More than just a snack
Sep 17th, 2009 by lapazfarm
Who knew you could learn so much just by preparing a simple snack for your family?
Maria Montessori, that’s who. I guess that’s why it is a tradition in Montessori schools for children to prepare snacks for themselves and others.
This week JackJack very much enjoyed preparing some peanut-butter-and-banana crackers for our mid-morning snack. Here are his materials, all laid out in a kid-friendly fashion:
Stage one ready to go. And on to the preparation:
Lessons learned:
- how to spread with a knife (fine motor skills)
- handling crackers gently so they don’t break –we only had one casualty! (ditto)
- we don’t lick our fingers while preparing snack for others, despite it being so hard to resist! ( personal hygiene, grace and courtesy)
- arranging crackers on plate so they all fit (spatial awareness)
Stage 2, cut the banana into rounds and put one atop each pb cracker:
Lessons learned:
- slicing banana (fine motor skills)
- make slices even– not too thick, not too thin (visual-spatial awareness)
- one round per cracker (one-to-one correspondence)
- we still don’t lick those fingers! (ahem)
Last stage, serve crackers to family and self:
Sorry, no picture here, but he carefully carried the plate around to each of us while practicing saying “Would you like a snack?’” and “You’re welcome.”
Lessons learned:
- Carrying plate of crackers (balance and coordination)
- Serving crackers (Service to others)
- Saying “Would you like some snack?” and “You are welcome” (grace and courtesy)
- Pride in a job well done!
Snack time. Tasty and educational! So many reasons to make it an integral part of your day!
He is just too cute to be believed.
He is just tooo tooo cute!
All of these Montessori preschool posts are bringing back such fond memories of when my children worked through various Montessori “jobs” each day. We worked on pushing our chairs in quietly, pouring our own little cups of water, preparing lunch standing at the little plastic kids table, and folding napkins to hold all of our crumbs inside. They still remember the skills from Montessori preschool and will refer to them with other little ones we associate with.
Thanks for sharing these moments,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
What a wonderful lesson!
Well, surely you got at least one picture of him licking those fingers ….
those are excellent lessons. and i am still fighting hard with myself to learn some of them, like not eating the entire plateful before asking if anyone would like to make some more.
This makes me want to go back and be a Casa teacher again – for a few seconds at least. It has all the deep importance of meaningful work and a life finding its meaning.
EV
Awww, what a great lesson for the little guy. The best snacks are the ones the littles prepare; the proud faces are more delicious to me than the actual food.