Re: Creative Kids snacks ideas... HELP!

April 19, 2007

Chantelle,

How about Fruit Kabobs. You take different types of cut-up fruit and put

them on Kabob sticks. This way you can use fruit that you can eat.

Typically in my daughter's class they do apples, pineapple and strawberry

but you can pick anything, and of course, leave out bananas.

Another great snack is cheese and crackers or crackers and jelly if you

don't want to use cheese. Also, a chex mix is good with pretzels, rice

checks, raisins or whatever you want to put in it. Lastly, popcorn is

always great. You can air pop it or use Jiffy Pop.

Hope this helps.

Debbie Matasker mom to w/CHARGE 10 yrs.

Creative Kids snacks ideas... HELP!

Hi everyone!

In one of my courses in early childhood education I am learning about

nutrition in the daycare setting.

I need help thinking of a healthy, fun and interactive snack activity for a

group of 5/6 year old. I need to have at least 3 food groups and it needs to

be healthy. I cant use peanut butter or bananas. I would even ask anything

without eggs or dairy but that might be getting too complicated. Bananas I

cant even touch the skins without getting a rash so if I ingest any I would

have a very serious reaction. and peanut butter is out cause its supposed

to be a school snack and schools around here are all peanut butter free.

The activity should be fun and easy that the kids can help make. I would

like to do a morning snack because in our hypothetical school scenario some

of the kids come in without eating breakfast.

In the school setting I would have access to the following:

Toaster oven

plug in grill pans

fridge

cooking utensils

I would most likely be doing this activity with my cousin and a couple of

her friends however my cousin is a bit of a picky eater (but she is

improving ) so I may borrow a group of kids from my classmates who have

offered lol. I'm aiming for 5 and 6 year old but younger is fine.

Im probably going to have maby 3 or 4 kids in my group but the actual number

for this activity is not too important, the teacher is aware that some of us

may not have access to a group of young kids lol. I am hoping I can actualy

get a group of kids. The sooner I get some snack activities the sooner I can

ask classmates. The actual assinment is due in 4 weeks but the earlier I do

the actual food activity the better cause I have to do a writeup of how the

food activity went so I need to find the activity and kids soon lol!

Chantelle

--

I have 4 eyes, 4 ears, a guide cat and a cat that speaks mouse! - me

April 19, 2007

Hi Chantelle!

I used to be a nanny for a wonderful family. I used to make some pretty fun

healthy snacks with them. One thing I used to do is make " sundaes " I would

layer berries, yogurt, granola, and a tiny bit of chocolate syrup. The kids

thought they were getting a special treat but really it was healthy! I would

have them count the berries as they put them into the cup and then they could

spoon in the yogurt and sprinkle the granola. I wouldn't let them do the

chocolate though because they would go overboard.

Another Idea is to let them make their own trail mix. I would fill a muffin tin

with twelve different items like dried fruit, yogurt covered raisins, pretzles,

chex, popcorn, etc. and let them pick and choose what they want to put in their

mix. The kids love to make their own snack and they eat it all because they

chose the items. If you are doing this for a larger group, instead of a muffin

tin you could use bowls.

If you have access to grill pans, kids really like chocolate chip pancakes. You

can use bisquick or another pancake mix and let the kids measure the ingredients

and then add a small handful of mini-chips. Then you can serve this with fruit.

I was also a kindergarten teacher so I'm always looking for a teachable moment.

Don't miss the chance to incorporate math and science into your snacktime

cooking sessions!! If you need any advice or ideas feel free to e-mail me. Oh,

also, Ray (the food network chef) has a lot of recipes for cooking with

kids. You may be able to find some of www.foodnetwork.com, or if I have some

time today I may look for some in my books.

Hope this helps!!

~

Mom of Jack (7mo. CHARGEr)