Hands-On Writing Activity: Peanut Butter Sandwich Lesson

Writing is all about creating clear, defined sentences, but kids often take short cuts which results in vague, boring writing. The peanut butter sandwich lesson shows kids in a funny way, how important it is to be clear when giving directions and writing anything. Kids will love repeating this activity over and over until they finally can create the right set of directions for sandwich making. This is a favorite hands-on teaching idea and shows that hands-on lessons aren’t just for little kids! You can use them in middle school, too!

This post is written in partnership with Write Shop. All opinions are our own.

This writing activity will work for any kid fourth grade and up.

Hands-On Writing Activity: Peanut Butter Sandwich Lesson

This silly hands-on writing activity holds a powerful lesson that kids will remember long after their sandwich is eaten! We found enrichment activities and the idea for the lesson in our Write Shop I curriculum.

What you’ll need for the peanut butter sandwich lesson:

Write Shop I (optional, but highly recommended, it’s a great program for teaching writing and includes follow-up activities not included here)
Bread
Butter knife
Peanut butter
Jelly
Plate
Pencil
Paper

First, tell the kids to write instructions for making a peanut butter sandwich.

After the kids complete the lessons, make the sandwiches exactly. If you have a group of kids, you can break kids up into teams to try each of the recipes. If you do this, show them an example of how to make the sandwich *exactly* so that the point of the lesson is made.

When you start making the sandwich oddly, point out that you are just following directions. In Monkey’s version, she didn’t mention using a knife or spreading the ingredients on the bread, so I put the jelly and peanut butter on with my fingers.

After the kids see that their directions need improvement, let them try the directions again, this time, leaving nothing out.

Follow the new directions to make the perfect peanut butter sandwich!

We’ve been having a blast using our Write Shop I this semester. Normally, Monkey hates writing, which is why we love the hands-on activities included with each lesson. I like how even the upper levels include hands-on activities for students.