One of the first classroom snack ideas is Friendship Salad! Every Friday in our classroom, we have Foodie Fun Friday, where we cook or make some kind of snack. It’s a great way to end our week and a way to meet standards, build language and vocabulary, and, more importantly, HAVE FUN! Plus, we get to eat. And who doesn’t love to eat?
Classroom Snack Ideas: Friendship Salad
This is a great lesson on the type of classroom we want and how we can be good friends in our classroom! It’s a very concrete lesson for a very abstract idea for our kids. And it’s yummy. Another benefit of this SEL lesson is that it sticks with the kids all year long.
We start the lesson with a read-aloud of The Boy With The Rainbow Heart by Will Mason. This is the perfect book for this lesson because it’s about love, tolerance, and acceptance!
As with any food activities, be aware of allergies and dietary restrictions. We have TWO documents for each student that list allergies and dietary restrictions for each student. We modify recipes as needed with input and suggestions from families.
How To Make Friendship Salad
You need:
- large bowl
- large spoon
- several cans of fruit (individual fruit, not mixed fruit)
- vanilla yogurt
- mini marshmallows
- 1 rotten banana
Begin by discussing the type of classroom you want. Have students share their ideas. Guide the discussion to kindness, hard work, and happiness.
Show the students a large bowl and tell them that this is your classroom, and we will talk about the type of classroom we want.
Kind Kids
Open 1 can of fruit. Explain that this is the kind of kids we want in our classroom. Have students discuss what kindness looks like in your classroom. Pour the fruit into the bowl.
Hard Workers
Add another can of fruit and discuss that there are the hard workers.Discuss what hard work means and looks like.
Sharing Kids
Add more fruit. Explain that these are kids who share. Talk about sharing and why we share.
Kind Words
Next, add marshmallows. Explain that these are the kind words we will use in our classroom. Discuss what kind words are and how many kinds words are in our classroom.
Happiness
Add the yogurt and explain that this is the happiness in our classroom. Discuss happiness and what we can do to make our classroom happy.
Discuss what our classroom looks like. You’ll hear good…yummy… Talk about whether this is a classroom you want to be in. Get kids excited about that classroom and being part of that room.
Classroom Snack Ideas: No Rotten Bananas!
Finally, tell your students you have one more thing to add to your classroom. Pull out a rotten banana and start peeling it. Hopefully, the kids will be grossed out, and they will be very expressive about that rotten banana. Discuss whether they want that in their class and why or why not. (TIP: Put the banana in the freezer to make it rot faster!)
Discuss that we don’t want any rotten bananas in our classroom.
This is the part that you will hear all year. Your kids will reference the rotten banana when people are mean or not doing the right thing. It will resonate all year! And sometimes, I’ll even ask if we want rotten bananas. This is effective when the class has an issue in related arts or the lunch room. It’s a great reminder of who we want to be and who we are!
For more ideas and resources, check out these blog posts:
