Snacks that Provide Educational Opportunities for Children
Care providers can use snack times and meal times to encourage children to practice fine motor skills. The table below provides a general list of snack foods primarily from the fruit and vegetable group. The list includes opportunities for pouring (and drinking), for using fingers, and for practicing spreading with a knife.
| Activity | Snack |
| To pour and drink |
|
| For fingers |
|
| To spread on |
|
| To use spoon, fork |
|
*Most fresh or canned fruit (e.g., bananas cut in disks or pieces, oranges, grapefruit, pineapple) can be frozen on a tray, brought out 10 minutes before snack time, and enjoyed as a crunchy snack.
**Plain yogurt may be sweetened by adding fresh fruit.
Excerpted From:
Excerpt from Food, Nutrition, and the Young Child , by J. B. Endres & R. E. Rockwell & C. G. Mense, 2004 edition, p. 187 .
© 2004, Merrill, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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