Combo Bakery

The day before Thanksgiving break was the perfect day for mixing up the learning.  Our classroom was transformed into the Combo Bakery.  When the chefs arrived, it was time to cook up the days objectives.  What is a thesaurus's favorite breakfast?  Synonym rolls, of course ! We started by putting on chef hats and coats.  Then, we read a recipe for synonym rolls.

First, the students had to sort synonym pairs in their baking teams.  Then, each student picked a word on a blank synonym roll.  The students had to use the thesaurus to come up with several words to go on the bun.  They had to navigate their way through the thesaurus using guide words.  The chefs really did some excellent work.  We celebrated their successes with tasty cinnamon rolls.  Thank you, Mrs. Wolverton for the delicious treat.

The afternoon brought more bakery learning; however, this time the focus was on author's purpose.  The chefs learned the ingredients that help us determine whether the author wrote a piece to Persuade, Inform, or Entertain....PIE!  The students were put in teams of four.  They had 24 slices of text.  Each group member made a selection.  They read the text to their team and had to sort the pieces into Persuade, Inform, or Entertain pie tins.  They worked so hard.  Each team member had to agree on the author's purpose for each piece of text.  Students had to justify their selections.

And....why were the students so engaged?  Because every eight text pieces that the group sorted correctly meant that team got to play a round of Pie Face!  Oh my goodness!  Author's purpose has never been so fun...or sticky!