Monday, August 23, 2010

Snack Routine



Each week, a family will be responsible for providing snack for the entire classroom. We usually have a morning and afternoon snack and there will be 16 students in the class. You will end up having about 3 turns as snack provider throughout the year.

Emi's parents have already volunteered to provide snack the first week of school. Thank you so much! I will make up a list and will let you know the schedule soon.

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 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 - berries, bananas, apples, grapes, raisins, applesauce
Vegetables - mini carrots, celery, cucumbers
Cheese and whole wheat crackers
Cereal bars
Pretzels
Pre-popped plain popcorn
Yogurt
Bagels
Rice cakes

Please remember to check for peanuts and tree nuts, including snacks made in a shared facility. Check labels for transfat and high fructose corn syrup and avoid those foods whenever possible.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Susan I am continually impressed by the goings on at your school. This list of snacks is so great. I wish all schools could follow your lead to be healthier. Keep up the excellent work.
Odie

Fran Loosen said...

Susan, I love the idea of making this an activity. What a great thought and something I think both of my kids would enjoy doing. I am hopeful that parents will support not having sugary snacks this year. At my daughter's school, every parent thought that their child's snack day should be a "special" snack day, meaning that daily cookies/sweets were the norm. I think it's better to challenge kids to develop something tasty that is as healthy as it can be. Thanks for leading on this!