Encourage Healthy Eating: With a Book!

 

Learn new things and try new foods! Incorporating snacks into your class lessons and activities is a great way to introduce new foods while teaching important early learning concepts. Why not combine snack time with story time? Students will enjoy eating the same foods as their favorite book characters, and introducing foods through these characters will lend familiarity to foods children may be reluctant to try. Check out these neat examples below!

Jamberry by Bruce Degen

In this 'berry' wonderful tale, a little boy and his bear friend discover all kinds of delicious berries when they go exploring. The melodious rhyming sounds in this book roll off the tongue like berries into a bucket, easily engaging young listeners. Read with an assortment of berries, have some toast and jam, or try these berry recipes below!

Berry Popsicles
Creamy Frozen Fruit Pops
Triple Berry Popsicles
Berries & Cream Popsicles
Fruit & Veggie Popsicles

Berry Smoothies
Three Fruit Yogurt Shake
Berry Blast Smoothie
Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Berry Muffins/Cookies
Baked Blueberry Oatmeal Cups
Banana Berry Buttons 
Lemon Blueberry Muffins 
Healthy Raspberry Muffins

 Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert

In this classic, a father and child grow vegetables and make their own soup together! Ehlert simplifies the gardening process for young minds with easy-to-understand, straightforward diction and brightly colored, labeled illustrations of vegetables and the tools used to grow them. For the soup-making process, she explains the utensils and other kitchenware used.

When you read this story aloud to your classroom, bring in examples of different vegetables for your students to examine texture and smell.

Make an assorted platter of vegetables for your students to try as you talk about these vegetables in the book.

Read this book on a day you will be serving vegetable soup to facilitate a discussion on how those vegetables are grown.

You may also want your kids to grow their own mini vegetable garden!

If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Joffe Numeroff 

If you give a moose a muffin, he might want a whole bunch of things to go with it! Filled with humorous illustrations and lovable characters, this classic children's book is sure to leave your kids craving more...muffins!

Try these healthy whole wheat muffin recipes at the links below:
Sweet Spinach Muffins
Healthy Cinnamon Peach Muffins
Healthy Apple Muffins
Healthy Lemon Blueberry Muffins

For more healthy and kid-friendly muffin recipes, check out these listings:
Super Healthy Kids--Muffins
Babble--23 Wholesome Muffin Recipes
KidSpot--19 Healthy Muffin Recipes

Encourage Healthy Eating: With a Craft!

 Encourage Healthy Eating: With a Craft!

Forget the paints! It's time for some edible arts and crafts! Getting kids to eat their fruits and vegetables can be tricky, especially when introducing unfamiliar foods for the first time. Tackle this challenge by incorporating healthy foods into multiple activities in your classroom. The more kids form positive associations with foods, the more likely they will be to try them at lunch time and snack time. Check out these neat food crafts below to help you get started!

Peanut Butter Celery Butterflies

 

These butterflies really are made out of butter! 

What You Need:
Pretzels
Celery
Peanut Butter (or other substitute)
Googly Candy Eyes

1.Slice your celery sticks into desired lengths.
2.Fill each celery stick with peanut butter.
3.Use two small pretzels for the wings on your butterfly or break one large pretzel in half and stick one half on each side of the celery stick.
4.Stick your candy eyes on with peanut butter.

Owl Toast

You'll be wise like this owl if you eat your fruits and whole grains.

What You Need:
Whole Grain Sliced Bread
Strawberries (sliced)
Blueberries
Bananas (sliced)
Cheerios
Peanut Butter (or other substitute)

1.Pre-slice the bananas and strawberries and put them into two separate bowls.
2.Give each child a slice of bread (toasted if you prefer).
3.Have each child spread the peanut butter over the toast.
4.For the owl eyes, stick two slices of banana at the top of the toast with one blueberry on each banana slice.
5.Use the sliced strawberries for wings by placing one strawberry slice on each side of the toast, toward the bottom.
6.For the nose, place a small strawberry slice underneath and between the eyes, in the center of the toast.
7. The cheerios can be used to decorate the remaining space on the toast.

Grape Caterpillars

You can prepare these cute critters ahead of time or let the kids make them.

What You Need:
Skewers (for young children, try coffee stirrers, mini straws, or popsicle sticks; we wouldn't want anyone poking their eyes!) 
Grapes
Strawberries (cherry tomatoes will work too!)
Googly Candy Eyes
Peanut Butter (or other substitute)
Black Icing Gel or Edible Black Food Marker (optional)
Parsley/Cilantro Stalks (optional)

1.Stick your strawberry onto one end of the skewer. Then string the grapes onto the skewer behind the strawberry.
2.Stick your candy eyes onto the strawberry using peanut butter or other substitute.
3.Use your icing gel or food marker to draw a smile if desired.
4.Your parsley/cilantro stalks will make perfect antennae! 

Ladybug BLT

What an easy way to spruce up a BLT or tomato sandwich!

What You Need:
Whole Grain Bread
Bacon (optional)
Lettuce
Tomato
Black Olives
Googly Candy Eyes
Parsley/Cilantro Stalks

1.Simply cut your tomato slice in half to make the wings.
2.Slice up one black olive to make the dots on the wings, and use a whole black olive for the ladybug's head.
3.Stick your candy eyes onto the olive using peanut butter or other substitute.
4.Your parsley/cilantro stalks will make perfect antennae!

**Tip: For any of these crafts, feel free to substitute other fruits/ingredients based on your children's needs and preferences. Substitute ingredients as needed to accommodate food allergies. Some good substitutes for peanut butter include sunflower seed butter, tahini butter, soynut butter, and almond butter.**

Remember that PureFUN! Supply is here to help with all your childcare supply needs! 
Any snack above would pair great with PureFUN! 100% Juice!  

Share with us ideas that you use to encourage healthy eating in your school!!

Summer Time Smoothies with PureFUN! Juice

Making Smoothies with PureFUN! Juice is so easy! Just substitute our reconstituted 100% Juice where you would normally add water or milk to your smoothie mix for a FUN! twist.

First, mix your PureFUN! juice; 1 cup concentrate to 6.5 cups water.

Once mixed, you will add the fruits or veggies of your choice, yogurt and ice.  Blend ingredients until completely combined.

To create two large cups of smoothie, you would use the following measurements: 1 cup juice, 2 to 3 cups fruit, 1/2 cup yogurt and 1/2 to 1 cup ice.

Feel free to work with your serving sizes to see how much of each ingredient you would use.

For smoothie flavor ideas, check out our pinterest page by clicking HERE! You can also view the chart below for a helpful graphic.

Fun Foods – Cafeteria Caterpillars

These little critters are the perfect healthy snack to make in your classroom or even to add to your student’s lunchbox. It only takes a few minutes to create each caterpillar and students can easily get in on the fun.

 

You will need: wooden skewers, grapes, vanilla frosting and mini chocolate chips.

Start by sliding the grapes onto the skewer one by one. When you have the skewer filled you can add a small dot of vanilla frosting on the end grape. This will act as “glue” for the eyes. Lastly, stick a mini chocolate chip on top of the glue.

Try adding the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar along with this idea. All you need is a purple grape or baby tomato for the head. That’s a lesson, a craft, and a snack all in one! 

Fun Foods – Butterfly Bags

This adorable butterfly is the perfect way to get your little ones excited about healthy eating this school year! This idea doubles as a craft time activity and is a breeze to create. All you need are clothes pins, wiggle eyes, chenille stems and glue. You can purchase colored clothes pins or have your students decorate them with markers or paint. You will want to make sure each student has 1 clothespin, 2 wiggle eyes and 2 chenille stems.

Start by spinning your chenille stems to give the antennas a colorful, new look. You can then take your glue and place the center of the stems in the grove on the pinching side of the clothes pin. Make sure you press the chenille stem in before closing the pin so that the two sides don’t stick together.

Next, take your wiggle eyes and glue them into place. We especially love the look of the larger ones like the eyes pictured above!

After letting the glue dry, fill up a snack size Ziploc bag with your students favorite healthy snack. You will want to leave enough room for the clothes pin to fit onto the bag without smushing the food. Place your clothespin in the center of your bag and you have a fun little butterfly that’s perfect for lunch time!

Fun Foods – Apple Cars

Looking for a way to encourage your little one to make healthier eating choices? This fun food idea is perfect for you! By adding a little fun to your healthy snack each day, your student will be excited for snack time and trying out the new foods they get to create things with.

This one is simple to create. All you need is an apple, grapes and toothpicks. Start by cutting your apple into slices and the grapes into halves. You will need two grapes per car to give you four tires for each one. Take two tooth picks and push them through the inner side of the apple on the top and bottom to act as the axels for your wheels. Lastly, add the grape wheels onto the toothpicks with the cut side facing outward. Now you have an adorable snack that is good for playing and eating.

Check back here for more back to school ideas and fun foods that are healthy for your little ones!

Summer Splash - Make Your Own Ice Cream!

With all this summer fun, we could all use a cool, refreshing treat to finish off the day. What better treat for a hot day is there than ice cream? This isn’t just any ice cream treat that we want to share with you though. We want to teach you how you can make your own ice cream with just a few ingredients.

Here’s what you will need (Measurements make up 1 Bag):

300 ml Cream or Milk, 2 tbsp Sugar, 1 tbsp Vanilla , 2 Trays Ice Cubes, 6 tbsp Rock Salt, 1 Medium Ziploc Bag and 1 Large Ziploc Bag

Step 1. Start by putting the cream/ milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag. Mix them up and then seal the bag shut.

Step 2. Place the ice into the large Ziploc bag. Then you will want to pour the rock salt in on top of the ice.

Step 3. Place the small bag inside of the big bag and seal it shut.

Step 4. Shake until the mix becomes an ice cream consistency. This should take about 5 to 10 minutes. You may want to have a small towel or oven mitt handy to cover the bag with. It is a little bit chilly for little ones to hold.

Step 5. Now you can take the small bag out and clean off the rock salt from the outside. Once clean, grab yourself a spoon and enjoy!

 

Try cutting a corner out of the bag and squeezing the ice cream into cones! You may want to have some fun toppings available as well!

POPular Summer Snacks for Sunny Days

These cool and refreshing snack Pops are perfect for summer time with your kiddos! In just a few simple steps you can create healthy snacks to help kids cool down on a hot summer’s day. Not only will you love the easy set up with just a few ingredients, but your children will also love the great tastes of these pops!

Banana Pops – Banana Pops are the perfect replacement for your normal unhealthy ice cream bars. Just unpeel your bananas and cut them in half. Take your popsicle sticks and stick them in the cut end of the banana. Then, you will want to place them in the refrigerator for an hour.

After that you can pull them out and add on your chocolate. You can use dark chocolate to keep it healthy! Try adding on different nuts, coconut or even a few sprinkles to add on some extra flavor and color. Your children are guaranteed to go bananas for these pops!

PureFUN! Juice Pops – Take your juice to the next level by creating PureFUN! Juice Pops! You will need to start by setting up your cups. You can use whatever size you think would make the right serving for your children. Now you can take the PureFUN! Juice flavor of your choice and pour it into each cup. Once each cup has been filled, cover the tops of the cups with aluminum foil and punch a popsicle stick through the top of each one. Place the pops in the freezer and wait for them to freeze. Now you have the perfect summer treat that can be changed to a variety of different flavors!

Try adding fresh fruit to your cups before adding the juice to give your popsicles a little something extra!

Watermelon Pops – This is probably the most simple option of our favorites. You will need to go ahead and cut up a watermelon into slices. Then take a few cookie cutters in fun shapes and cut out of the watermelon slices with them. After you have all of your shapes cut out, stick a lollipop stick into the bottom. Now you have a quick and simple treat for students to enjoy! They will love seeing all the different shapes used. This is perfect for getting little ones to choose a healthier option too!