Eggcellent

 Today we made egg salad for snack. I love food preparation work because there are so many skills practiced together. Like the other practical life works, food preparation work aims to build independence, coordination, concentration, and order. The work is set up with the materials carefully prepared for a child to independently follow a sequence of steps that require coordination of movement and concentration on the task. Food preparation work also extends into the language and mathematics curriculums. 

Each day the quantity and names of ingredients for snack are written on the snack board. A visual cue is also drawn, so if a child can't read the word he/she can "read" the numeral and the visual cue instead. I also often include recipe cards. I use the "Cookin' Cards"  by Montessori Services. Each card has one step to the recipe, both written and simply illustrated. I also make my own recipe cards based on the style of the "Cookin' Cards".

Two trays were set up on the snack shelf and the materials for each step were arranged on the trays from left to right. The first tray (pictured below) contained a cutting board, an egg cup, and a bowl for the shell. The second tray (pictured above) contained a container of lite mayonnaise, a scoop for measuring the mayonnaise, and a bowl for mixing.

First a child got an egg from the carton. Then he cracked the shell and peeled off the shell.  

Next the child chopped the egg (not pictured). This friend decided to do further chopping with the spoon after deciding that the pieces were too big once he put them in the mixing bowl. 

Then the child mixes in a scoop of mayonnaise.

Finally, the egg salad is ready to enjoy! Each child then put the egg salad on his/her plate and used crackers to scoop up the egg salad or made little egg salad sandwiches.