L loves to eat! Sometimes I’m busy feeding the baby so I can’t get her a snack right away — having a food prep work available means L can get herself a snack whenever she’s hungry. This one is always a favorite in the classroom. At school, I used to use cream cheese due to peanut allergies — I tried that at home, but it was too cold and hard to spread, so I switched to peanut butter.
To set up this work, I put two crackers on a plate beside a small cheese knife and a ramekin filled with peanut butter. You could also use bread instead of crackers. I showed L how to spread the peanut butter on one of the crackers and let her do the other one.
This one is definitely L’s favorite food prep work. Spreading is pretty tough to do — it requires careful wrist movements and builds gross motor and hand-eye coordination skills. Bonus — I don’t have to stop what I’m doing to get this hungry girl a snack!