Do you
remember how the last week of school always was when you were little? All those schoolbooks got put away for
good (after all, next year you were getting new ones), and you waltzed through
end of the year activities getting more and more excited for the impending
summer holidays. Well, the same
has been going on at the school I’m working in – all the kids are getting
exponentially more rambunctious as classes draw to a close, the noise level in
the classrooms sometimes reaching unprecedented levels in the enthusiasm they
express for different activities we’ve been doing, extended sessions of Simon
Says being a particular favorite, although coloring special pictures meets with
nearly as much joy and abandonment.
Wednesday afternoon, I had a brilliant idea for how to fill out the
lesson-less hours ahead of us on Thursday…I had to prepare a treat for the next
round students who had put up that magical 20th sticker on the
reading chart…so, why not take the opportunity to give a class on American
culture?
Sounds
like such a treat, right? But it
was!!! How can a lesson be a treat
for second and third graders, you ask?
Never fear, it was delightful.
In each
class, I called forth the students who had just completed the Reading Champs
chart…I reached into my mysterious plastic bag…and pulled out paper towels…and
two knives…laughing at the cries of “Oh no! She’s going to kill us!” I dramatically whipped out a loaf
of bread…a jar of strawberry jam…and……………a jar of peanut butter!
I asked
who had ever tried peanut butter before, and was met with maybe one or two
raised hands. Then I told them
that in America kids their age eat a lot of peanut butter, especially in the
form of sandwiches with jam (heck, I do to!). There were murmurs of incredulity mixed with interest. Then I showed them how to make these
exotic treats.
ME:
First, you take a piece of bread, and put peanut butter on it.
STUDENTS:
It looks like caca! Bleck! Haha!
ME: Then
you take a second piece of bread and put jam on it.
STUDENTS:
Yum! Ooooo!
ME: Then
you put the two pieces together.
STUDENTS:
NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Then, as
I made lots of sandwiches and cut them up into four pieces for taste testing,
the special Reading Champs helped hand out the snack to all the students who
wanted to try it. There were a
couple kids who handed it back after taking a nibble, frowns of dislike
contorting their small faces, but for the most part everyone liked it. Then there were the students who
originally claimed they didn’t want any, but who asked for a bit once they saw
how many of their friends were enjoying it. Success!
Now, I
wonder how many will go home and ask their parents for peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches…I also wonder what the parents will think of this (to them) CRAZY
food pairing. It’s so funny to
think of such a classic as peanut butter and jelly being something completely
exotic.
It makes
me smile.
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