Tips for Kindergarten Snacks – from a Pro!
In yesterday’s post, I answered a question sent in by a mom who had been required by her daughter’s Kindergarten teacher to send in peanut-free, packaged snacks to be shared by her daughter’s Kindergarten class. Not easy. Thankfully, we will send our daughter to Kindergarten with an individual snack of our own choosing on a daily basis. While this means that we will have to add the preparation of that snack to our evening checklist of things to do, I prefer this to the communal snack method because our daughter is more likely to have a nutritious snack this way.
It’s hard to believe that my daughter starts Kindergarten this week. Will I cry when my last born gets on the bus on Monday morning? You bet I will! Even though she is such a big girl with tons of day care and pre-school experiences behind her, she was very nervous when we went to Kindergarten orientation this week.
She looks a little nervous, doesn’t she? She was gripping my hand very tightly as we walked the hall to her classroom. But as soon as we arrived, her teacher, Mrs. Simmons, put her right at ease.
Mrs. Simmons was my son’s Kindergarten teacher, so I know her well. She has one of those nice soothing, calming voices and she speaks so sweetly to the children. I wish I could stay in Kindergarten all day too!
While the Classroom Aid introduced the children to some classroom routines, Mrs. Simmons sat down with us parents to do paperwork and go over some things. I think we spent 20% of our time together discussing Snack Time. There are two things in Kindergarten that are A Very Big Deal: taking the bus to school and Snack Time. So, we spent a lot of time on these things. Thank Goodness this is my second time going through this!
Since I am now the Mommy Blogger for NuVal(I was not when my son was a Kindergartner), I took copious notes on Mrs. Simmons Snack Time Guidelines. They were awesome! She really is a pro at this.
- A good snack is something that your child can handle independently. (So fondue is out.)
- A good snack is something that your child can eat in 5-10 minutes. (So leftover beef teriyaki on a stick is probably not a good choice – all that chewing. Not to mention the stick could be used as a weapon once Snack Time was complete.)
- A good snack must be peanut free. (This one isn’t even funny. My heart goes out to children with allergies. And it’s so important not to break this rule, because the kids work on these tables after they eat).
- A good snack contains no nuts at all. (That means no tree nuts, no granola bars that were manufactured in factories that contain nuts. Again, imagine if your child had allergies).
- Fruit is a great snack.
- Cut up vegetables are a great snack.
Mrs. Simmons also told us that instead of bringing in cupcakes for birthday parties, she is encouraging that we think of something else. Great idea. OK, now I feel a little guilty about those Red, White and Blue cupcakes I brought in when my son was in her class, but that’s OK. Instead, she suggested that your birthday girl or boy could hand out stickers or pencils to everyone in class. Love it!
Mrs. Simmons is an avid A Better Bag of Groceries reader and I know that she works hard to make nutritious choices for her family, just like I try to do. Most recently, she said that her own 7-year-old daughter is all into Star Fruit. She likes it because it looks like a star. Adorable! And it scores a 100 on the NuVal scale.
So a huge Thank You to Mrs. Simmons for helping us to get started on the right foot with these great guidelines. Now, I need to go make sure I have enough tissues ready for the big Kindergarten send-off coming up on Monday morning.
Enjoy the weekend, everyone!
Posted in: back-to-school, snacks
Tags: back-to-school, kindergarten snacks, snacks
on Sep 10th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Thanks for the tips! Our orientation didn’t spend any time on snack so I was fumbling for ideas the this week. For the first time ever, my daughter has no allergies in her class and can bring anything for snack – peanut butter is a staple for her so I’m thrilled!