OREOs

One of the biggest concerns when you switch to a new curriculum, is knowing you might have to let go of "pet projects" and memorable activities you did in the old curriculum. Luckily for us, there are activities that are just too FUN and have a value, and we SHOULD do them anyway. So when Mrs. Arens came to visit and ask about our plans for writing in February, Ms. Leom was THRILLED to say, "YES!" to OREO cookie writing.

FIRST, students are each given an OREO cookie to eat. As students eat it, they are asked to write down at least four steps.

Next, students write a paragraph about their steps, including a topic sentence, the four detail sentences with transitions (first, next, then, finally, etc.), and a closure sentence. Then, Ms. Leom gave students a project to cut out their OREO cookie shapes as she quickly walked around the room to each student to help with the editing process. Following the editing, students wrote a rough draft and assembled their cookie final drafts. There was some last minute friendly reminders ... Finally, students turned in all their steps in the process (prewriting, rough draft, and final drafts). Ms. Leom paired students up. They read each other's final drafts and had to eat a second OREO cookie as their classmate wrote about it. What a delicious day of writing!!