montessori snack ideas

Food preparation is a fundamental part of the Montessori practical life area of the classroom. An elegant and efficient set up can be very easy to maintain. All you need is some careful planning and a small starter budget. Kelly Smith of the Nourishing Home blog mentions some important planning and organization tips in one of her posts - The Secret of Success: "Mise en Place!". I found it very validating to read that Julia Child a Montessori Alumni introduced a whole viewership to a concept that is so fundamental in our Montessori classrooms. If its at all possible, having a small refrigerator increases the independence of the children but you can also store perishables such as milk, boiled eggs, etc.You can store small quantities for the children to measure their own serving size at the child's level and any additional amounts of food elsewhere.A shelf for storing the jobs reinforces the concept of a place for everything and everything in its place. And as always any job you put together must be tested for quality control. Even the simplest task as mixing milk and cheerios needs to be taken into account. Would you poor the milk in the bowl first? How much milk should it be? Should the items be replenished after the child has eaten the food and washed the dishes?

  

suggested materials for snack area:

• a small refrigerator for the children
• durable storage containers that have snap on tops
• clear magnetic picture holders for serving size pictures
• clock
• fast food trays
• durable small dishes
• small cutting boards
• spreading knives and other utensils needed for preparing food
• escargot trays for sharing snack
• access to a sink to wash used dishes for the next person

The best containers for storage are the plastic rectangular ones with the locking snap flaps. I like to include a measuring cup in the container so it's contained. Pictures help when controlling quantities and children can follow them - if need with a little help from their peers. The types of trays I find most useful are the ones with handles but it turns out that those aren't always the most durable or reasonably priced, so i recommend the flat plastic trays that you usually find at fast food restaurants. Durable dishes don't necessarily have to be plastic. In fact, the glass can add a sense of wonder and interest as the food hits the surface of the glass making a sound and tapping into what might otherwise be considered an olfactory and gustatory sensorial experience. I have included a list of ideas for snacks.
Some tips on food prep

• sorting goldfish
• spreading cream cheese on a bagel
• slicing banana*
• slicing pickles*
• squeezing oranges for orange juice
• shelling pistachios
• cracking walnuts
• hulling blueberries
• hulling strawberries
• slicing cantaloupe
• mixing cereal
• slicing carrots
• chopping spinach
• grating cinnamon
• chopping broccoli trees with ranch
• mashing potatoes
• slicing apples
• 
  
• http://www.modernparentsmessykids.com/2011/10/how-to-make-like-montessori-mama-part-1.html