Location: indoor

Materials: (for this example we'll make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but you can choose whatever type of sandwich suits your program) bread, peanut butter, jelly, knife, spoon, plate

This is a really fun small group activity that involves step-by-step planning and challenges executive function skills. In this activity you will tell the children that you need their help to make a sandwich. Ask them to walk you through the steps one at a time. The trick is that you need to be both literal and specific. You want your kids to tell you exactly what you need to do in order.

Start by putting all of the materials out. Ask your kids what the first step is. They might say something like "put peanut butter on the bread." For this you can hold up the peanut butter and bread and say, "How?" Then if they say "Use the knife to put peanut butter on the bread," you can tap your knife on the jar of peanut butter and say, "But how do I get it out?"

The goal is for them to instruct you every step of the way-- opening jars, using the knife, how much peanut butter to scoop out, which piece of bread to put it on, how much to spread, how to assemble it, etc.

After you've successfully made a sandwich, you can eat it. Or maybe you want to make more sandwiches to serve as snack.

Possible Extensions:

• Turn it into a math activity: How can you share the sandwich with everyone? Can you cut it into enough pieces? Or do you need to make more sandwiches?