Make a Stop Light Snack!

What You Need:

• Graham crackers
• Peanut butter (or any spreadable food, like cream cheese or almond butter)
• Colored candies (red, yellow, and green)
• Butter knife

What You Do:

1. Let your preschooler spread peanut butter on top of a graham cracker. Try not to worry about the mess your little one might make; the spreading action is great fine motor practice and a whole lot of fun!
2. Help your preschooler find one red, one yellow, and one green candy. The candies will be the lights on his stoplight. Consider printing a picture of a real stoplight or find one in a book. Have your child look at the picture to see how the colors appear—red on top, yellow in the middle, and green on the bottom. Talk about the meaning of each color. What should you do when the light is red? What about green or yellow?
3. Have your child arrange his colored candies on top of the peanut butter in the correct order. He now has a delicious stoplight to munch. Yum!

Now that your child’s tummy is full, get outside and get moving! Play a game or “Red Light, Green Light” using pieces of colored paper. Your child will have fun recognizing colors and moving or stopping his body accordingly. Make up silly movements for your child when the “light” is green, like bear crawls, baby steps, snake slithers, bunny hops, or horse gallops. Take turns being the stop light. Your child will have a great time directing traffic for mom or dad, not to mention watching you crawl like a bear!