After school, children are often hungry and need a nutritious snack to bridge the gap between lunch and their evening meal. Snack time enables out-of-school clubs to encourage children to try different foods, practice cooking and learn about healthy eating, as well as enjoying the social experience of sharing a meal with friends.
Here are some food-related activities to tickle your taste buds.
Herbs and spices
Children are fascinated by growing, smelling and tasting herbs. Yogurt pots are ideal for cultivating herbs, such as basil and mint. Encourage the children to smell the herbs and then try to identify them from a single leaf.
Introduce children to spices by making spice cards. Smear glue on postcards and sprinkle a different spice on each, writing the name underneath. Once children are familiar with the names and smells, see if they can identify them while blindfolded.
Healthy eating
Snack time is a good opportunity to point out the health properties of foods. Encourage children to guess the vitamin and mineral content and the food group snacks belong to. When they are munching a delicious meal, learning that it is also good for them by building bones, helping them to grow strong or fight infection, will reinforce the positive message of healthy eating.
Drink up
Making smoothies will be a popular activity. Fruits in season (especially from a 'pick your own' farm or an allotment), blended with banana, milk and yoghurt, make a healthy option over milkshakes. Using soya or goat's milk and yoghurt provides an alternative to dairy and lets children who are lactose-intolerant join in the activity.
Another alternative is fruit cocktails. Simply supply a range of fruit juices and sliced fruit and top off the mix with sparkling water.
Although the cost probably means that these can only be occasional treats, children will take the ideas home, giving them a healthy alternative to fizzy drinks.
Menu planners
If children are allowed to help plan their menus then they are more likely to enjoy them. Having an ideas session at tea time once a month can generate many suggestions.
Initially children will suggest burgers, pizzas and chips. Many of these unoriginal ideas spring from children's restaurant menus and food advertisements. It is important to encourage children by listening and offering healthy adaptations, rather than stating that their choice is not healthy.
* Instead of burgers, suggest you make bean burgers with salad and a wholemeal bun.
* Healthy pizzas can be made by cutting French bread lengthways so that children can add tomato sauce and vegetables, tuna and pineapple.
* Potato wedges (sliced potatoes drizzled with a little olive oil and sprinkled with herbs and baked in the oven, or under the grill) are a good alternative to chips.
Global foods
Hold a 'food week' when children bring in special recipes or samples from family meals or treats. This gives them all a chance to try foods from different cultures.
Or, to achieve a wider range of foods, put a pin in a world map and find and make a recipe from that area.
Fresh fruit
Fruit should be offered at tea times. Although children may not want a whole piece, they will often happily munch on chopped-up segments.
Fruit dipped in melted chocolate is a good way of encouraging children to eat fruit and try new ones.
* Lay out a selection of apple pieces, orange segments, grapes, slices of banana, cherries and strawberries.
* Melt a couple of bars of milk chocolate. Put the melted chocolate in a saucer or small pots.
* Dip the fruit into the chocolate and then lay on a rack to dry.
Melted chocolate goes a long way, so each child will only have consumed a square or two while eating a lot more fruit.
Tidy away
Finally, involve children in setting up and clearing away their tea things.
Ask for volunteers to wipe and lay the tables, and show children how to carefully clear away their own plates. Maybe provide a bowl of soapy water and a tea towel so that they can wash and dry their own cups and plates.
It is important that they participate in the work as well as the pleasure of eating.
