What Do Third-Grade Food Critics from Brookview Think of Local Restaurants?

The look on Gillian Hiscocks' face as she lunched on a piece of popcorn chicken spoke volumes about what she thought of her meal at .

With her eyebrows slightly arched and her lips curled into a smile, the third-grader from picked up her No. 2 pencil and began to write what one can only assume was a good review of her dining experience.

Hiscocks and approximately 120 other third-grade students from Brookview Elementary weren't just out to lunch last Tuesday. They were on assignment as junior food critics, out to let the world know what they thought of five different West Des Moines restaurants.

The idea belonged to the third-grade teachers at Brookview Elementary School in West Des Moines. They decided that to teach the students about writing an opinion or persuasive piece, they needed to get creative thus turning the students into food critics.

"The idea is that by third grade, students should be able to write their opinion," said Molly Boyle, a third-grade teacher at Brookview. "We started to look through all the things they could do with that, something that would lead to some kind of change, which lead us into planning a day where we could go out and the students would have a chance to review a restaurant."

Boyle and her fellow third-grade teachers, chose five different restaurants — , Joe's Crab Shack, , and — to review. Last Tuesday, each class attended their designated restaurant, ordered and ate a meal there and completed a worksheet about the experience.

Chicken Nuggets Come Out on Top at Chick-fil-A

Aubrey Cutler, 8, sat at a table in the food court at . In front of her, a box of chicken nuggets, a fruit cup and chocolate milk from Chick-fil-A sat half eaten as she scribbled her comments about the experience on a clipboard.

"I thought the chicken nuggets were the best part," she said. "I actually thought they did a really good job. It didn't take long to order and they were really nice."

Garry Brumels, the owner/operator of Chick-fil-A at Jordan Creek, said his staff was ready to make the experience a good one for the Brookview food critics.

"I've got a great staff and I know they will take care of these young folks very well," he said. "I think this will give these students a better appreciation of what it's like when you go out to eat. They have to go through the process themselves and do some critical thinking about what happened with their order experience."

It's All About the Experience at Joe's Crab Shack

Nearby at Joe's Crab Shack, third-grade teacher Jodi Simons' class was oddly quiet. As students quietly nibbled on their fish and shrimp baskets and orders of popcorn chicken and french fries, they were clearly focused on the task at hand. That is, until the waiter coaxed students out of their seats and into a conga line.

"It's been really exciting to see the real world application of a skill we've been teaching our students  about how to write their own opinion," said Simons. "We can teach them how to do this in a classroom but it's not as meaningful for them."

Without a consensus, Lauryn Kozak, 8, said Joe's Crab Shack was the "best restaurant."

"It was so good," she said. "I love the cheese sticks and the french fries so much. They were good but the dancing was the best part."

The Reviews Are In

Boyle said the students' work will not go unpublished. Their reviews will appear on the teachers' blogs, school web pages and in the classroom.

Also, during the week of March 5, a selection of reviews from each of the five restaurants will run on Waukee and West Des Moines Patch, allowing the students' friends and families to see the results of their critique.

"It's been a nice collaborative effort from a lot of people," Boyle said. "Without the generosity of the restaurants, and all the students and the teachers, this wouldn't have been possible."

Check back to Waukee and West Des Moines Patch on March 5 for the first installment of Brookview Elementary's third-grade food critiques.