“Strawberry, strawberry, strawberry, strawberry,” sang the owners of Sunset Bowls, an acai bowl focused food truck. “Pineapple, pineapple, pineapple, pineapple.”
The owners of the food truck are also sixth-graders at Pioneer Elementary School. Their names are Leah Franklin, Jalynn Lebo, Addyson Homburg, Hannah Rober and Aubrey Shafer. While their business exists on paper only—seriously, the food truck is made of paper—it hasn’t diminished their enthusiasm—nor the enthusiasm of the 14 other sixth grade groups who spent the last two weeks creating businesses.
“Mango, mango, mango, mango,” they continued singing. “Extra fruit in your bowls at Sunset, have it your way! In your bowls!”
The five girls break into giggles as their business jingle morphs into a familiar Burger King commercial.
It’s all part of a grade wide project where the sixth graders came up with a food truck idea, planned their business, created a jingle, a logo and a sign spinning routine (a popular aspect of the project for the kids).
The 15 groups of five students weren’t the only ones teaming up. The teachers behind the project idea came together to create the opportunity for their kids. The teachers included art teacher Dana Ayers, PE teacher Abby Armick, tech teacher Emily Campbell, music teacher Denise Schoensiegel and librarian Gina Nethercutt.
Ayers said she was going to have her students work on making food trucks in art class and not long after she had recruited the other teachers. Each teacher had their own little aspect that they helped with such as Schoensiegel helping the students come up with their jingles and Armick helping them come up with different ways they could spin their signs to attract customers.
The students had nearly 10 days to put their businesses together. They would meet in the gym each morning and decide on what they were going to work on and then head to the classroom that best suited their goal.
Ayers said it was nice to collaborate with her fellow teachers and put all of their classes together.
“We are specialized in our curriculum that we teach so for us to be able to come together like that was huge,” Armick said.
She said as a PE teacher she gets to see her students’ athletic side but the project allowed her to see and participate in their creativity.
Food truck businesses include Artic Ice, Shrek Smoothies, Monkey Steaks and the Cheese Truck.
Kayleigh Armick, Nora Poyser, Addyson Dillman, Savannah Reeser and Melany Gonzalez-Ardon were inspired by their joint love of Walt Disney when it came to creating their business, Walt Burgers.
“We used a lot of teamwork in this project,” Kayleigh Armick said. “It’s more than a one-person job if you want to get it done.”
The group behind Monkey Steaks—Colby Rusk, Jonathan Thompson, Peyton Flowers, Joseph Nice and Logan Mearna—all agreed that communication was crucial to completing the project.
“They are still kids but they are becoming young adults,” Abby Armick said. “For us to push that higher level of thinking about after high school and after college—for them to understand that this is something they can obtain is huge.”
At 12:30 p.m. Friday afternoon the students received a treat for all of their hard work. They assembled outside the school and got Tacos from Logan Ricos Tacos.
The Logansport food truck brought its trailer to the school to feed both students and teachers and also answered thoughtful questions from the students about running a business.
“Do you hear what they are saying?” Armick said. “That’s how you started your project. It all starts with an idea and then you build upon it. And then things get bigger and better. Your project that you just did is exactly what they did as a family. Your project, it could become a reality.”
“Anything is possible,” added Cardiel Cabrera, a member of Logan Ricos Tacos crew. “If you stay in school, it’s going to be way easier for you to make (your ideas) happen. Everything involves staying in school. I know you guys probably hear this 100 times a day but that is the best advice I can I tell you guys.”
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