How To Make Ice Cream Writing Common Core

Let me start by saying, I'm not crazy! I know that it is snowing and freezing almost everywhere this week. Thankfully, I planned and taught this lesson last week. Let me remind me you,  I live in Florida. Last week we had beautiful, sunny, hot weather! It was perfect for making ice cream! The idea do to do it on a full moon Monday, well, not so brilliant. =) But we did it...

 We began first thing Monday morning reading this book...

Which is hysterical. They loved it. 

Then we read  this cute ice cream poem...I could not find the author, but if you know who it is, please leave me a comment so I can credit them!

From the poem, I told the students it was time to make ice cream. 

Then we made ice cream, step by step! 

 The students were loving this, of course! They got to mix all their ingredients.

 Here they are just a shakin' away!

 After about 15 minutes, we had ice cream! They were beyond thrilled.

(I, with the mess, not so much. But it was so worth it.) 

 After we ate our ice cream, the kids gathered on the carpet and we charted our ingredients and materials. The students then went off to draw and label the list of ingredients. 

The next day, we reviewed how we made ice cream. I modeled for the students how to draw sequenced pictures of the steps to make ice cream. They illustrated the steps on a graphic organizer. Here is my model. 

These are the students illustrated steps. 

How awesome is this one below!?

The next day, we reviewed transition words and a complete sentence. Here is my model. 

The students then went off to write sentences to match their illustrated steps. 

(Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of this step!)

The following day, we reviewed topic sentences. We brainstormed a list of topic sentences they could use for their writing. (At this time of the year, most of my students can develop their own topic sentence. I have a few ELL students who are still struggling. So I find that it's important to brainstorm several and then they have a choice as to which one to use.) 

Here is my anchor chart with my topic sentence. We also read this great informational book about making ice cream. It had a great topic sentence!

These are the students' organizers for their topic and conclusion sentences. 

The next day, we began our draft. 

I was out sick on Friday, so Monday we reviewed the entire process so far. The students finished their drafts. Later in the day, we went back and reviewed conclusions. 

They added their conclusions. The next day, we edited their drafts and created the matching craftivity. They had two choice for a craftivity. 

These are some final pieces. 

This is what my wall now looks like. It is surrounded by the kids' writing. I am so happy with how this writing project turned out. 

You can find this lesson on TPT by clicking the photo below. 

First three people to comment and leave their email will get a free copy! =)