FFF: ABC Snack

Hello Parents,

We have a great snack time activity for your kids today. As you know we are always encouraging literacy and today’s snack helps with just that. Over at Creative Kids Snacks they were reading How Rocket Learned to Read, and well, with a book like that the best activity to follow is getting your kids reading or at least identifying letters. Exactly that is what they did, but turned it into a fun educational snack. Read on below for details on how Creative Kids Snacks created the perfect ABC Snack that will make the kids sing the ABCs all the way till night time, as posted on the site.

Ingredients

• Banana
• Peanut Butter
• Plastic bag (i.e. sandwich bag)
• Celery, Apple or Graham crakers

Instructions

Slice a banana into 21 sections, and then find something else, like celery or perhaps apples or graham crackers, to use for your vowels.  Next, find a plastic bag, snip off a tiny piece of the corner, and fill with several tablespoons of peanut butter.

Before piping the letters onto each space, work the peanut butter around in the bag using your fingers until it softens a bit.  It will come out much easier that way.

Before eating, here are a few things you can do with your child:

a.  Ask kids to point to the first letter in his name.
b.  Ask kids to spell her name by pointing to each letter.
c.  Ask kids which letter makes the sound __(fill in the blank)___.
d.  Point out the vowels and explain that there is a vowel in every English word.  (“Y” is also used as a vowel in certain cases)
e.  Use your imagination.

Kids will love this tasty alphabet snack!

Don’t forget to check out other lunch entries on the Creative Kids Snacks blog; not only are they super cute, but they’re also always inspired by an educational activity.

Fun Learning!
CBLC Midtown

FFF: Bite-Size Cherry PopTart Pops

Hello Parents,

Today’s Fun Food Friday is a sweet delight that may take many of us back to our childhood days. We still see Poptarts in our supermarket shelves, but did you know you can make them at home? And on a stick?

Babble’s Family Kitchen posted an excellent and easy recipe we can all follow, complete with fruit filling and glaze. See directions below as posted here for more details. Best part, they’re small, so you can control the amount you want your kids to have. Enjoy!

Bite-Size Cherry PopTart Pops

FOR THE TWO-BITE POPTARTS
1 c. fresh cherries, pitted and diced
3 T. sugar
2 T. cornstarch
2 T. water
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 pkg. prepared pie crusts

FOR THE POPS
wooden popscicle sticks

FOR THE GLAZE
1 c. powdered sugar
1-2 T. milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
food coloring and sprinkles (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cherry Filling: In a small saucepan, combine cherries, sugar, cornstarch and almond extract. Heat on stove over medium heat until mixture has thickened. Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool.

2. Pie Crust: Unroll pie crusts and using a pizza cutter to slice them into 1 1/2″x 2″ rectangles (you can use a ruler to measure into equal sizes.  Just use a butter knife to score the pie crust before cutting).

3: Poptarts: Place a wooden popscicle stick on top of one of the cut rectangles, then spoon a small amount (about 1 1/2 tsp.) of cooled cherry filling into the center of the pie square, taking care not to get it near the edges.   Gently lay a second rectangle over the top of the cherry filling.  Press the edges of the rectangles together with a fork.  Transfer to a baking sheet.  Bake poptart pops in an oven preheated to 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or just until the edges begin to brown.

4. Glaze: In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla to make glaze.  Tint with food coloring, if desired.  Spoon over cooled poptart pops, sprinkle with colored sugar, and allow to the glaze to harden slightly before serving. Enjoy!

    

Thank you to Babble’s Family Kitchen for posting such great and fun family recipes.

Fun Learning!
CBLC Midtown

FFF: Nutella-PBJ Sushi

Hello Parents,

We’ve posted before about fun sushi sandwiches; today we are bringing you another version in the form of sushi Nutella-PBJ sandwiches, as discovered on one of our favorite blogs, Babble Family Kitchen. See below for the Nutella Sushi and PBJ Sushi sandwich recipes as posted on Babble.

Lunchbox Sushi Rolls

What you’ll need:
white bread – crusts removed
nutella

or

white bread – crusts removed
peanut butter
jelly of choice

What to do:
1. Using a rolling pin, flatten bread.

2. Spread approximately 1 tablespoon of desired condiment {Nutella, Peanut Butter, Jelly} onto slice of bread.

3. Tightly roll up. Cut into slices. Continue until you have desired amount of “sushi” rolls.

Enjoy!

Fun Learning!
CBLC Midtown

WW and FFF: =) Activities and Food all in one post

Hello Parents,

Our apologies for not posting the Weekend Wednesday activity on Wednesday, but today we’ll give you a fun activity for the kids, and a great snack to keep them happy and well fed this weekend.

The kids love story time at school, and we are sure they love it at home, so here are some fun bookmarks you can download and have them color [download bookmarks set 1 and set 2]. They’ll love seeing you mark the page with their art! Bookmarks provided by Squidoo, you can get more printable bookmarks here.

After story time you can give the kids a fun and healthy snack, Cucumber Snakes, and they’re so easy to make. The Cucumber Snake snack idea was posted by on Babble’s Family Kitchen, and it’s as fun to eat as it to make.  See the what you’ll need below as originally posted on Babble.

cucumber snake with carrots and ranch dressing

Cucumber “Snakes” 

What you’ll need:
1 cucumber – sliced
olives or capers – for the “eye”
roasted red bell pepper – for the “tongue”
ranch dressing – for dipping sauce

What to do:
1. Cut your cucumber slices in half. Arrange 8 pieces per “snake”. Place an olive/caper for the eye. Place slice of bell pepper for tongue. Continue until desired amount of “snakes” are made.

2. Serve with ranch dressing to dip.

Stay tuned to the blog this weekend, photos of the kids will be posted. Remember you also have access to the photo albums on Snapfish. If you have not received an invitation let us know in the comments section.

Fun Learning!
CBLC Midtown