Monday, November 19, 2012

Exploding Biscuits, Junie B. style!

On Fridays, I'm with the best first grade class ever. We have been reading a new Junie B. Jones book after lunch, and it just cracks me up. First of all, I love her humor. It's a great read for adults, but it's also fun for the kids. Second, I have a student in the class that could just be Junie B. herself. She has a funny sense of humor, she's very animated, and she says the most adult sayings I've ever heard out of a 6 year old.

Two weeks ago, Junie B. was creating her thankful list for Thanksgiving. She names exploding biscuits, and I started to crack up. The kids didn't get why it was so funny, so I tried to explain it to them. "You know those crescent rolls that you get out of the tube? When you open them, they pop," I tried to explain. My Junie B. got it and jumped for joy because she loves them just as much. A few other students knew what I was talking about, but over half of the class was still in the dark. The teacher that I teach with looked at me, smiled, and suggested that we bake some. The kids were soooooo excited not because they knew what they were, but because they were called "exploding biscuits". One of my students worked so hard at not spilling the beans all morning.

I typed up some first-grade friendly directions for us to read as informational text.

First, we read through the directions and acted out the steps. Then, each student (there were 8 in a group) read one step as we completed that step. Here's a picture of us rolling the dough:

The 11-13 minutes that they were in the oven might have been the longest 11-13 minutes of their liiiiiiives. 
I hope you all enjoy something you're thankful for this Thanksgiving!