Montessori Snack preparation

One of the busiest area in the playgroup I run is the snack area. The children love to practice different skills that lead to eating their snack!

First, they must wash their hands:

We used:

• a washing bowl
• soap and soap holder
• a jug to pour water in,
• child size nail brush

At home, obvi,ously you may prefer to use the sink so make sure it’s easy to access for your child.

If you still carry your child to the sink, it’s time to think about a step or an arrangement at their level!

Then they have to select a fruit, a plate and they use a child knife or crinkle cutter

My favourite one is the crinkle cutter

It’s very safe, very sturdy and ideal for little hands.

The youngest ones using it in the playgroup are 14 months.

In fact, as soon as your child is able to hold it, while sitting in his chair or high chair, you can encourage him to use a tool to cut his own fruit.

Fruits and vegetables that work well for this are bananas (with or without the skin, the extra step is to peel the banana before or after!), cucumber, pepper already cut in half, soft pears (cored) and celery.

The children are also encouraged to pour their own drink with a child size jug. And it’s something new for most parents I meet!

Make sure you provide a child-size jug:

Here the one I have

In the playgroup, I currently use plastic cups as I’m lacking enough glass cups but new ones are on my shopping list!

After their snack, each child is invited to wash his own plate and cup and it’s another favourite activity! 

Setting up such an activity at home is easily doable.

Using the pegs on the dryer is also fun and a challenging activity! And guess what, many of us don’t use pegs at home thanks to the thumble dryer. However, opening a peg require many skills: pincer grip, strength, focus and concentration so if you can provide a pegging activity at home, try it!