How-To Celebration

At the end of each Writing Unit, I try to plan a celebration to remind the kiddos just how much we've learned over the past few weeks.  I usually try to find a way to share our finished writing with another class or our families.  However, for this How-To Unit, we were wrapping up just before Winter Break and some of the kiddos were leaving early so I didn't want to plan something that required every student to have a finished piece. Instead, I decided to plan an afternoon of celebrating that would allow families to see how much the kiddos had learned and let the kiddos have a little winter fun.

As a class, we had just read The Gingerbread Man, by Jim Aylesworth (this book is part of our Text Talk Vocabulary Program), and I knew the kids would love to make their own gingerbread cookies.  I found a few "How to" videos online about baking and decorating gingerbread men.  On Friday afternoon we watched the videos and compared the video's structure to our own books.  The kiddos noticed pretty quickly that they all included an introduction, ingredients list, warnings, and a closing.

Afterward, each kiddo got their own cookie to decorate.  My amazing Room Parent and wonderful parent volunteers donated all of the cookies and the decorations.  After the kiddos decorated their gingerbread, they filled out their "How To Decorate a Gingerbread Cookie" books to teach family and friends how to decorate a cookie just like theirs.  They had a great time and I think the families really enjoyed seeing the writing process in action.  We ended up with some great stories and even more delicious treats!

(Yes, it was also Pajama Day, which made the celebration all the more fun!)