Valentine's food allergy friendly classroom ideas

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and in our food allergy world this day can equate to Nightmare on My Street. So, we roll up our selves, pause and make a plan for food allergy friendly classroom celebrations. Below is a quick list of non-food and food allergy friendly ideas that we’ve used before and a few that we’re going to use this year.  Maybe you’ll see an idea or new one will be sparked?  I love Valentine’s Day candy to no end, but like everything else in life, there is a time and place for it.  To be honest, some of my favorite Valentine’s day celebrations were at my kid’s Montessori school, where candy was not option (not because of food allergies, but for good health reasons).  My favorite was a little decorated box. Each child was sent home with a little box and some “trinkets” to decorate the box.  They were collected and placed in a bag from which each child reached in and pulled out their special Valentine gift!  The kids loved the boxes and no one ever even noticed no sugary treats were missing.

Here is a list of some items we’ve enjoyed over the years during all sorts of classroom celebrations that are non-food items:

Things you can buy…
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• Sharks teeth
• Polished rocks
• Sea Shells with a message written inside (I found this year’s supply for a mere $1 at Dollar Tree).
• Fancy drinking straws
• The standard classics: pencils, cute erasers, rulers, stickers
• Used or new children’s books (in Reno, Dollar Treesells used kids books for .99)
• Desk supplies–my local Grassroots books has incredible clearance items. I purchased notepads for .25 recently.
• Key chains
• Dollar store items: I found pencils, erasers, cups,glow sticks at my local Office Depot.

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Things you can make….
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• The Dollar Tree store in Virginia is an impressive food allergy community group and more!  They posted some absolutely darling Loudoun Allergy Network that would make any child not want one single conversation heart!  My favorite is the Mad Love activity using Mab Lib sheets.  I highly suggest checking out their link for craft ideas or if you live in their neighborhood-they are an active group.
• Homemade paper heart made from old paper bags with a TRUE compliment written to that child. My daughter is doing this for her friends and she is writing one thing that she really likes in that person. The rule is that it has to be about the person and not a thing. Such as, I like the way you smile in the morning instead of I like your purple jacket.
• Fabric heart pins made from left-over fabric. Simple glue pin backs to the hearts.
• Votive decorated with Valentine’s Day ribbon for teachers and administrators.
• Container or glass filled with fortunes, such as, “today you will smile big,” or other funny fortunes the kid’s create.

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Food allergy friendly food related items:

Things you can buy…
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• Raisin boxes
• Cuties
• Bananas with a side of soy orValentine’s Day craft ideas
• Apple slices with a side of Sunbutter® and chocolate chips
• Oreos
• Crackers
• Applesauce
• A glass filled with heart shaped marshmallows
• Lemonade boxes
• Sunbutter® offers an extensive list of food allergy friendly snacks that can purchased in most grocery stores and is worth checking out.

[/unordered_list] To make these feel very Valentine’s Day special, I like to dish them up in Valentine’s Day cupcake cups and/or with colored cocktail napkins.
Things you can make…

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• We try to stick to homemade baked goods from our kitchen or something packaged from a manufacturer that we know is safe.  My favorite recipes are here on my blogsite…  [button link=”http://www.gratefulfoodie.com/baking/” size=”small”]Culinary Adventures [/button]
• Popcorn and mini marshmallows mixed together and served in a Valentine’s Day cupcake cup.
• Any sort of interesting beverage such as home made lemonade or special non-sugary drinks.

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Luckily, my 13 year old son wants Valentine’s Day to disappear and will be horrified if he received anything from a girl.  But…my 8 year has been plotting and planning for two weeks. Her teacher asked me if I could supply a healthly snack safe for all the dietary needs in class.  With all of the various life threatening food allergies, wheat and gluten intolerance and religious restrictions to address in her classroom, I stole this darling idea from my friend Wendy. Her son came home from school with it the other day with this: a robot made from a juice box, raisins and applesauce. The original robot has pretzel arms, but we are avoiding wheat in our classroom so we used construction paper and he has a spoon taped to his back!
To show my love to our teachers, I plan on making Eggplant Chili for the staff on Valentine’s Day.  It will be Vegan, nut and seed free and will meet all the dietary needs of the staff, but even better: it tastes amazing. The recipe came from my friend Luann’s family and it is the best!
Do you have any other ideas for classrooms that would be safe, fun and interesting?
For more ideas, click on the buttons below!
[button link=”http://www.gratefulfoodie.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=8305&action=edit&message=1″]More inspired Valentine’s Day ideas[/button] [button link=”http://www.gratefulfoodie.com/valentines-day-love-with-food-allergies-nut-free/”]Nut Free Valentine’s Day Chocolate gifts[/button]

Hope you are enjoying a lovely winter day-Caroline

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