Best "How-To" Week Ever!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share five things we did this week in room 301. 

This week, as part of a unit on procedural text and how-to writing, we focused on recipes. My favorite type of writing to teach is "How-To" writing and we had a blast this week DOing and writing.

Last week we started writing procedural text, so this week we really focused on details and clarity. On Monday, we examined some cook books and discussed the elements of a recipe. If you haven't seen Superhero Cookbook and Ballerina Cookbook, they contain fun recipes that are easy for first graders to understand. I found them at the public library.

Then, I put the children in charge of writing a recipe for my lunch. I told them I wanted to have a ham and cheese sandwich with mustard. We brainstormed the tools and ingredients I would need and I sent them off to write a recipe for my lunch. Then, I tried to followed their recipes.

Of course, the first recipe that I tried didn't provide very much clarity. It just told me to "get" things and I ended up making a mess on the desk. 

But I did eventually find one that made a pretty good lunch for me!

On Wednesday, we sat around the (tissue paper) campfire and made s'mores. 

We wrote, "How To Make S'mores." We were sure to include a title, list of ingredients and tools, plus the how-to steps. We made the cutest little s'more craft too (picture fail). The kids thought this was just the BEST.DAY.EVER!

Today, we fit in a little cross curricular action. We combined our procedural text unit with our study of Texas in social studies. We learned aout armadillos, the state small mammal. Then we read Armadilly Chili. So this morning we decided to make Mrs. Elvir's Class-y Chili (we voted on that title). 

It was a very simple chili, but it turned out very tasty! And, of course, we wrote a recipe for our chili.

Moving on from reading class, in math we have been learning about place value. My class is obsessed with Base Ten blocks! I made a few things to supplement my district's curriculum. You can check it out HEREhttps://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Guided-Math-Place-Value-1785232. 

One last thing...last year we had so much fun with a Pete the Cat themed Easter celebration, I'm doing it again! Check out last year's post HERE. Find it on TpT here.