Arnie the Clay Donut

 

Description: This lesson is based on a children's story called "Arnie the Donut" In the story, Arnie is a donut who gets purchased at the bakery and is so excited to finally have a new home! However, to his surprise, Mr. Bing (the man who purchased Arnie) plans to eat him! Horrified, Arnie pleads with Mr. Bing not to eat him. Mr. Bing decides to grant Arnie's wishes, so they decided to come up with something else for Arnie to do other than being a donut. In the end they decided that Arnie is going to be Mr. Bing's donut dog! At the beginning of the lesson, students will listen to this story, then students will be challenged to create their own clay donuts and come up with what they are going to do with their donut instead of eating it! For example, my donut (the purple one) is a detective. After students have created their donuts that include; at least one character element (eye, nose, mouth, etc.) and one creative element (mustache, glasses, crown, etc.) they must name their donut and write at least three characterizes about it! For example: my donuts name is Detective Sugarstache. He enjoys reading mystery novels, drinking tea, and playing Clue. 

Extension Activity: I LOVE this lesson and wish we would have had more time in class to expand on it because I believe there are so many things you could do with it. I really like the idea of incorporating more in depth writing standards into this lesson. Instead of having students write just a few characteristics about their clay donut, you could have students write an entire story about it. This activity could be turned into a whole writing unit in which you teach students about creative writing. You could cover what a narrative is including; storyline, plot, setting, and characters and then build on the students creation of the clay donuts to have them write creative stories or narratives!