Kenowa Hills — Talk about a sweet assignment.
As a final project for their persuasive opinion writing unit, every Zinser Elementary third-grader created an idea for a donut and then wrote about why their idea was the best.
Zinser’s trio of third-grade teachers said they have been doing the project for about five years.
“They design the donut first, after brainstorming what they want it to look like. Then they start working on an intro and body paragraphs,” third-grade teacher Sarah McCune said.
Then, added teacher Aelise Goller, “Each body paragraph talked about what their donut tasted like and looked like, and what made theirs the best.”
Students focused on their grammar, how to write in complete sentences and to support their opinions with reasons. As one of their final writing assignments of the year, teacher Erica Finkler said there is a lot of growth that happens in the students’ writing.
“They get better at adding details and making their writing more interesting,” she said. “This year, especially, (the essays) were so convincing and they came up with great descriptive words to convince their classmates.”
After writing final drafts of their essays, the students made presentations to earn votes from their classmates.
“The more creative they are with it, the more likely they are to get votes,” McCune said
If daydreaming and writing about delicious donuts wasn’t incentive enough, the winning donut in each third-grade class was created by Sandy’s Donuts for students to enjoy.
Goller reached out to Sandy’s about the project and said they were 100% on board to bring their donut designs to life.
Third-grader Addie Hurst’s peers in Goller’s class voted her donut as the winner.
“It was super fun that (my donut) got to be made by Sandy’s Donuts. I’ve been there, like, a million times,” she said.
Addie’s “Strawberry Surprise” donut was inspired by her family’s love for strawberries and arrived at her classroom decorated with pink frosting, sprinkles and strawberry drizzle.
Presley Zahm’s winning donut from McCune’s class was inspired by her dad and their favorite football team.
“We watch the Lions together, so I made a Lions donut, with blue frosting to make it pop,” she said. “It tasted really good. … We got to write about them and then it came to life.”
Finkler said her class’ winner, Lincoln Solow, is usually shy and reserved but becomes more outgoing when he writes.
“I saw an Oreo donut and thought I needed to do it. I got the idea from it and wanted to make one,” he said. “It tasted so good.”
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