Dollar Store- You have my heart AGAIN!

So if you have been reading my blog for a while, you already know that the Dollar Tree and I have a special relationship. My last great Dollar Tree find were these little Eye Spies/Finger Trackers that I thought of tons of classroom uses for....here's a picture and {link to that post}.....

Well, the Dollar Tree has my heart again. I give you....Sandwich Cardboard Coasters!!

I was so excited when I found these that I bought at least 8 sets.....I have no idea what I am going to specifically use them for, but they were just so stinkin cute. Also, my kiddos know I love to teach with food, so I figure this is a good compromise to using REAL food all the time :) Each set of coasters comes with nine cardboard photos of sandwich toppings, cheese, lettuce, onion, tomato....well just look at the picture below and you'll see :) 

There are so many ways to use these in the classroom and I figured that $1.00 was cheaper than printing out all of these pieces in color ink- although it did get me thinking about drawing Sandwich Clipart :) Here are just a few of the ideas that I thought of for these tasty treasures:

Writing Ideas:

*Technical Writing- Give students the pieces and have them as ingredients to help them write the steps for making a sandwich. Especially with younger kids, I think it might help them having the pictures and  pieces to put in a sequence first and then write the details with transition words and such :)

*Descriptive Writing- Give a group of students a set of coasters and have them work together to think of descriptive adjectives for each ingredient and then write a poem with them.

Math Ideas:

*Least to Greatest- Put numbers on each of the ingredient coasters with white labels and have students order them from least to greatest. The two bread pieces would be the least and the greatest numbers so it would be a good guide for our littlest learners. For older kiddos, it could help them see the concept of range. The range of the number would be the difference between the bread slices....all the sandwich topping in between the bread would be INSIDE the range of numbers. Then you could have students find the mean, median and mode depending on the numbers you choose for the coasters. 

*Build a Sandwich- Use labels to put a price on each ingredient (coaster). Have students come up with different sandwich recipes that add up to a certain cost. For example, they might have to create a $3.00 sandwich.... a slice of bread might be 50 cents, so they would need two slices for a sandwich (three slices for a double decker!) and then add multiple layers of the different ingredients to create a sandwich that adds up to $3.00. Does that make sense? I thought it might be a fun twist for practicing money. Hold the phone! THEN the students could do technical writing on how to assemble their specific sandwich creation. Math and writing combined....perfect!

What other ideas do you have for these coasters? If you share in my passion for a good deal and teaching with food, you won't want to pass these up! Post your ideas/grade level in a comment below!!

And no...Dollar Tree does not pay me for advertising....although they should :) Oh! I found these coasters on the bottom shelf of the wall with all the kitchen appliances. I only spotted them by chance...so you will have to look carefully so you don't miss them!