Sandwiches keep popping up! We’re curious what children have to say about sandwiches, but at this age it is challenging for a child to find the language to answer a seemingly simple question such "What is a sandwich?" When Diane asks individuals over the course of a morning, the answer she hears is "peanut butter and jelly," except in Kesler's case, who adds a crucial ingredient:
Bread. Peanut butter and jelly. (Kesler hands a stack of felt to Diane.) Take it.
At meeting on Wednesday we ask the group What is a sandwich? . . .
Ellie Peanut butter and jelly and some bread.
How do you make a sandwich?
Stella Maybe cut it in half with triangles.
Ellie My mom cut it up, too, and I maked it.
Jack My mom make it for me. What kind of sandwich does your mom make for you?
A regular one. What’s inside it?
Peanut butter and jelly.
At the end of this meeting we play a sandwich game in which cards are handed out (from the Slamwich game), each featuring a piece of bread with a topping. We hold each up, asking what each topping is. The children name cucumber (later called pickle, which in fact it was), salad (actually a piece of lettuce), tomato, eggs (hard boiled), jelly, cheese. We don’t correct the children, just repeat their language back to them. The children are then sent to the bathroom based on what topping they have.
Perhaps as a result of this game, children are expanding their definition of sandwich beyond peanut butter and jelly. When Livia makes a felt sandwich on Thursday, she says the squares represent salad; Chris says the white square is cheese.
Our observations show that the children understand that sandwiches come in layers, although no one has come out and said this. At the playdough area they alternate wood slices and playdough. Stella also brings over a piece of paper and sandwiches it between blobs of playdough – when Livia sees this, she does it too. (Stella also draws a sandwich topping on a piece of paper.)
Learning about layers is in fact an exploration in math skills, as children think about patterns during the process of making sandwiches.
And when Jessica (Ellie’s mom) serves Triscuits and cheese squares for snack, many children make and eat their own sandwiches!
