Lunchtime is ithe invaluable, yet often wasted opportunity for promoting children's social development, for edveloping self-reliance and for reinforcing learning about health and nutrition.
All to often, practitioners find themselves in conflict with catering services, who prefer children to eat from 'airline' plates (also used in prisons!) as they make washing-up easier.
Good practise may be easier to achieve in smaller settings, yet all setting strive to maximise the social learning potential of lunchtimes.
From a child's point of view, lunchtime can intially be daunting.
Having made the big step from home to an early years setting, staying for lunch is generally the next big hurdle.
Register now to continue reading
Thank you for visiting Nursery World and making use of our archive of more than 35,000 expert features, subject guides, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:
What's included
-
Free access to 4 subscriber-only articles per month
-
Unlimited access to news and opinion
-
Email newsletter providing activity ideas, best practice and breaking news
Already have an account? Sign in here
