Wednesday, November 9, 2011

It's peanut butter jelly time!

Today I pulled out an activity from my days as a jr. high teacher.  I love looking for learning opportunities we can enjoy together, regardless of age or skill level.

For the assignment each one was to write down the necessary steps to make a pb&j.  Sounds easy right?  That's what they thought!  The results were hilarious as I followed their directions to the letter

"Put the knife in the jelly."  So I put the knife in the jelly...and left it there. 

"Spread peanut butter on the knife."  So I stuck my finger in the peanut butter and proceeded to spread it on the knife.

"Put the two pieces of bread together."  And I did...condiment side out!

The funny thing was that all the kids were pretty confident their description was sufficient until they began to see the first one play out.  Then the laughter began.  I loved hamming it up and making it silly, but ultimately it led to a wonderful discussion on both written and oral communication.  As a writer, it's our job to make sure we're writing in a way that allows the reader to paint a clear picture in their mind.  I often remind the kids that writers are essentially artists - words are their medium of choice.  

So now they're outside "communicating" with one another on the kickball field.  Not a lot of "book work" has taken place today, but there's definitely been a whole lotta learning going on.

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