Children work hard in school everyday. Teachers care deeply about academics, but they are also concerned with making sure that students are doing well emotionally, socially and physically. Abraham Maslow organized human needs into a hierarchy and this information is often represented as a pyramid. The lower the needs in the pyramid, the more fundamental they are and the more a person will tend to abandon the higher needs in order to pay attention to sufficiently meeting the lower needs. For example, when we are ill, we care little for what others think about us; all we want to do is get better. The five layers of the pyramid, beginning at our most basic needs are: physiological needs (food, health, sleep), safety needs (putting a roof over our heads and keeping us from harm), belonging needs (love, affection, being part of a group), esteem needs (confidence, being respected by others, achievement), and self-actualization needs (creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, morality). This pyramid model has been modified and refined over the years, but the idea that some needs override others remains true.
Children are in school for a large portion of their day. As this pyramid shows, it can be difficult to concentrate, work and learn if your child is hungry. This year, for grades kindergarten through fifth grade, lunch is at 11:15. Some children get hungry before and/or after lunch, so Bixby has developed a snack policy. Students are allowed to have snacks during 9:45 am and 1:00 pm classes. Teachers may have exceptions to this general rule.
For 4th and 5th grade math classes (9:00, 9:45 and 1:00), students are welcome to bring one healthy snack to class. We have talked about the specific expectations for snacks in math: healthy food, finger food only (no food that requires utensils), nothing too messy (popcorn), no nuts (we do have nut allergies); water is always fine (no other liquids). Students have the first 10 minutes of class to eat their snack. If you have any questions regarding math snacks, please get in touch with me; email is the easiest and most efficient way to do this: kittyc@bixbyschool.org.