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.