A lesson on friendship

One of the books that I use in small groups is The Sandwich Swap.  The Sandwich Swap leads to great discussions on how we can be different, but still be friends.  The story is about two girls who are best friends, but that friendship is tested when each girl tells the other that her lunch seems gross. Salma and Lily come from different cultural backgrounds and their lunches reflect that they have differences. The Sandwich Swap is a great reminder that we need to embrace and appreciate each other's differences.  If you want to use this book in a classroom setting you can find an entire lesson plan along with scenarios at Read4Health.  You can also find a script for a skit along with some other lesson ideas HERE.  I especially like the writing part where you have students write about a time where they thought they weren't going to like something but ended up liking it after they tried it.

You can purchase The Sandwich Swap HERE.

Description from Amazon:  Lily and Salma are best friends.  They like doing all the same things, and they always eat lunch together.  Lily eats peanut butter and Salma eats hummus-but what's that between friends?  It turns out, a lot.  Before they know it, a food fight breaks out.  Can Lily and Salma put aside their differences?  Or will a sandwich come between them?  The smallest things can pull us apart-until we learn that friendship is far more powerful than difference.  In a glorious three-page gatefold at the end of the book, Salma, Lily, and all their classmates come together in the true spirit of tolerance and acceptance.

Connections:

I haven't used this lesson yet but plan to download it and use it to go along with The Sandwich Swap.  I love that you create PB&J friendwiches while learning about important friendship traits and that yucky toppings (gets jealous bacon, has a bad attitude lettuce, gives put downs onion, etc...) ruin the sandwich.  You can get it for $4.80 on TPT and it is 67 pages long, including a game and a bulletin board idea!

Friends Stick Together Like PB&J

You could also download the FREE PRINTABLE SANDWICH from http://kidsactivitiesblog.com and have students write friendship traits on each piece of the sandwich.

This Friendship Venn Diagram with questions would be a great tool for talking about diversity among classmates:

Here is another Friendship Venn Diagram:

There is a fun activity in this Free TPT product:  Book It: Retell It, Write It, Make It!.  Students can work together to see how many words they can make out of "sandwich swap".

This would be a good worksheet to hand out prior to reading the story.  Students could fill it out as the story is read:

Listening & Making Predictions

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