Making Monster Pudding Introduces 1st Graders to New Writing Unit

Excited laughter and squeals of delight rang out from Sara DiDio’s classroom at John F. Kennedy Elementary School last week as students followed step-by-step directions to make monster pudding. The hands-on fun helped introduce the first graders to their how-to writing unit.

“I’m going to show you the step, and then I’m going to give you a chance to do it,” DiDio told her eager students at the start of the activity.

DiDio, with help from English as a Second Language teacher Lorraine Lennon, showed students how to take a cup of regular vanilla pudding and turn it into a festive monster treat. While DiDio talked through each step before students completed it, Lennon drew pictures of what the step looked like on sheets of paper the students would work on later.

“Does your monster have to look exactly like mine?” DiDio asked.

“No!” students responded before drawing spooking monster faces on the outside of their pudding cups.

Once they stirred in green food coloring, crushed Oreos and sprinkled them on top, students had a chance to try their tasty treats.

“I can’t take this anymore, it’s so delicious,” one student told her friend.

“Crushing the Oreos was the best part,” another student said.

“Eating was the best part,” Austin Dohan responded.

Once the puddings were devoured and the cookie crumbs were wiped from tables, it was time for students to work together for the writing portion of the project.

“I’m going to give each table a page,” DiDio said. “Your job, as a table, is to write down the direction of the page that you get.”

“Now wait a second,” Lennon said. “Do we have to work together?”

“We do,” DiDio responded.

The tables were each given a sheet with one of the steps that Lennon drew. Students had to work together to write out the step, helping each other with spelling and adding details.

“Ooooh, that’s a good sentence!” one student told her friend while another group of students helped each other sound out “sprinkle.”

When each table had finished, they met as a class and each group presented their step to create a complete how-to-create-monster-pudding piece.

“Guess what you know how to do now?” DiDio asked. “You know how to make monster pudding. And you did an awesome job writing a story as a class.”

Students were proud of themselves and delighted about the treat they enjoyed in the process. The engaging lesson also introduced the new writing unit on a high note.

“It was easy!” Melany Cruz Martinez said of working together with her peers on the writing exercise. “I helped to stretch the word, and my friends are good at remembering things.”