Pre-School Minor's Smoothie Making

In order to help them cool down on a hot day the practitioners in Pre-School Minors at Daisykins Nursery in Rugby decided it would be a nice treat for the children to make smoothies at snack time. The children were split into groups of eight and taken one group at a time to make their own smoothies in the dining room.

Practitioners encouraged the children to peel their own bananas and use a knife to cut them in to chunks before adding them to a big bowl. Next they each picked out a handful of raspberries and popped them in too. The children then helped to scoop the raspberry ripple ice cream out of the tub into the bowl, before finally adding three cups of milk. The practitioners also made a dairy free version in a separate bowl with one of the children who has a dairy allergy, using dairy free ice cream and an alternative milk.

 

Next it was time to blend it all up and aided by the practitioners the children took it in turns to use the hand held blender. They asked the children what was happening and one child said "The fruit is being squished" and another said "It's mixing it all up". After the smoothie had all been blended and each child had a turn, the children exclaimed "It's turned pink!"

Finally it was time to taste what they had made. The smoothie was transferred into a jug and the children were encouraged to pour some into a cup and have a try. The Pre-School Minors all thought it was very yummy and were very pleased with what they had helped to make.

At Daisykins Nursery practitioners like to encourage the children to be independent within a risk assessed environment. This activity encouraged the children to take it in turns and taught them that by working together they could make something delicious to drink. Practitioners also incorporated different areas of the EYFS, encouraging the children to count as they put the ingredients into the bowl, use their hand eye co-ordination as they cut the banana into pieces and to use describing words to say what they could see happening.