На полдник бабушка дала внучке маленький пирожок и чай.

На полдник means for an afternoon snack or as an afternoon snack.

Russian often uses на + accusative with meals and scheduled eating occasions:

• на завтрак = for breakfast
• на обед = for lunch
• на ужин = for dinner
• на полдник = for an afternoon snack

So here На полдник sets the occasion: this was what the grandmother gave for the afternoon snack.

Because бабушка is feminine, the past tense verb must agree with it in gender.

The infinitive is дать = to give.
Its past tense forms are:

• дал = he gave
• дала = she gave
• дало = it gave
• дали = they gave

So бабушка дала means grandmother gave.

Дала is from the perfective verb дать, which is used for a single completed act: she gave it, and the action is finished.

Давала is from the imperfective давать and would usually suggest repeated giving, an ongoing action, or background description.

Compare:

• Бабушка дала внучке пирожок. = Grandma gave her granddaughter a pie/bun.
  (one completed action)
• Бабушка давала внучке пирожки. = Grandma used to give her granddaughter pies/buns.
  (habitual/repeated)

In this sentence, one completed act is meant, so дала is natural.

Because внучке is the person who receives something.

With verbs like давать / дать (to give), Russian usually works like this:

• giver = nominative subject
• thing given = accusative direct object
• recipient = dative indirect object

So:

• бабушка = the giver
• внучке = to the granddaughter
• маленький пирожок и чай = the things given

That is why внучка becomes внучке.

Because пирожок is a masculine inanimate noun in the accusative singular.

For masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative singular looks the same as the nominative singular:

• nominative: маленький пирожок
• accusative: маленький пирожок

If it were masculine animate, the accusative would usually match the genitive instead.

So here маленький пирожок is the direct object, but its form does not change from nominative.

Yes. Чай is another direct object of дала, so it is also in the accusative.

But, like пирожок, it is masculine singular and inanimate, so its accusative form looks the same as the nominative:

• nominative: чай
• accusative: чай

So both пирожок and чай are objects of дала.

Russian has no articles.

So бабушка can mean:

• grandmother
• the grandmother
• a grandmother

And маленький пирожок can mean:

• a small pie/bun
• the small pie/bun

The exact meaning depends on context. English requires an article, but Russian does not.

Russian often leaves out possessive words like her, his, or their when the relationship is obvious from the noun itself or the context.

So бабушка дала внучке... naturally suggests the grandmother gave her granddaughter...

If needed, Russian could be more explicit, for example:

• своей внучке = to her own granddaughter

But in a simple sentence like this, that would usually be unnecessary.

Yes, Russian word order is more flexible than English word order because case endings show grammatical roles.

This sentence begins with На полдник to set the scene first: for the afternoon snack.

A more neutral breakdown is:

• бабушка = subject
• дала = verb
• внучке = recipient
• маленький пирожок и чай = objects

Other orders are possible, for example:

• Бабушка дала внучке на полдник маленький пирожок и чай.
• Внучке бабушка дала на полдник маленький пирожок и чай.

These versions are all grammatical, but they shift emphasis slightly.

Пирожок is a small baked or fried filled pastry, often translated loosely as pie, bun, or turnover, depending on context.

It is related to пирог (pie), but пирожок is the smaller form. The ending -ок here gives a diminutive sense.

So маленький пирожок is literally a small little pie/pastry, although in natural English you would usually just translate it once, not as small little.

Yes. И means and, so маленький пирожок и чай are two coordinated direct objects:

• a small pastry
• tea

Both are things the grandmother gave to the granddaughter.

Russian does not need to repeat the verb:

• дала внучке маленький пирожок и чай
  = gave her granddaughter a small pastry and tea

Yes. In this sentence, чай is best understood as tea as a substance or drink, not a tea as a countable item.

Russian often uses bare nouns this way. English normally says:

• tea
• some tea
• a cup of tea

The exact interpretation comes from context. Here it most naturally means that she gave the granddaughter tea to drink.

Because it agrees with пирожок, which is masculine singular.

Russian adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

So:

• маленький пирожок = masculine singular
• маленькая булочка = feminine singular
• маленькое яблоко = neuter singular
• маленькие пирожки = plural

Here пирожок is masculine singular accusative inanimate, and the adjective takes the matching form маленький.