**Note: This page is for educational inspiration. 'Snack-tember' is a conceptual awareness initiative, often promoted by health organizations and schools, rather than a formally founded day. For official guidance on healthy eating and nutrition, please consult reputable sources like the NHS Eatwell Guide (www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/the-eatwell-guide/) or the British Nutrition Foundation (www.nutrition.org.uk).
Understanding Snack-tember in EYFS & KS1
Crunch, munch! Snack-tember is a fantastic, informal awareness initiative that encourages a focus on healthy snacking throughout the month of September, particularly as children return to school. While not a formally founded "day," it's a great concept embraced by educators and health advocates to promote nutritious choices for children's snacks. It's about making smart food choices that fuel learning and play.
For early years settings, nurseries, preschools, childminders, and Year 1 and Year 2 classrooms, Snack-tember provides a wonderful and highly relevant theme for exploring healthy eating, nutrition, and well-being. It's about teaching children the importance of balanced diets, understanding where food comes from, and making good choices for their bodies. This initiative offers fantastic planning ideas and inspiration for engaging activities that truly resonate with young minds, making learning about food and health both practical and fun.
Why Is Teaching About Healthy Snacking & Nutrition Important for Young Children?
Integrating lessons about healthy snacking and nutrition into your practice with young children (aged 0-7) is incredibly important for fostering lifelong healthy habits, understanding body systems, and promoting overall well-being. During their early years, children are forming fundamental relationships with food that will impact their health into adulthood.
Physical Health: Understanding which foods provide energy and nutrients helps children develop strong bodies and minds.
Preventative Health: Learning about healthy choices, including limiting sugar, contributes to good dental health and prevents future health issues.
Empowerment: Giving children knowledge about healthy foods empowers them to make positive choices for themselves.
Food Literacy: Exploring different fruits, vegetables, and food groups expands their understanding of where food comes from and its variety.
Sensory Development: Engaging with various textures, tastes, and smells of healthy snacks enhances sensory exploration.
Life Skills: Practical activities like sorting healthy vs. unhealthy snacks teach valuable life skills related to food preparation and decision-making.
Engaging Healthy Eating & Snack Activities for Snack-tember (0-7 Year Olds)
Making Snack-tember a truly nourishing experience is easy with these planning ideas and activities perfect for EYFS and KS1 children. The focus is on discovery, taste, and celebrating healthy choices! Many of these early years and year 1 activities can be supported by the extensive range of printable resources we have available.
Here's some inspiration for bringing the fun of healthy eating into your setting: (Please use your own discretion and knowledge of your children to ensure appropriateness of each activity and safety concerning any materials given and activity undertaken.)
Fruit & Vegetable Exploration: Introduce a variety of fruits and vegetables. Use our 'Fruit & Vegetables - Fruit Posters', 'Fruit & Vegetables - Vegetable Posters', and 'Fruit & Vegetables - A4 Posters/Cards' to identify them. Discuss colours, textures, and tastes. Our 'Fruit & Vegetable Description Match Game/Activity' is great for this.
Healthy vs. Unhealthy Sorting: Engage children in a hands-on sorting activity with real or picture cards of snacks using our 'Healthy & Unhealthy Snack Sorting Activity'. Discuss why some are healthier than others.
"Draw a Healthy Meal" Activity: Encourage children to draw their ideal healthy meal using our 'Draw a Healthy Meal' sheets. Discuss different food groups with our 'Healthy Plate - Balanced Diet Posters' and '5 A Day - Poster/Chart'.
Food Diaries: Have children record what they eat for snacks using our 'Fruit & Vegetable Diary' or 'My Healthy Eating Diary Booklet'. This helps build awareness of their food choices.
Farm Shop Role-Play: Set up a 'Farm Shop Role-Play Pack' where children can pretend to buy and sell healthy fruits and vegetables. This reinforces their knowledge of food origins and healthy choices. You could also connect this with our 'On the Farm' and 'Farmer Pack' resources.
Numeracy with Food: Integrate maths by counting fruits and vegetables. Use our 'Fruit & Vegetable Number Slice Puzzles (1-5 & 1-10)' and 'Fruit & Vegetable Number Slice Puzzles - Colour Cut Stick'. Our 'Fruit and Vegetables Number/Counting Multimats - Playdough, Whiteboard & Pen or Loose Parts' are versatile.
Playdough Mats: Enhance fine motor skills and creativity with our 'Carrot Create & Count Playdough Mats' and 'Tomato Create & Count Playdough Mats'. Our 'Fruit & Vegetable Pom Pom Mats' and 'Fruit and Vegetable Loose Part Mats - Playdough, Loose Parts, Art & Craft' also offer fun.
Sugar Awareness: Discuss the effects of too much sugar using our 'Don't Eat Too Much Sugar! Posters'.
Dental Health Link: Connect healthy eating to good dental hygiene. Use our 'Colour the Foods That Are Better for Your Teeth' and 'Cut and Stick Good vs Bad for Teeth'. You can extend this with our 'Dentist Pack' role-play.
Harvest Festival Connection: As September is also a time for harvest, you can link healthy eating to where food comes from using our resources based on 'Harvest Festival' or 'Dingle Dangle Scarecrow - Activity Pack'.
Display: Create a vibrant display using our 'Fruit and Vegetables' Banner' and 'Healthy Eating - Display Banner' to showcase children's learning.
Other Community Helpers: Explore other health-related roles with our 'Doctor Pack', 'Nurse Pack', and 'Optometrist Pack'.
These activities offer great inspiration for making Snack-tember a memorable and impactful experience in your early years and Key Stage One setting, fostering positive attitudes towards healthy eating and well-being.
To explore ideas surrounding additional early years events, please visit our 'Special Dates Calendar' page.
Printable resources to support teaching & learning surrounding: ‘Snack-tember’
Additional Pages you may like to explore which cover relevant &/or Connected themes
More Early Years Event Pages for September
Explore special dates (including awareness dates, festivals, celebrations & events) relevant to your EYFS & KS1 children
Browse our ‘Special Dates Calendar’ page using the link below. You’ll find calendars for every month of the year to aid your planning!
SEARCH ‘LITTLE OWLS Resources’ USING THE FOLLOWING MENU BUTTONS…
Disclaimer:
This page is for educational purposes only and is intended to support early years and primary practitioners with ideas and resources related to 'Snack-tember'. 'Snack-tember' is a conceptual awareness initiative, often promoted by health organizations and schools, rather than a formally founded day. We do not claim any rights to specific trademarks or official materials associated with this initiative. For official guidance on healthy eating and nutrition, please consult reputable sources like the NHS Eatwell Guide at www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/the-eatwell-guide/ or the British Nutrition Foundation at www.nutrition.org.uk.
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