What Do You Offer For Snack

[Guest]

Hi we currently have a cafe snack system, that runs for around an hour a session. This in itself works very well but does take two members of staff, as we have one at the table chatting and engaging with the children, whilst the other is in the kitchen preparing the snack.

 

We currently offer a piece of fruit and half a slice of toast, crumpet, small jacket potato etc. and I was just wondering what other settings offer at snack time.

 

If we were to just offer fruit it would be easy for the children to help themselves and only have one member of staff used to sit with them at the table, this would also enable us to open the outdoor area for free flow play from the begining of the session as we would be able to use the member of staff from the kitchen in the ratios.

[Guest]

We currently have a sit down snack, however the children prepare the snack each day, this is then refridgerated until snack, so usually snack is prepared about half hour before.

 

We have a big fruit bowl, the children choose what to peel and chop up, we also have cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, carrotts etc, sometimes we have crackers, bread sticks and dips.

[Tink69]

Have you tried doing a forum search on this topic as I remember this area being discussed recently. not sure where though

 

 

Tink69

[Guest]

We have one staff member doing snack (cafe style). We offer toast and/or fruit, making sandwiches, crudite or cheese. The staff member goes into the kitchen to toast a batch of bread (4 slice toaster) but can speak to the children as there is a large kitchen counter with children on one side. It works well as the adult can facilitate conversation but also gives the children opportunity to talk between themselves - good opportunity for staff to observe speech and language. To receive a Healthy Eating Award you should not offer breadsticks, crackers etc.

[blondie]

we have returned to sit down together snack as found this worked best for us - the children have fruit or vegetables which are brought in form home (ready prepared) so we dont have to do anything - some children do bring in small yogurts or crackers and cheese but we find this works well as we then dont have to prepare any foods and have time to sit with the children aand chat which we feel is most important x

[Guest jenpercy]

what's wrong with breadsticks?

[Guest]

To receive a Healthy Eating Award you should not offer breadsticks, crackers etc.

 

 

Are you sure? We have a healthy eating award and have been offering both as a snack item since 2007, would be interested in a link to where this is stated, as I havent come across this before .

 

Claire x

[dublinbay]

We offer whole fruit and encourage independence by perhaps starting off the peeling of an orange and the children become quite adept at it very soon. We have toast that the children butter (margarine) by themselves, rice cakes, plain biscuit, breadsticks, naan, chapatis and other foods from around the world. We will have the potatoes that we plant every year too when the children harvest and wash them. Our snack bar is open for most of the session and 4 children come at a time. Drinks are milk and water.

 

If you want to look at other discussions about snack bar/time you can do a forum search (as someone has already mentioned). This can be found at the top right-hand side of your page 'search forum posts'.

[Scarlettangel]

We have a snack cafe that is open for about 2 hours out of each session.

 

Children come and go as they want.

 

The area seats 5 at a time.

 

They have water, milk, fruit and a plain biscuit.

Whilst we know essentially biscuits are not ideal to offer, for those that don't eat fruit it may be their only chance of something to eat that session. Some come in without breakfast! We talked to ofsted who seemed to think our arguement was OK and biscuits are low fat rich tea type.

 

We do not cut the fruit.......... we like for the children to know what fruit looks like and learn about peeling (bananas and oranges) etc.

 

We only have 2 staff so having one sat and one cooking toast would be unmanageable!!!!!!!!!

 

We don't make a big deal about the cafe.

We prompt them going there more in summer months to make sure they have a drink!

[Panders]

For carbs, we offer toast, rice cakes, breadsticks and rich tea biscuit obviously just one of those on any one day. Fruit, we offer mandarins, apples, grapes, if we know a child likes a particular fruit we put that on every now and then, such as bananas - not all children love them. We also offer raisins, chopped apricots or chopped prunes.

 

So we offer one type of fruit, one type of carb and one type of dried fruit each day. We found if we mixed up the fruit the children poked about looking for what they liked and we didn't like the idea of that, so they just get the one choice now each day, but a different fruit each day.

[Guest babyjane31]

We have a cafe style snack open for 1hour each session where 6 children can sit at a time we offer a choice of 2 or 3 difference fruit and veg as well as water or milk to drink. Most children do have something to eat most sessions we have the odd few that say they don't like anything but they have learnt to try different things which is a bonus. We normally offer one familiar fruit, something different to try and a dried fruit, fruit is always served whole if it can be. Today we have apples, mango and dried apricots yesterday was sugar snap peas, bananas and raisins.

[Upsy Daisy]

If we were to just offer fruit it would be easy for the children to help themselves and only have one member of staff used to sit with them at the table

 

Could you just offer the toast etc on some days so that on others that extra member of staff can be busy elsewhere?

[currycraver]

We have a snack bar and offer milk and water. We offer fruit and breadsticks and crudites- we call celery rocket fuel and this encourages some children to have it. We have chapatis, naans wraps. Sometimes we sit together to try fruit - the children wanted to know about the fruit in Handa's Surprise so we had that for snack yesterday. In the summer time we have our snack bar outside. The children also wash their plates.

[Guest]

we have group snack time at our pre-school the children all help out by handing out bowls and cups,pouring milk and chopping up fruit they also wash the bowls and cups after snack,the children each bring in a item of food to put in the group fruit bowl so we have fruit,crackers ,toast,cereal,cheese,veg,yoghurts,pancakes,breadsticks,mini snack bars,noodles .