Oreo turning 100? Let's celebrate

On Tuesday, March 6, the Oreo cookie turns 100. Seemed like a good thing to celebrate in my room. But it IS writing specials. So we turned our celebration into a how-to writing and we were off!
Remember, I teach K - 5 writing on a five-day rotation. I see one class from each grade every day for a week. The next week, they go to another specials teacher and I get a new crew. This is the first group with which I've done this project. I already have ideas on how to improve it next week ... we'll do it Monday and Tuesday - the official birthday!
But this week, the first day, the kids wrote their rough drafts on regular writing paper. First, I gave them each a couple Oreos (it's tough in my class, I tell ya) so they could do research. This is, afterall, an important step.
They wrote how they ate the cookie, what they did first, next, then, and finally.
I modeled for them how I ate the cookie and I wrote the steps, making sure I explained how to expand details (why I dipped in milk, for how long, et al.) I also showed them several old school Oreo Cookie commercials on youtube (they especially loved the one in which they recognized Steve Urkel.) They thought these were hilarious. Then, we talked about who in our group were "dunkers," "unscrewers," "lickers," "nibblers," and "scrapers," (those in our crowd who unscrewed the cookie and scraped the filling off with their teeth.) Then I sent them off to write their rough draft.
On "putting it together" day, I had a circle pattern printed out for each student. I gave them a half sheet of black construction paper and showed them to fold it in half. I gave them each a sheet of white copy paper and showed them how to fold it in quarters. Then, they cut out the pattern, put it on top of all the other paper and cut. Like magic, they now had two black circles (the top and bottom of the Oreo) and four white circles (the filling.)
They took their rough drafts and, on one circle, wrote the "first" step, on the second, the "next" step, one the third, the "then" step, and on the fourth white circle, the "finally" step. They stacked them in order, put them between the two black circles and used a white crayon to write "How to Eat an Oreo Cookie" on the front. I used a hole punch to make a hole and used black pipe cleaner cut into small pieces to hold it all togehter. Next week, I'll probably use brads.
For my display, I found some interesting facts about the Oreo and made a sign to include. Next week, I'll probably have the kids include a page of facts they find on their own research from an article I'll print from the Nabisco Web site.
Regardless, the kids LOVED the project and it turned out really cute, I think.
Here's a cookie closeup...

*name whited out to protect the innocent!

This one said "First, I get an Oreo and I dip it in cold milk for a few seconds to get the cookie soggy. Next, I open the cookie and scrape the white filing off with my teeth. Then I eat the two black pieces. Finally, I get another cookie and do it all over again."



And here are a few of them I've hung in the hall to display.



Colorful writing

In 1903, there were eight colors of Crayola crayons ... black, blue, brown, green, orange, red, violet, and yellow. According to the Crayola Web site, there are now 120 colors - everything from Macaroni and Cheese to Inchworm, Screamin' Green, and Fuzzy Wuzzy Brown.
Of course, in writing, we discuss how important adjectives are and often the easiest place to start is with color ... but I wanted to "up" the game of the fifth-graders' descriptive writing so I designed a template for them to use. They chose a color, came up with a story that incorporated that crayon name, colored the crayon line art on the template and voila! Oh~! I also asked the kids to spice up their writing "voice" by starting their stories with a preposition. I LOVE having them do this because it automatically makes them write with more flair. No boring "one day I found a macaroni and cheese crayon" leads or introductions that say "granny smith apples are good." The leads my kids were churning out today were things such as "Outside my window, I could tell by the robin's egg blue sky, it was going to be a great day." Or, "Beneath my toes, the grass of the mountain meadow felt cool on the warm summer day."
The kids LOVED this exercise, so much when they finished one color, they came asking to do a second, sometimes third color.

"Over the steaming sidewalk, through the soft sand, I looked at the Pacific Blue Ocean. The sun was shining like there was no tomorrow..."

Ouch!

This week, my first graders wrote a story about when they were hurt. We called them our "ouch" stories.
I started the week by reading "Boo Hoo Bird." It's a fun read, a book about a baseball playing bird that gets bonked on the head with a baseball and all his friends try to make him all better.
I had the kids do a turn and talk with their elbow partners and discuss a time they remembered getting hurt. After a few shared their stories, I sent the kids on their way to write. They wrote drafts and all proclaimed "I'm done," (all writing teachers die a little inside when they hear this.) So the next day, we had an additional mini lesson on adding details. I used as an example, one "I'm done" kid's story:
"I was in the park. I fell and hurt my arm. My mom gave me ice. I felt better."
Yup. That was the end.
I asked him what park he was in ... "the park by my house by the baseball field."
So we all chanted at him, "dude, that's important." (they love this kind of stuff)
What were you doing, was my next question.
"I was riding my bike."
Everybody now: "Dude, that's important."
How did you fall?
"I hit a rock and threw on the brakes and fell."
(ahem)
Did your mom come running to you?
"No. I was with my brother. He picked me up and carried me to my mom and she gave me some ice to put on my knee and I was all better."
"Duuuuuuuuuude..."
You get the idea.
So we discussed the importance of revising and editing and adding specific details. They weren't too excited about that until I pulled out a box of red pens, deemed them, "magic revising pens," showed them off like my name was Vanna White, had the kids say, "ooooooooooooooooh. Woooooooooow. Oh la la." And we were off.
Then the kids got to rewrite their stories, draw an accompanying picture and put a Bandaid on where their ouchie was. Here's the result.

This poor little fella got hit in the "wrong spot" in a game of laser tag. I hate it when that happens.

Fifth graders like bubble blowing, too

The fifth graders were feeling a little left out having seen the cutesy "how to blow a bubble" writing projects by first grade, and they're working hard prepping for their state writing test coming up in March. So to bribe help them to write an informational piece, we did the project, sans cute art project.
They all thought it was going to be an easy write, until we "edited" by taking their drafts, getting a piece of gum and acting them out.
Here I am with one of my faves (I admit it, sue me) who failed to tell me to take my gum out of the wrapper and instead wrote "get a piece of gum. First you put it in your mouth."

After a closer look at their writing, they went back and revised, really thinking through the steps. We basically decided when you're writing an informational, how-to piece, you're writing for a moron who doesn't have a clue to do that thing you're trying to teach.
Here I am with another fave (I know) having successfully blown an epic bubble following his awesome instructions.

Oh, and while I'm at it, here's a picture of at least part of my room.



T my name is teacher

My kindergarten cherubs are working on recognizing letter sounds, and I found an alliteration project on Pinterest (of course) and worked up a template for them to do some writing. There's a blank for them to glue their letter that I'd pre-cut out of construction paper, ________, my name is ___________ and I like ___________.
First we read A My Name is Alice by Jane Bayer (well, first I used our new handy-dandy super die cut machine to cut out the first letter of the first names of the kids in all sorts of colors so they could pick but I digress). I modeled using my name and asked the kids to think of the first letter of their first name and then something they liked that began with that same letter. My Juans and Julios were even up for the challenge.
Here's the result.

And a closeup, Natalietatiana likes number nines.



What's in a burrow?

To observe Groundhog Day, first graders, learning voice and details, wrote from the perspective of a groundhog about what was in their burrow. Here are our projects.

The craft project is kind of a mix of two Pinterest ideas - the burrow and writing project but I liked a different "peek-over" groundhog better. I made the heart groundhog on my sign.

Here's a closeup of a little princess' story about her burrow.

"... I have posters of Justin Bieber. I am dressing because I am going to marry Justin Bieber. Ewwwwww!"

Heaven help us.



Everybody's doing it? Don't you want to be part of the "in" crowd?

Sure, you've seen this before. But here is what my first-grade crew came up with using the "how to blow a bubble" project that's all the rage on Pinterest. I created my own "first, next, then, finally" writing template. If - and let's face it, when - I do this project again, I'll go the paper plate route instead of using construction paper for the faces. The construction paper was too flimsy - although I do LOVE using the new "flesh" colored construction paper. Seen it? It's awesome.
To get us started, I modeled how precise they needed to be by asking them what I should write. They told me "put the gum in your mouth." I did, without unwrapping it. They told me to blow the gum. I took it out of my mouth and blew on it. It took a bit, and they cracked up at me, but eventually they got the details down.
I gave them a piece of bubble gum and had them write as they did each step. This helped A LOT and went much better, I think, than if I'd have had them chew the gum and then write, trying to recall all the steps.

Snowman name graphing

Kindergarteners are working on graphing and reading graphs, learning consonants and vowels. So we used a marshmallow (let's be honest, you'll need two per kid ... one to paint with and one to eat) as a stamp to stamp a snowman with as many snowballs as we have in our name. I watered down a bit of white Tempra paint and gave each friend a sentence strip. I trimmed the sentence strips later. I modeled how to stack the snowballs. Some of the snowmen got hats, some got scarves just to jazz our graphic up a bit. Cuz that's how we roll in kindergarten.
The next day when this crew came to me for writing specials, the paint was dry and they used a Sharpie (trusting a 5 year old with a Sharpie is not for the faint of heart) to write the letters of their names on their snowman. THEN we graphed them ... names with four letters, five letters, six letters ... you get the drill.
Then each friend got a thought bubble and made observations. Some kids made observations about their name, some did other kids' names, some did general observations about the entire graphic.
Some of our observations included "The kids in our class with nine letters in their name are both girls." "My name begins and ends with a consonant." The little gal Rosa who came up with "my name is an A B pattern (consonant, vowel, consonant, vowel) ... too scared of her.

Expanded detail writing, or Why did the Gingerbread man cross the road?

We're working on expanding details in all grades. This is a project I did with first grade in which we worked on answering who, what, when, where, why, and how. The kids decorated a gingerbread man then wrote a story about why he (I also had a Beyonce gingerbread so, to be fair, she) ran away.
I sometimes get carried away with displays, and since I rotate through all the classes, I like to highlight which class' work I'm showcasing. Here's how I displayed the project:

Yup. It's a cookie sheet. Classy, no?

And here's a closeup of one of the projects the little darlings put together.

You read that right. Poor Kenny the gingerbread man, having outrun a fox, an owl, a bird, a cat, and some chick who wants to hang him on a wall, meets his demise when he's gobbled by a dog. "Yum!" yelled the dog.

The Squiggle

This is a lesson of which I'm particularly proud. I did it with first grade, but it could be done with any elementary grade.
We've been working hard on adding specific details to our stories. I wanted to drive the point home that you can have a GREAT idea for a story, but without your details, your reader doesn't get the full impact of what you're trying to say.
I started my lesson with the kids coming into my classroom finding me at the easel in an artists' smock, acting as if I were painting a masterpiece. When I turned away from my work, they saw I had only painted a "squiggle." I acted like I was super offended that they didn't just looooooooooove my work. Then I asked what was wrong with it. They informed me they had no idea what my squiggle was because I didn't have any details. BAAAAM you little knuckleheads! Gotcha.
Then we read the wonderful book The Squiggle by Carole Lexa Schaefer.

In it, a little girl is on a walk with her classmates when she comes across a piece of ribbon ... a squiggle. She imagines it into all sorts of amazing things but when her peers look, they only see a piece of ribbon. The wonderful illustrations in the book show the ribbon as the girl imagines it.
Then I send the kids to paint ONLY a squiggle on their papers. I model a few ideas - drawing just a circle if they want to draw a car, a line if they want to draw a tree - and send them to do their thing. I tell them to keep secret what their complete project is going to be.
We do this and usually make a text to text connection with the book (or I play the video) Harold and the Purple Crayon. (One of my GENIUS third graders came in the room after I had all the first graders' "squiggles" on the carpet to dry and made that connection. Thanks little dude! I'll work that into a lesson plan!)
The next day (remember, I have one group of first graders for 5 days, 45 minutes a day then send the little cherubs to the next specials teacher in our rotation and I get a whole new crew) when they come in, I'm again in my smock at the easel, this time with crayons, finishing my squiggle. Now I'm adding details and they like my work. Booyah. Now I model how I can make my squiggle into a real picture AND I can make my squiggle, which has become a bird, into a bird in a park with kids playing et al ... A LOT of detail. I remind them that the sign outside the door says "Ms. Green, Writing Specials," and that the next day, they're going to write a story WITH DETAILS to go with their story. They are sent on their way to work their magic.

Now we share our finished work so everyone can see what our "squiggles" have become.
As promised, the third day of fun finds us writing our story to go with our project. Again, I model adding detail to my story. They go write, I conference and assist.
Fast forward to when we get everything matted and put together and THIS is our finished product.

The part you see that's black was done in paint ... that's her "squiggle." The rest were the details she added after.

Here are some more ... yup, that's a first grader's Lightning McQueen. I couldn't draw like that if my life depended on it. The little dude who wrote the volcano story is a prodigy.

Happy 2012!

This week in writing specials, the kindergarten kids did some scientific research on gingerbread men. Specifically, we researched how we ate them! The kids have been talking about graphing, how to read graphs and what graphics represent. They've also been studying directions, left, right, et al.
They were each given a cookie and instructed to only take one bite and put their cookie back on their plate. When they'd all taken a bite, I gave them each a printout of their name and they came up and labeled a gingerbread man I'd cut out ahead of time. They put their name under the appropriate spots - head, stomach, left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg. When we were finished graphing, we discussed our findings. They had a lot of fun with the project. The gingerbread men didn't stand a chance.

In first grade, we did the Snowman Soup project that is all over Pinterest. We started by reading the book "In the Flaky Frosty Morning" which ends with the snowman turning in to snowman soup!
I added in a writing project by creating a "recipe" template that the kids had to complete before they were allowed to come "shop" for items for their soup. For instance, if they wanted to include mittens, they had to have written a recipe that called for mittens. We've been talking about adding specific details so they had to use specifics and adjectives ... they couldn't just write "scarf." So they wrote things like "red scarf" or "blue mittens" and I made the construction paper available so they could cut out their materials. The message being that they had to have a complete writing piece with specific details.
Rather than gluing our soup ingredients onto a flat circle like the original idea, I had the kids put their pieces in a styrofoam bowl. I wrote their names on the bottom of the bowl and after school, I used a hot glue gun, er um, I mean a, low temp glue gun as hot glue guns are illegal at my school, and glued the bowl and a plastic spoon to their placemat onto which they'd glued their recipe during class.
Here's what the project looks like all put together.

If you'd like a copy of the recipe template we used, I'll gladly share. It's a pdf which I can't upload here :(

Finally, in second grade writing specials this week, the kids did the New Year's Resolution project. I stressed that I was looking for detailed writing. They did the writing Wednesday and made their faces today. I had the kids glue their writing and their faces to a sentence strip. I added nametags to their projects and used the aforementioned glue gun to add the blower thingees (work with me, it's been a long day). Here's what they look like in the hall!

That's it for now. I'm off to Pinterest to steal, I mean research other projects! 

I might need a Pintervention

I've been bitten by the Pinterest bug. I'm so afraid something AWESOME will get posted and I'll miss it, that I'm on that site constantly. I've reorganized my board twice (I've lost count) because I had so much stuff saved on there, I needed more folders to keep it all straight. You get the idea - I'm addicted.
Now, a disclaimer: I am not a blogger. My life is not exciting enough for a blog. And after 20 years in the newspaper industry, the thought of having, on a regular basis, to put together a story about something I've done - well, that doesn't excite me much. But to post a picture on Pinterest, it seems one has to have a blog. So this is it.
Another disclaimer: It IS NOT going to be fancy. If that's what you're looking for, close my blog and go to one of the gazillions of others that are WAY more colorful, with all the bells and whistles. This is really just a spot for me to share some things I've done with anyone who's interested and, as an added perk, gives me somewhere to save my ideas that I've actually carried through in class.
Some of the things I'll post here, if you've been "pinning" much at all, you'll recognize. I've found projects on Pinterest - some are already writing projects and some I've tweaked to make into writing projects. I've tried to put my own spin on the projects. Some I've had to create templates for that the kids use to do their writing. Some projects are things I've come up with for my class.
I teach kindergarten through fifth-grade writing on a rotation - meaning a class from each grade level comes to me for a week, the following week they go to another specials class and come back to me 6 weeks later.
Thanks for visiting! Be blessed!