Our Outrageous and Outstanding Oreo Day

15 September 2011
SO.MUCH.FUN!!!

A few weeks ago I signed up for the O.R.E.O. Project (click on this link to check out the project).  Today was our outrageous and outstanding Oreo day.

We started our day with stacking the Oreos.  I paired students up (I chose the partners), and each student had two attempts at stacking.  The highest number in our class was 30 - which made quite the impressive tower!

The students had a BLAST with this.  We made a chart of all the data, then used the data to find the mean, mode, median, and range.  We will be submitting our mean to the online project next week.  The students copied the data into their math journals.  I wanted to do a foldable for the entry, but I ran out of time.  Maybe tomorrow ...
Our chart.

Entry in our math journals.

We are currently studying Space as our science unit, so of course we had to make the phases of the moon with our Oreos.  This was another hit!  My principal came in to visit us during this part, and she LOVED it!  I loved how this girl added craters to her moons.  Very creative!  After we made our Oreo diagrams, we drew another diagram for our science notes.

We ended the day making Oreo sculptures.  By this time the Oreos were quite warm, so this was a very messy, and a little bit difficult part of the day.  I kept it quick, then it was clean-up time.  This was my favourite sculpture:

After that, I sent the kids home, full of sugar and fun.  Such a great day!!!  I chose today to do our project because tomorrow is our school-wide Terry Fox Run (Cancer fundraiser).  I thought we might be able to burn off some of those cookie calories.  ;)

Happy Thursday!!!


20 comments

  1. I LOVE this so much! Unfortunately, we don't teach mean, median, mode, and range until later in the year. I won't forget to look back to this post when it's time for this unit. I love the moon phases with the oreos too. When I taught fourth grade I did the same thing with the oreos. We aren't allowed to use food in our classrooms unless it's for an educational purpose or a party. I am ALWAYS looking for a way to incorporate treats.

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  2. Ahhhh! I LOVE this! Thanks for the idea!! I might even use this with my math class rather than my science class...or both!! :)

    http://asurvivalguidetomiddleschool.blogspot.com/

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  3. Looks like a great day for all! Thanks for sharing.

    Question how many packages of cookies did you use or did you "recycle"?

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  4. I sent a note home asking parents to send in a package of Oreos for the day. I got quite a few that way - I also brought in 5 packages. We ended up with about 17 packages for 22 students - which was WAY too many. I have 7 packages left over. I let all the stackers go at the same time, so each pair used one package - and then we reused those for the moon phases. The sculptures took a lot of oreos - and there was so much waste - not sure I'd do that part again - the rest of the day was fantastic, though.

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  5. Wow what a neat day! I am passing this info on to the intermediate teachers in my building!

    Jennifer @ Herding Kats In Kindergarten

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  6. I do this project each year. I do this with my first grade learning buddies. This will be our 5th year doing this project together. This kids have a lot of fun doing this. We graph the information on the board using post-it notes on a large graph. Then we make up math sentences that go along with our findings. We always have lots of waste. It does seem like such a shame, but thi kids love this project.

    ThirdGrade's a Charm

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  7. Thank you so much for blogging about this. I will add it to the project page when I get home tonight.
    I am glad your students had a great time. And if you have more sculpture images, send them my way so I can add them to the gallery.
    Jennifer Wagner
    http://www.projectsbyjen.com

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  8. Our OREO Day was today, and we had a great time!

    Quench Your First

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  9. This is great!!! We are in the middle of our data management unit and this would make for a great culminating celebration! I am so glad you posted about this!
    Beth
    Thinking of Teaching

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  10. Curious to where I might find these oreo moon phases worksheets (Diagram A & B?)? I would love to do this at home with my children. :)

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  11. That's awesome! I bet your students LOVED you that day.

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  12. Hey Jen,
    I am wondering how many Oreos you used for the main data management activity (how many bags I guess)...
    Beth
    Thinking of Teaching

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  13. Beth, I paired up the students and each pair used one bag. If you did larger groups, you would need less bags. There are around 30 cookies in a bag, and my highest stack result was 30 cookies - so no groups needed a second bag.

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  14. @ The Greevers,
    I just did a google image search for the oreo moon phases worksheet. There are a few out there.

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  15. how awesome is this!!! We already covered mean, median, mode and range... but I can find a place to spiral it back in... :) Thanks for sharing!!!

    Leslie
    http://jackofalltrades-leslie.blogspot.com

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  16. Oreo turns 100 on March 6

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  17. Too bad those have palm oil in them....

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  18. I LOVE the Math challenge! I have never seen that done before. Thanks for the idea!

    Angela
    The Organized Plan Book

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  19. I may try this with my 6th graders all 50 of them. Is there a plan for this, I can't find the challenge

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