to bring, and then looked at serving size information on the packaging (if applicable) or just figured out how much of each non-packaged food (like fruit) would be a typical serving. Then he needed to figure out how much to purchase of each snack item by multiplying by the class size. After shopping, he portioned everything out, and wrote up a menu for us to use. What a wonderful, real-life learning experience!

Here are some suggestions of healthy foods to bring in:

Fruit - strawberries,bananas, apples, grapes, raisins, applesauce
Vegetables - mini carrots, celery, cucumbers
Cheese and whole wheat crackers
Nutragrain Bars
Pretzels
Pre-popped plain popcorn
Yogurt
Bagels