Smoothie Time!

A teacher and I went rogue during Extended School Year---we actually prepared a nutritious healthy snack with the children.  The past two years, preparing and serving food in class have been forbidden in our school district. 

I've complied with this ridiculous policy even though:

• my children can be motivated more to communicate for food than anything else
• menu preparation is great for fine motor collaboration with the OT
• there's the whole 'step by step' process in preparing a snack that is hard to replicate with other activities
• food preparation can promote healthier eating
• there's tons of vocabulary with food
• etc.....

After watching the crappy lunches roll in, however, with kids refusing to eat anything at school, I just had to prepare one thing with them this summer, and it was Fruit Smoothies! Screen shots of the recipe booklet are here.  Link to download entire booklet is below.

 Ingredients were simple---banana, blueberries, plain yogurt, a little sugar, ice cubes.......

We checked with the parents first about allergies.

For non-verbal, or low verbal children, make sure you have their regular communication systems available.  Have pictures available for the bananas and blueberries.  My kids wanted to taste them right away, since they didn't understand the whole concept of delayed gratification. They loved the blender, peeling the banana, putting in blueberries one-by-one, and pouring the smoothie. 

For the record, my kids didn't want to actually taste the smoothie, so no nutrition policy laws were broken. If we were actually permitted to do this on a regular basis, the cycle of food rigidity would be altered for the better.  They had fun doing the prep work, and used a lot of language to make requests and comment.

Click here for the recipe booklet.