Create Dunkin' Donuts!

Dunkin' Donuts has a great new interactive celebrating their 60th Birthday- Create Dunkin's Next Donut Contest. The website allows you to choose a donut shell, kind of dough, fillings, frosting and toppings. When it is complete, you can submit your creation to Dunkin' and be eligible to win $12,000 (though you might want to use your judgment on that step in the educational setting, especially since it requires an email). I used this activity with some teens in a social skills group and they found it very cool; with its ease of use it is appropriate for all ages.

Technical Tips
This site works best if you have updated to the latest version of your browser, and you may need to install the latest Flash player. You may want to have a few computers, laptops or netbooks available if you are using the activity with multiple students, but this is not necessary. When the donut is complete, it would be a good idea to take a screen shot of it (apple/command-shift-4, then click and drag across the picture on a Mac) for later use. It's a little more complicated on PCs, but here are some directions for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7.

Language Lens

• The interface lends itself to all sorts of language goals. In using it with a social pragmatics group, it functioned as an icebreaker and discussion starter.
• For younger students, it could be used for simple requesting and description activity (colors, etc).
• This could lend itself to a barrier game, with one student sitting with the laptop and the screen functioning as a barrier to the other student, who describes/requests a specific kind of donut.
• With upper elementary or older students, a pre-activity could involve a discussion of donuts and their similarities and differences. This could lead to a kind of "schema" of donuts, creation of a graphic organizer, and a descriptive writing activity (perhaps coupled with a screenshot) about the completed donut. Development of descriptive schema is helpful for all students with verbal organization difficulties.