Enabling Environments: Snack time - Help yourself

We want to introduce continuous snack provision to our nursery class. What are the essentials for ensuring it works well for the children and for reassuring staff and parents who are concerned about the change?

There is no denying that there are benefits to the traditional snack time, where everything stops - if not for tea, then for juice and a biscuit or a piece of apple. Children come to expect the routine and staff can be sure that everyone has at least been given something to eat and drink. It's often described as a time for socialising, which is great if your group is very small. But snack time can involve a lot of hanging around, waiting to be served and the socialising is largely adult-led.

Ensuring that everyone gets to eat and drink something in a traditional snack time means eating what you are given, when you are given it. But as Julie Fisher points out, young children don't all need the same 'fuel' at the same time. They need, instead, the predictability that comes with knowing that they can help themselves 'when their own learning momentum is ebbing - and be refuelled for another burst' (Fisher 2010).

The non-statutory EYFS guidance Development Matters highlights the importance of ensuring children have 'uninterrupted time to play' (page 6) and yet nursery children can find their day (or half day) is punctuated by timetabled sessions for small group time and other adult-led activities including snack.

BODY MESSAGES

A rolling or continuous snack provision addresses all of the above issues. Self-selection encourages children to listen to their own body messages. 'I'm feeling hungry or thirsty' and just as importantly, 'I'm NOT hungry or thirsty, so I don't need to eat right now.' Some later problems with food and eating disorders may be linked to not being able to recognise the signs of hunger and being full - and eating from routine or boredom.

Children who have not had a good breakfast or lunch before arriving for their nursery session will be hungry and may find it hard to concentrate until their hunger has been satisfied. Children who aren't hungry won't feel pressured into eating their biscuit or piece of fruit at a particular time, just in case there is nothing later when they really are hungry.

Play (and learning) needn't stop for snack time as imaginative play can continue into the snack area as children keep the momentum of their role play going while helping themselves to snack. Superheroes can be encouraged to fill up on 'power' food and 'mums and dads' can bring their baby dolls to the 'cafe'.

Snack areas can be themed to fit with current interests or a canopy can add to the ambience. Children explore capacity and volume, discover new tastes, develop better self-help skills and learn about portion size more effectively if they have the opportunity to experiment.

ADULT INTERACTION

But continuous snack provision doesn't mean putting out the food and drink on a table and leaving the children to it. Adult interaction and supervision is very important. Our role is to observe, to monitor, to support, to encourage and to enable children to make the most of the snack area and to use it safely.

It provides a wonderful opportunity to socialise with children, to actively listen, to sit with them and model appropriate eating and housekeeping behaviours in informal ways. Given the opportunity, most children will monitor their own eating habits but some will need help in the initial stages not to eat more than they need.

So, those are the pedagogical principles behind continuous snack provision, but it's often the basic logistics of how to manage it that deter settings from trying it.

ORGANISATION

Think carefully about the best position for your snack area. You may want to have some available both inside and out. Involve the children in your planning. Having ownership from the start will motivate them to use it carefully and sensibly.

Ideally, you want a place that has some partitioning, to protect it from other activities, but it should be open to view if possible and have room to accommodate adults. Chairs or benches will encourage children to sit and take their time.

Children become very good at regulating space for themselves when they are given the opportunity and when they know there is no shortage (or time limit) to the resource. You might want to allow them to take small amounts of snack into their own dens or cosy spaces, but still keep a main area that is open to all.

Near a sink and away from carpeting works best but some of the best snack areas can be found in the weirdest of places. Perhaps you have some fixed equipment outdoors that has lost its charm because it doesn't lend itself to open-ended activities - a hut, boat, or train structure, for example. Revitalise it by creating a Food Hut or Snack Train.

Have child-sized brooms and dustpans and brushes handy, as well as bins, in indoor snack areas so that housekeeping is easy and fun to do. Use jolly plastic tablecloths and encourage children to mop up spills and wipe tables clean for themselves.

As well as a table, incorporate shelves or a cupboard as part of the area to store cups, bowls and plates as well as display the food. Straight-sided plastic mugs with handles are easier for small hands to pour into than tumblers.

Make the area attractive as well as serviceable. Use food covers - the netting kind or see-through plastic - so that food is visibly on show, but hygienically protected. Don't put out too much at once. Think about how leftovers can be used as cold snacks and what remaining foods the birds (or guinea pigs) can have from the snack area at the end of the day, so that the children see the importance of not being wasteful.

Acknowledge the concerns that some staff and parents will have about the change and involve them in the planning stages if possible. Be clear about your reasons for changing the way you do things, but give them time to get used to the idea and then encourage them to join in!

Thanks to Caroline Luck, early years adviser, Hertfordshire County Council, for some of the suggestions

REFERENCES

• Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage, www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/ Development-Matters.pdf

• Julie Fisher Moving On to Key Stage 1: Improving Transition from the Early Years Foundation Stage. Open University Press

COMMUNITY PLAYTHINGS: TAKE A SEAT

All the essentials for creating a calm and comfy snack area are available from Community Playthings. Partition off your space with bamboo (from £60) or clear wave panels (from £120). Combine features such as a Gate (£265). Stock with solid wood tables (from £130) and chairs designed to help children's posture (from £70). And as the centre piece add the Canopy Unit (£515), with hide-away wheels. For more information, visit: www.communityplaythings.co.uk

This feature is sponsored by Community Playthings