Friday, September 14, 2018

Fall Into Fun Craft Ideas


For the young and the young at heart, fall is the time for jumping into piles of leaves, carving pumpkins, and meandering through corn mazes. Now you can bring the colors of fall inside your classroom with these fun activities celebrating the season. Perfect for a preschool classroom, the crafts listed below teach crucial motor skills and are designed with simplicity in mind. Yet they also make great decorations to display in a classroom or to take home to mom and dad!


Fall Leaf Prints

What You Need:
Blank White Paper 
Plates
Leaves
Glitter Glue (optional)

1.Pour out a little bit of each paint color onto your plates. Combining several paint colors on each plate will create a dazzling mosaic for your prints. Make your prints sparkle by adding glitter glue at this step.

2.Dip your leaves into the desired paint/glitter colors.

3.Press your leaves onto the white paper. Use your fingers to press firmly along the lines of the leaf to make the leaf structure stand out more. If you want to create a huge collage for your class, you might consider doing everyone's prints on the same long roll of paper. On a smaller scale, you can also do individualized collages on regular 8 1/2" x 11" paper.



A variation of this craft is leaf rubbing, in which a leaf is placed under a piece of paper, which is then colored over with crayons or colored pencils to reveal the leaf's structure.


Fall Coffee Filter Trees

What You Need:
Coffee Filters
Cardboard Tubes (toilet paper or paper towel rolls, etc.)
Washable Markers (assorted colors)
Spray Bottle
Water

1.Color your coffee filters with fall colors--typically red, yellow, and orange. Scribbles will do. This doesn't have to be neat since the colors will run together anyway.

2.Lay your colored filters on a flat surface or, preferably, a drying rack (like one you might use for cookies), and mist them with the spray bottle. Don't soak them. They should be lightly damp in order for the colors to spread over the filter but not run off of the filter.

3.Cut slits in the top of your cardboard tubes, and gently bend the slits to make tree branches.

4.Once the filters are dry, simply stuff them into the top of the tube. Now your beautiful fall tree is done!

Pro-Crafter Tip: Ask all your classroom teachers to save the toilet paper & paper towel rolls at the end of each week and store them for future craft projects!
 


 3D Card Stock Pumpkins

What You Need:
Scissors (child-safe with rounded edges for young children)
Ruler
Dark Orange Fine Tip Marker
Black Medium Tip Marker
Two Split Pins

1.Divide your orange card evenly into 8 sections using the orange marker, marking the sections off with neat hash marks. A ruler will be handy for this step to keep the lines straight and the spaces even. The orange marker will blend into the paper so that it won't show very much once the pumpkin is formed.

2.Cut out 8 strips of orange card along your hash marks. 

3.Punch a hole in one end of each strip large enough for the split pin to go through. (This step may be done by the teacher/parent for young children.)

4.Thread your pieces of card onto the split pin and lock the pin in place. 

5.Repeat steps 3 and 4 with a second split pin on the opposite end of your strips to create the 3D pumpkin. You will want to cut a small strip of green card and attach it to the second split pin to form the stalk. Make sure you thread the green strip onto the pin first so that it will be on the outside of your pumpkin.

6.Decorate the outside of your pumpkin with a black marker to create the face. Voila! Your pumpkin friend is done! Just don't use him to trick or treat, or your candy might disappear!

Friday, September 7, 2018

Smart Snacks in Schools: What They Are and Why They Matter


  


 What are Smart Snacks?

Smart Snacks came to fruition through the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. This Act sought to provide students with more nutritious snack options during the school day to supplement their regular school meals, which were already under federal nutrition standards. In the 2014-2015 school year, the USDA began requiring schools to meet these new nutritional standards for "competitive foods," or snacks outside of the federal reimbursable meal program (i.e. breakfast and lunch), that are sold during the school day, whether through vending machines, snack bars, school stores, a la carte, or any other place on the school grounds. Limitations apply to all grade levels but vary by age group (i.e. elementary, middle, and high school). For example, caffeinated beverages may be sold to high school students but not to elementary and middle school students.

Smart Snacks contribute to students' overall health in several ways:
  • They help students form better eating habits earlier in life. Less junk food, more brain food!
  • They fight childhood obesity, high blood pressure, and other health issues.
  • They offer more well-rounded nutrition at school to students who may not have access to healthy foods at home and reinforce healthy eating habits for students who routinely eat healthy foods at home.


Smart Snacks in School standards limit the amount of fat, sugar, sodium, and calorie content of all "competitive" foods and beverages.



Simultaneously, they promote whole grains, low fat dairy products, fruits, vegetables, and protein foods.



According to Smart Snack guidelines, the "school day" refers to the period from the midnight before to 30 minutes after the official school day ends. Student activities occurring on school grounds but after the end of the USDA-defined school day are not subject to the Smart Snack restrictions. For example, the concession stand at an evening football game would not be subject to these guidelines.


 What About School Fundraisers?

There are no restrictions on snacks used for fundraisers if:
  • Fundraising items meet the Smart Snack standards.
  • Fundraising happens during non-school hours as defined by Smart Snack regulations.

Exemptions may be used for items sold during the school day that do not meet the Smart Snack standards, with some restrictions:
  • Each school is allowed 30 exemptions per school year.
  • The fundraiser cannot be longer than 3 consecutive days in length.
  • Each school must complete a tracking sheet that is kept on file for internal auditing purposes.
  • Exempted items may not be sold from 30 minutes before to 30 minutes after any meal service such as breakfast and lunch. 


How do I Choose Snacks that Meet Smart Snack Standards?

To view the Smart Snack Standards for Foods and Beverages, please follow the link here. In addition, there are many great resources out there designed to guide your school in choosing nutritional snacks that meet these new guidelines and planning school events with these guidelines in mind. For your convenience, we have listed some below:

Smart Snacks Calculator
Fundraisers and Smart Snacks
Healthy Fundraising Ideas
Nutritional Lesson Planning
Nutritious Snack Recipes
Steps to Smart Snack Success

To view a listing of our PureFUN! Smart Snacks, please follow the link here