Snack Shop

During school holidays, my children turn into eating machines and are constantly asking for snacks! The barrage of "Is it snack time" is relentless. So with schools being closed for the foreseeable future due to coronavirus, I knew that I needed to come up with a solution to curb the snack time requests. 

I seen an idea on Facebook of creating a snack shop. I instantly loved it and knew I had to recreate it. Normally at weekends and holidays they are allowed to have a morning healthy snack and then more of a treat for afternoon snack which is what I'm planing on doing while school is closed.

So on an A4 piece of paper I wrote down our most common snack requests and then gave each item a value. I wanted to place more value on healthy snack options such as fruits and vegetables. My children are not great with veggies so that's why I made them free in the hope that it would encourage them to choose them.

The foods and values that you choose are completely up to you. I wanted the choice to be varied and healthy but also to appreciate that all foods are available in moderation. 

I included a tub of pretend coins to help aid maths skills, obviously you can use real coins if desired. I am allowing them to have £1 to spend at the snack shop each day. The snack shop will be then open twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. They are not allowed to ask for snacks in between. It is their choice on how to spend their money. On the first day Jessica chose to spend 60p in the morning leaving her only 40p to spend in the afternoon. Interestingly the next two days she has chosen to divide her money equally between the morning and afternoon. 

I'm also including an extra learning element and they have to write down their choices. They then add up their choices and put a £1 coin into the tub. They then have to work out what change they are due and have left for the afternoon. 

At the moment I am not allowing money to be carried over to the next day but it is something that can be done if needed. The choice of snacks have been interesting though. I thought Jessica would have gone for a fruit winder and cereal bar each day but she hasn't. She has chosen more smaller valued items to increase the amount of snacks.

So far I absolutely love this. It has taken away all the stress of snack time while enhancing their learning. Definite winner!