Lockdown Day 9 – Invent a Sandwich
I guess we all miss eating out now that we are confined to our homes. As it is, we are all making more food at home, and hopefully, the whole family is involved in the food preparation. Perhaps some of you have discovered hidden talents in your family members!
We have an exciting challenge for you today:
⠀
* INVENT A SANDWICH *
⠀
How many times have you gone out to lunch and have not really been inspired by the menu? Now is your chance to come up with your family’s favourite new sandwich inventions.
Consider where you will be setting up the activity. The kitchen or dining room table would probably be the most suitable.
PLANNING
(Critical thinking skills)
Invite the child to look through the pantry cupboard and the fridge and to select items that s/he would like to challenge the family to make their sandwiches with.
Ask the child to lay these out on the table. Put two or three items at a time on a tray to carry them to the table from the fridge or cupboard (to strengthen the core and balance skills).
Look at the ingredients and determine if any need washing (lettuce, tomatoes etc.). You may need to show the child how to wash the item correctly and dry it off. Bring them back to the table.
The child will also need to now consider the utensils and other materials that will be needed (knives, grater, bread board, plate etc.). These can now be fetched (on a tray) and placed out.
INVITE THE FAMILY
The child can now explain to the family that today’s lunch consists of a ‘Sandwich Invention’! Every person must make their lunch sandwich by using some (or all!) of the ingredients that are on the table.
INVENT!
The sandwich construction can now begin!
Invite the child think about the order her/his sandwich is going to be constructed and place the ingredients out from left to right. Order is a very important part of the child’s learning process!
If your children are old enough, they may wish to make a list of all of the ingredients they wish to put on the sandwich and, if appropriate, write the list down.
Allow the child to have fun and use the opportunity where possible to teach skills like cutting and spreading and grating. Use your discretion regarding the kitchen knives – do not place your child in any danger, but also use this opportunity to teach the child safe knife handling skills.
And… use this time to TALK!!
Once the sandwiches are made, ask everyone to give their creations a name and write these on a card to place in front of the sandwich.
TIDYING UP
Allocate tasks to each member of the family to clean up the workspace and to put any left over ingredients back where they belong. You may find that some of the ingredients need to be put into a container – you will be happy that you got your child to sort out your Tupperware cupboard yesterday!
SET THE TABLE
Now invite the child to set the table. This involves counting skills, ordering, one-to-one correspondence and many other necessary life skills.
BON APPETIT!
Enjoy your culinary experience and the time that you have together as a family. Perhaps cut your sandwiches into halves or quarters, squares or triangles (more learning) and invite your family members to taste each other’s creations. This is also a great opportunity to engage in vocabulary extensions around taste and texture.
SHARE THE PLEASURE…
Take a photo of your creations and share to our page, your family groups, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter or any other social media platform you prefer! You never know when an award-winning idea is just waiting to be introduced to the world! ⠀
****