Pretzels, Goldfish, Apples Galore!

In our classroom setting, snack time is always a favorite activity! It is an opportunity to come together as a group to talk, listen, and to develop a sense of community! Often playschoolers explore and hone their listening skills with the crunch of their pretzels! This week’s project brings snack time home, with a twist!

To begin, give your playschooler the opportunity to decorate their egg carton. You could use a variety of things to individualize the soon-to-be snack tray. I chose to decorate with construction paper and then glue it to my carton, but the possibilities are endless! You could draw directly on the carton, use stickers, or paint with different colors. Once your tray is ready to hold some snacks, involve your playschooler in placing your chosen snacks in each compartment. I recommend having a portioned and wide variety of your “pre-approved” snacks out. This way your playschooler has plenty of choices in terms of quantity, placement, and actual snacks. As you fill your snack tray, this is a great opportunity to have your playschooler experiment with scooping, dumping, and filling!

After my carton was full of yummy snacks, I created a menu! You can see that I chose to put goldfish, apples, cashews, cheese, and banana chips in my tray. Writing out a menu is a wonderful chance for more decoration as well as early meaningful literacy with direct one-to-one correspondence. I hope you have fun creating individual snack trays. They can be enjoyed throughout the day, or this could be a great chance to have a picnic (outside or inside!). Enjoy!

*If you don’t have an egg carton in your home, no problem! This idea can be transferred to a cupcake tin or even a mixture of small bowls. In this case, play more with decorating the sign and menu!