Suggestions for Outside Snacks and Snack Activities for Daycare

For snack, my daycare usually does apples, graham crackers, vanilla wafers, etc. with milk. They can all be served on the go, but probably don't have the interaction you are looking for.

2 moms found this helpful

Here are some ideas:

animal crackers
graham crackers
ritz crackers
goldfish
apple slices
banana
fruit salad
cheerios
fruit roll
string cheese
dried fruit

Ants on a log: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ants_on_a_log
Dirt Cake: http://www.ehow.com/how_###-###-####_make-dirt-cake.html

2 moms found this helpful

I'm guessing that since you are picking up close to dinner time your child is in daycare a full day. If that's the case he probably has a different teacher in the afternoon then he does in the morning. I actually kind of smiled reading your problem because I use to be a preschool teacher in a daycare. I had a teacher's aide in the afternoon that was young (19) and she liked to bring in extra "treats". When you talked about marshmellows being on top of the fruit cup... well, that was just the kind of thing she would do. As far as freeze pops go, we did give them to the kids in the summer. It was a nice cool treat to give them after we came inside from running around. I know that there is sugar in them,(they do make sugar free ones now) but they are very low in calories. In the afternoon, things were different. I'm not saying it's right but especially come Thurs/ Fri, kids that are in daycare care 10 hours a day, everyday, are done. Think about how you feel on Friday (I can say this now) aren't you just done by Friday between work and picking/dropping off at daycare and doing everything else? Sometimes it was all we could do to get the kids to do a project, promise a treat. I'm not saying it's right, not saying it's wrong either. I do get (now that I am a mom) that it's hard to have them eating snacks right before dinner. Maybe that's one of the things you can talk to the teacher/director about. See if she can move snack time? We use to have snack right after they got up from nap,(around 2pm) before we started any afternoon activites. If he has a different afternoon teacher, start with her. You might not need to go to the director. There are some great snacks out there (I'm sure his teacher knows plenty of them if she went to school for Early Childhood Development :)) that they can make at school and eat. Just wanted to give you another side....good luck.

2 moms found this helpful

What about "ants on a log" just substitute cream cheese or another type of spreadable cheese on the celery and perhaps use raisins. My son loves raw veggies cut up into small pieces.

1 mom found this helpful

Ditto on all of the suggestions so far. Other ideas that my kids get at their daycare: hummus (with veggies or crackers), baked tortilla chips with salsa, animal crackers. Can have kids make their snack mix as an activity using cereal, crackers, pretzel, dried fruit/raisins, etc. I think 100 Calorie Packs could help in your situation because they're portable and usually have lot of pieces so that a kid feels like they're getting a lot in this treat. Granted, many of them are sweet, but there are some savory or snack mix-types, too. My son hasn't had popsicles yet, although I do agree with the posting from the teacher that there's probably fewer calories in popsicle than a 100 Calorie Pack.

1 mom found this helpful

Hi - you should take charge and proactively go to the principal or director of the school/program to set firm guidelines. Wuith all the information out there it is astounding teachers are pumping them full of sugar and food dyes. Of course, what do they care, they pump them up then send them on their way and you get to deal with it. At my childs school they have guidelines for what is healthy and send home aything sent that doesn't meet the standards. Sweet treats are saved for birthday celebrations only. 100% fruit juice or milk or water, whole grain crackers, cheese, fruit bars etc. We also had a schedule for when we were required to send the snack. In my daughters new school they just cancelled snack time because parents couldn;t abide by healthy snacks so they cancelled them out right

Good luck

1 mom found this helpful

any dry snacks or fruit that can be cut into pieces in advance work well - like grapes, orange sections, bananas cut in 1/2, pineapple or cantalope slices. carrot or celery stick and cucumber slices work well, too.
instead of freezer pops, you can freeze those tubes of yogurt (gogurt or other brand) and eat them that way. they are high in sugar, but still have some other nutritional value.
for recipe ideas, i would check out the purple asparagus website. there's also a great book called "Pretend Soup and other REal Recipes" that has some really nice ideas about cooking with kids accompanied by recipes that use icons so that the youngest kids can read them with a little assistance.

1 mom found this helpful

I found this website to be helpful, it is a PDF file so hopefully you can open it
http://www.cspinet.org/nutritionpolicy/healthy_school_sna...
ENJOY!!

1 mom found this helpful

Actually eating the snacks while playing on the playground sounds dangerous for that age group. Hopefully they are just eating them outside, but not while running around. I teach ECSE and we use to have parents send in snacks we would ask for such snacks as cut up fresh fruit and veggies (maybe with a little dip for veggies), pretzels, rice cakes, crackers/cheese. With all the allergies now we decided to have each child just bring his/her own snack. It makes life a lot easier.

1 mom found this helpful

You can get individual bags of Goldfish crackers, animal crackers, or pretzels. I don't know if they have a nut warning on the packaging though, you will have to check. I would definitely talk to the director - that doesn't seem right. My girls have snack at 4pm at daycare, then goldfish for the ride home. Unfortunately, we eat dinner between 6 and 6:30, but they still eat.
Good luck!!

1 mom found this helpful

applesauce
apple slices
cheese and crackers
pretzel sticks
cheese quesedillas
carrot sticks
mini ham and cheese sandwiches
graham crackers
goldfish
fruit snacks
organic pita chips w/ or w/o dip
celery
chicken nuggets
yogurt

my daughter eats all this stuff and she's 4. her school doesn't allow people to bring snacks becuz of the allergies so i'm surprised they ask for snacks.

good luck. J.

1 mom found this helpful

I think some great "on the go" snacks are Raisins, Dried Cranberries (or any other fruits), Cheerios (dry), and Granola Bars! Good luck!

1 mom found this helpful

How about fruit already cut into shapes so they can make faces. Apple slices for face, grapes, raisens blue berries etc for eyes. Pretzels for hair or string cheese for bodies.

Same concept using all cereal. This is a little more fun and less expensive than fruit.

1 mom found this helpful

Pretzels all shapes
whole wheat goldfish crackers
Chinese noodles
frozen grapes
frozen bananas
yogurt pops
Raisins
dried apricot
"dried Plums"
Yogurt covered raisins
Dried cereal (cheerios, Kix, Frosted mini wheats)
Cheese sticks with wheat crackers
rice crackers

1 mom found this helpful