Choose My Doughnut!

If you had to select the doughnut of the month for a local bakery, would you pick the allergen-free “Unicorn Surprise Special” donut or the “Flower Panda” doughnut filled with ice cream? Third graders have been designing doughnuts this month and using their persuasive writing skills to pitch their creations as the best choice for doughnut of the month in third grade teacher Katie Buteau’s imaginary bakery.

Third graders have been exploring the opinion and persuasive writing genres by writing an opinion piece together as a class and reading examples of opinion writing authored by students. Students also watched a persuasive Ted Ed video called “Why You Should Eat Bugs” that makes the case for bugs being a larger part of the human diet citing sustainability, micronutrients, and high protein content as compelling reasons. The video highlighted the key ingredients of effective persuasive writing: reasons and examples. To practice incorporating those elements, third grade teachers gave students a “triple-stuffed oreo” writing framework to follow. “Oreo” writing should start with a topic sentence and statement of opinion, contain three reasons and examples in the middle to bolster the argument and then end with a concluding sentence that restates the opinion and ties it all together.

The doughnut writing project challenged students to design a unique doughnut and then use the oreo writing framework to write a persuasive piece arguing why it should be chosen as doughnut of the month. To accompany their writing, each student created a 3D model of their doughnut using cardboard, paper plates, cotton balls, pipe cleaners, or any other found materials. Some students even designed and built a delivery box for their doughnut! Each student presented their project to the class. The persuasive writing assignments presented a variety of reasons for why each doughnut should be chosen from the uniqueness of its design to special attributes like being gluten-free. Each student read their essay and then showed off their design. The presentation was excellent practice for their next third grade writing assignment - their first speech at Fay School!