Snack Routine Information

Ahoy! - let's keep the grub healthy for the sprogs!

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 13 students in the class. You will end up having about 3 - 4 turns as snack provider throughout the year, and the rest of the time you get to relax!

I will provide snack the first week of school - after that, I'll 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. Children can read easy preparation ideas and recipes, use math to figure out how much is needed, write the grocery list, and make a menu - talk about real-life application of school skills! 

I would prefer most, if not all, of the snacks to be fruits and vegetables. Most children simply do not get the recommended servings per day, and this is an easy way to encourage this. Also, with fruits and vegetables, we don't have to worry about hidden transfats, unnecessary additives, or sneaky nut contamination (remember, we are a nut-free school!). Several children in our class have severe allergies. Again, with fruits and vegetables,  we just don't have to worry about unintentionally making someone ill. 

Here are some suggestions:

Fruits:

berries, bananas, apples, grapes, melon chunks, kiwis, clementines, oranges, etc.

frozen fruits are a nice change of pace - frozen grapes, frozen berries, frozen fruit bars (no sugar added)

dried fruits, like apricots and raisins

          

Vegetables: 

carrot sticks, celery, cucumbers, broccoli, red and green pepper strips

Besides fruits and vegetables, big containers of natural yogurt are great (please, no Gogurts), as is low-fat string cheese. Plain popcorn (we have an air popper), rice crackers and pretzels are a nice occasional treat.

So, a typical week's snack bag may look like this:

a dozen large bananas, 13 small apples, 13 clementines, 3 big bunches of grapes, carrot and celery sticks with sunbutter or ranch dressing, small cucumbers, 13 raisin boxes, bell pepper strips, 13 string cheeses, and a bag of popcorn kernels.