Monday Mentor - Moon Phases OREO style!

This is my third year teaching fourth grade curriculum. Help me Lord, but I look forward to making the Moon Phases out of Oreo cookies. Every time I am in Costco and spy the huge warehouse sized box of Oreos I think, "Is it time?" Finally the day arrived that I could buy that Monster box of cookies and not feel one ounce of guilt.

I lug them into the class and just watch my students eyes grow three sizes too big. As I'm explaining what we are doing I can tell they aren't listening to a thing I'm saying. All they care about is whether or not they can EAT their display. Even with all that glue stuck on it, they still want to pick the whole thing back off and stuff it down their throats.

I manage to hold them off from gorging themselves on chocolatey goodness long enough to show them how to arrange the cookies to represent the eight moon phases. We twist the tops off the Oreos carefully and use the non cream side for the New Moon. We scrape most of the cream off of the bottom into a crescent sitting on the right hand side for the Waxing Crescent. The cookies continue in this way all the way around the lunar cycle until they have the whole plate covered. This usually takes a while and requires a lot more glue than one would expect. I couldn't find my bottles of liquid glue, not sure if I tossed them during the summer move to a new room. Thankfully our art teacher is kind.

We set them on the floor out of the way to dry. I  know, torture. The next day I hand out a sheet of terms for them to cut out and label their moon phases. As I walk around with my grade book in hand, their glassed over pleading eyes beg to know if they can EAT now. Even after all the cream and the bottom halves of the cookies yesterday, they still want to gobble the rest. I give in and return to my desk to calmly enjoy my pack of 6 Oreos.

Until next year.