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.