What else is happening in the preschool classroom?
Snack Time
EVERYONE looks forward to snack time and it is a terrific opportunity for students to gain a sense of responsibility as we move through a very specific routine.
- We all wash our hands, one at a time, at the sink, with teacher’s help. Waiting children are always engaged or are enjoying time with friends.
- As students are done washing, they go to their cubby and find their snack. Again, a teacher is there to assist students with this task.
- Students take their snacks and pick a seat at any table (making choices is another way we help develop independence and confidence in students at school). We wait for all students to finish washing up, picking up their snacks and choosing their seats before eating.
- Once everyone is seated, we all say together, “Quiet hands, quiet feet, we’re all together, now let’s eat!”
- We eat!**
- Clean up. We wait until everyone is reasonably done eating their snack, then the star of the week, or birthday person, rings the bell to signal that snack has ended. Everyone cleans up their snack area (trash in the rubbish bin, containers in their lunch boxes, and lunch boxes back in their cubbies)
**If a child needs help with their snacks we ask them to put a hand on their head and a teacher will come by and assist. We find this a good time to help students start to learn some self-help skills and feel more independent, a very important stage in childhood development. We know some juice bags are nearly impossible for even adults to open, we know that Ziploc bags are difficult for the most “advanced” student to close properly, and a banana…forget about it. So, don’t worry we are not letting your child struggle to get to their snacks and missing valuable eating time. 😊 Working together is our motto with the end goal of helping your child become more independent. For example, while opening a difficult pre-packaged bag of snacks we will ask a student to pull a straw off a juice box and out of the wrapper while waiting for us. If they’ve mastered the juice box, we teach them how to get those little snack packages open or twist open their thermos or lock/unlock a lunchbox. We know that these are things your child is capable of and should be doing on their own and it provides great fine motor practice (which is pertinent for good writing skills later), but we also know that once your child enters kindergarten there will be less adults available to help your child with these tasks. Added bonus: it makes them feel good about themselves!
Some things you can do to help your child…if you aren’t already: let them do some of these things at home (like the cleaning up bit!); pre-open water bottles and twist shut; snip a spot on a pre-packaged snack item, not to break the seal but as a starting place for the rip; choose containers that are a little easier to open/shut; use ziplock bags that zip a little easier; enclose a napkin so they can wipe their face or table if they happen to make a mess.
