22 Easy Kindergarten Lunch Ideas + Build-a-Lunch Printable

Need some easy lunch ideas for your kindergartener? Look no further because these ideas are simple for kids and moms! Send your kid off to kindergarten right with these easy lunch ideas. The build-a-lunch printable makes it easy for your kindergartener to pack his own lunch too!

Easy school lunch ideas should be the norm

Pinterest is full of fancy schmancy school lunch ideas that most of us will never get around to trying.

Seriously, who has the time to make fruits and vegetables look like butterflies?

If you do, then leave this blog immediately and go find another blog.

I’m in the “easy school lunches” camp!

What to Pack for Kindergarten Lunch

*For the record, these lunch ideas work well for kids of all ages, not just kindergarteners!

The main thing you should remember with kindergarteners is that school lunches should be familiar to them.

Here are a few tips for packing school lunches:

• This is not the time to introduce new foods, even if you want to introduce healthy lunch ideas.
• Pack foods you know they already love.
• Ask them what their friends bring for lunch and pack similar healthy foods. Peer pressure is always a good way to get kids to eat healthy lunches.
• Spend some time teaching your kindergartener how to open the snacks you are sending for lunch. For example, do a few mock lunches at home and teach them how to open granola bars and yogurt tubes.

22 + Easy Kindergarten Lunch Ideas

Here are the best lunch ideas for kindergarten:

Pick One Main Dish

• simple sandwiches like pb+j, jelly and cream cheese, sunflower butter, ham + cheese
• a fun spin on sandwiches- kabobs, pinwheels
• DIY lunchables- crackers, cheese, and meat
• crackers with nut free butter such as sunflower seed butter
• quesadillas
• homemade uncrustables (get the tutorial here)

Pick One Fruit

• apple
• banana
• clementine
• grapes
• berries
• applesauce
• 3 dates

Pick One Vegetable

• carrots + hummus or ranch
• peppers
• cucumber slices
• celery with peanut butter, cream cheese, or ranch

Pick Two Snacks

• cheese
• yogurt (such as YoplaitGoGurt)
• granola bar
• trail mix
• crackers
• pretzels

Have your child help pack school lunches with this build-a-lunch FREE printable

Empower your kindergartener to help pack lunches! This will make your life so much easier because everything in the lunchbox will be consumed, making after school cleanup a breeze.

Plus, in our house we avoid food waste. When kids are eager to pick their own meals, they create less food waste.

Do this by setting lunch and snack items at an low level and giving them a check list for packing lunches.

I made this printable blank on purpose because I was tired of all the printables that had too many options. This way you can add easy lunch ideas that you actually have in your home! It won’t confuse your kids since you choose what to write on the printable.

Laminate it and write in the options you have that week. Then let your kids check off each item as they add them to their lunchbox.

Don’t have a laminator? Check out this inexpensive laminator that I use.

Get the free build-a-lunch printable here: Build-a-Lunch Printable

You can either print a new one each week and write directly on the paper, or laminate it and write with a dry erase marker in order to use it over and over again.

Do you have a great back to school lunch idea? If so, let me know! 

Make sure to use #EatDrinkAndSaveMoney on social media if you use the build-a-lunch printable.

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