Explicit Practice:

There are many small transitions that children begin to make as they enter their school age years. One such transition being around meals and snack time! Often, children do not have much experience managing their meal time routine independently as they eat alongside their parents. This can lead to difficulty when it comes to school meal times as children might find it difficult to open/close containers or snack packs with out parental help.

In order to meet this milestone and ensure that your child is as independent as possible at Kindergarten snack and lunch times, we recommend practicing some independence prior to the start of school. For many life skills, the best way for a child to learn is to have explicit experience and practice with that skill.

What does explicit experience look like in this case?

1. Lunch-time Rehearsal: Start practicing a “school-style” lunch time routine in your weekly schedule by packing your child’s lunch in their lunch pack with the types of foods you intend on sending with them to school. Juice boxes, milk cartons and sealed snack bags can be quite challenging to open - the more practice your child has with these types of packages prior to starting school, the more likely they’ll be independent with these skills in the Kindergarten classroom!

2. Positive Reinforcement: Encourage your child to be as independent as possible during lunch time “rehearsals”. The goal here is not to aim for perfection, but rather to positively reinforce your child’s effort and boost their independence.

Container/Lid Match-Up Game

This game is a super simple way that you can start getting your child familiar with opening and closing containers. Encouraging your child to be independent with opening their containers at home will help set them up for success and greater independence at school! Remember, we do not expect your child to perfect - these activities are just a great way to get them started on the path to independence and self-confidence.

Materials Needed:

• A variety of containers (different sizes, shapes, colours, materials)

Steps to Follow:

1. Collect a variety of containers and present them to your child.

2. Jumble up the containers and their lids so that everything is mismatched.

3. Encourage your child to match up each container with its corresponding lid until all/most containers have been matched!

Other Suggestions and Games

Below are a few other games and activities that can help support your child in obtaining greater confidence in this milestone. Many of these tasks are great for working on fine motor skills and may mimic some of the actions related to opening snack packs and containers:

1. Try stretching balloons, tearing paper and peeling tape!

2. Play with magnets and velcro to work on grip strength.

3. Try dabbing paint onto a canvas or paper using a pincer grasp (thumb and forefinger).

4. Try out a lunch time picnic at the park or in your yard, and pack your child’s lunch just as you would for school.