Strawberry Valentine’s Day Treats for the Classroom

 

Strawberry Parfait

Ingredients needed:

• Yogurt
• Granola
• Strawberries

Directions: Buy vanilla and a “pink” yogurt, like strawberry or raspberry, and layer the yogurt with granola and fresh cut strawberries or raspberries. Use Greek yogurt for an added protein punch. Layer your ingredients in a clear cup and if you want to get extra fancy, sprinkle some Valentine’s sprinkles on top and add a heart on a toothpick.

 

Yogurt Bites

Ingredients needed:

• Organic Greek vanilla yogurt*
• Organic fresh ripe strawberries
• Quantities of each depend on the amount of strawberries you prepare.
  * If you want to go dairy free, alternatives include your favorite nut butter or even coconut butter.
  
  Directions: Slice strawberries in half. Spoon Greek yogurt onto a shallow dish and dip the strawberries in the yogurt. Place dipped strawberries in a plastic container lined with parchment paper and freeze.

 

Strawberry Shish Kebab

Ingredients needed:

• Strawberries
• Seedless Grapes

Directions: Using a small heart cookie cutter cut the center of the strawberry. Once you have your strawberries cut into hearts, add them to your skewer. Put them on the skewer starting with the strawberry heart first, then a grape, then another heart and continue with this pattern until the skewer is full.

 

Thanksgiving Snack Ideas – Healthy Treats

Turkey dips are a wonderful choice for adding some healthy options to your thanksgiving food selection. The first option is a ranch dip with a colorful variety of delicious bell peppers. The second gives a similar look using apples and a hummus dip. You could also use a caramel dip if you wanted to sweeten things up and put a healthier option on the desert table.

This tangerine turkey is a bright choice that will have your little ones begging for more. Cut a pear in half and create the feathers with an array of orange and apple slices. Use raisins or dark chocolate for the eyes and a peanut for the beak. Cheese makes for the perfect pair of feet. You can use cheese for the beak too for those with peanut allergies.

The final turkey treat includes the sandwich of your choice cut into the shape of a turkey body. Next, add carrots around for the tail feathers, raisins for the eyes, and a cashew for the beak.  Again, cut some cheese to create the legs and feet. You can even give your Turkey some grass to stand on by cutting up some celery.

Try adding a healthy drink to go along with your snacks with PureFUN! 100% Juice!`

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 – 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!

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!

Healthy Holiday Snacks: Christmas

Holiday snacks are always fun for little ones to eat and create! We want to share with you a few ideas we found that will be perfect snacks for the holidays but also healthy choices for your growing students.
You can prepare the items for your students to make each snack or have them ready to go for them depending on time and age of your students.

Christmas Tree

Items needed: Celery, Carrots, Sliced Meat, Pineapple, Plates
Begin by forming your tree. To create the Christmas Tree shape we are going to zigzag our celery. Next take your choice of sliced meat (ham, turkey, bologna) and fold it to represent the trunk. Lastly, you will need sliced carrots to place around the tree for the ornaments and a star cut out of pineapple to make the star for the top of the tree.

Candy Cane

Items Needed: Bananas, Strawberries, Peanut Butter or Nutella
This one is super simple but turns out really cute! Go ahead and cut up your bananas and strawberries. Then take your peanut butter or Nutella and spread it onto the plate into a candy cane shape. Then have the students alternate from banana to strawberry to make the candy cane. This is the perfect snack for practicing patterns!

Santa

Items Needed: Bananas, Large Marshmallows, Mini Marshmallows, Strawberries, Dark Chocolate, Red M&Ms, Peanut Butter or Nutella (optional)
You will need to do a little prep for this one. Grab your knife and cut the large marshmallow in half. Then you will need to cut the banana into slices and cut the bottom off the strawberry to make it resemble a triangle shape. You can use your Peanut Butter, Nutella, or even your dark chocolate here to stick your base together. From bottom to top, it should stack marshmallow, banana, marshmallow then strawberry. Now to add the finishing touches take your dark chocolate and add the eyes and “glue” for the nose and hat topper. Next you can stick on your red M&M for the nose and mini marshmallow on top of the hat.

You of course need a healthy drink to go with your healthy holiday snacks! Be sure to check out our 100% Juice. Choose from 22 delicious flavors that you and your little ones will love. We even have a selection of colored choices to go with the holiday spirit.

Healthy Holiday Snacks: Thanksgiving

We wanted to kick off this Holiday Snack series with some festive healthy choices. First off is a healthy Turkey themed snack that is perfect for celebrating Thanksgiving with your little ones.

Items Needed: Pear, Strawberries, Grapes, Cheese, Dark Chocolate

Begin by cutting your pear in half and placing it flat side down on the plate. This will be the body of your Turkey. Next you can place cut up strawberries, bananas and grapes around the top of the pear to represent the tail feathers. Try having your students create different patterns in their tail.

Lastly cut the beak and feet out of a piece of cheese and add the eyes with a little dark chocolate. Now you have an adorable turkey snack that is perfectly healthy.

For more Holiday Snack ideas, check back in with us.

Fun Ideas for your daycare this Fall!

Find FUN! Fall craft ideas on our Pinterest page! http://www.pinterest.com/purefunsupply/halloween-fall-daycare-craft-decoration-ideas/pins/       Halloween Punch 1 (2 liter) bottle orange-flavored soda, chilled 24 oz.(3 cups reconstituted) PureFUN! Fruit Punch Juice, chilled 1/4 gallon vanilla ice cream In a large Halloween punch bowl, stir together the fruit punch and the soda. Next, scoop out the ice cream and place all over the top of the punch. Stir gently for a moment to get the right look. Garnish this Halloween party punch with creepy crawlies.

Teach Your Kids The Value of Fruit

Purefun has always been focused on giving childcare providers safe, healthy juices for their kids. Fruits and vegetables are essential to a healthy, balanced life and kids should be taught about them at an early age. Teach your students about antioxidants and how they prevent cancer. Also, let them know that apples and other fruits trigger your body to know when it is full instead of overeating. Teach them about bananas and potassium and how this helps to prevent cramps. One of the easiest ways to get children introduced to fruits is to give them fruit stickers on their classroom work.