An International Show-and-Tell

When Vonnie Phillips asked a classroom of first-graders if they would like a peanut butter and sheepface jelly sandwich for lunch, the answer she got was: “Eeew, gross!”

The concoction was not from her own kitchen. The special education teacher at Clinton-Mendenhall Elementary School received the sheepface jelly recipe--which is truly made from the meat of a sheep’s face--and guidelines for an assortment of other equally tasty delicacies this week in a box of souvenirs sent from the Foldaskoli School in Reykjavik, Iceland.

A group of Phillips’ learning-disabled fifth- and sixth-graders were the first in the world to receive the package of goodies as part of a cultural-understanding exchange the teacher found on the Internet.

On Thursday, they showed the contents to first-graders at the school.

Through a Web site called Kidlink, Phillips shared information about Clinton-Mendenhall school and Garden Grove with other schools around the world.

Phillips was chosen as the first teacher to get the package straight from the Foldaskoli schoolteacher who designed the exchange. Students here will look over the items, add some of their own, and send it on to a school in Illinois. Phillips is unsure how many schools worldwide will receive the box, which is expected back in Reykjavik in mid-May.

After examination of the box’s contents, which includes a vial labeled “Icelandic water,” woolen mittens and a toy bear known as Benni who sports a T-shirt with Icelandic students’ names, Phillips and her students are sharing the treasures with the more than 900 students in their school.

Thursday morning, fifth-graders Aime Silva and Cesar Pena, both 10, pulled the items out of the box one by one and explained each to Melinda Culwell’s class of first-graders.

They held up the water, a Icelandic newspaper and Benni. But Benni was hands-down the children’s favorite item.

In addition to learning about Iceland’s history and culture, Phillips’ students have also had a lesson in using the Internet.

“I never used the Internet before,” said Cesar. “It was cool and it was fun.”

Aime showed the class a children’s picture book written in Icelandic. “We found out the story by looking at the pictures,” she said.

Before shipping the box out next week, Phillips’ students will write about Benni’s stay in Garden Grove in the diary he carries in a backpack, and will add some of their own souvenirs to the box. Postcards of Orange County and Disneyland will be included, along with a Mickey Mouse luggage tag and a California Angels baseball cap.