Winton students get served: Shaved Ice and Stories
LOREN BENOIT/Press Winton Elementary School first-grade teacher Taylor Malinauskas reads “There is a Bird on Your Head” to Raven Curry, left, Grace Turner and other students as they eat shaved ice Friday morning at school.
LOREN BENOIT/PressWinton first-grader Josiah Morris listens and eats his shaved ice as Mrs. Teal reads "The Book With No Pictures" Friday morning at school.
LOREN BENOIT/PressFrom left, Winton Elementary School students Samantha Taub, Dezirai Teeter, Addie Knob and Thomas Moore watch eager as teacher Maggie Kemp tries her watermelon shaved ice during school on Friday.
LOREN BENOIT/PressWinton Elementary School teacher Carrie Waddell reads a book to her class as her students eat shaved ice Friday morning at school.
LOREN BENOIT/PressA Winton Elementary student enjoys a shaved ice Friday morning at school.
The skies cleared up a bit and the sun peeked out just in time for students at Winton Elementary to spend some time with their classmates outside on the lawn to enjoy some quality reading time and some shaved ice.
Kona Days is a new event for the new school, and gives an opportunity to promote literacy, as each teacher is asked to have their students reading either as a group or to themselves while eating their shaved ice. Most teachers circled their class and read aloud to them. When the school heard that Tim Heberer, owner of the Kona Ice Truck in Kootenai County, was willing to donate shaved ice for all the schools in the area, they jumped at the chance.
“It’s a good treat for surviving the first two weeks of school,” Principal Eileen Blough said.
In light of the recent tragedy at Freeman High School, principal assistant Jennifer Reyes pointed out that, “especially this week of all weeks, you want to celebrate the good things that are going on and that school is a great place to be and safe, where we can enjoy each other.”
The Kona truck is a tropical party on wheels, with flashing lights, fun beach scenes painted all over, speakers blaring fun calypso tunes, and cups of shaved ice flying out the window as fast as the kids could grab them. “When they see it they just can’t sit still,” said Heberer, “and I try to have lots of fun with them.”
They have the ability to serve 500 kids per hour, and with classes coming out to the truck in 5-minute shifts, there were no kids standing in a long line doing the waiting dance. The truck boasts two flavor stations, and the syrups are sweetened and flavored with stevia and dried pears or pineapples, so they contain very little sugar. The kids were allowed to choose two flavors and pump it on themselves. Fun flavors like Watermelon Wave, Groovy Grape, and Dragon’s Blood were the choices among the 10 syrups.
“But the dragon’s blood doesn’t taste like that.” said first-grader Dean Scenault. “It tastes kind of like red raspberry.”
He and his friends in Tiffany Teal’s class sat together and read a book called “The Book with No Pictures,” which despite the title had them rolling with laughter and chanting, “Again! Again!” when the reading was done.
As Maggie Kemp led her class of fourth-graders to the truck, she and the kids walked in a neat and orderly line. “We’re going to look real nice and maybe we will get them for free,” she joked with the kids. Their good behavior paid off.
After getting their treats, her class circled up and had a blast making up their own version of the children’s classic “If you Give a Mouse a Cookie” and in their version the mouse gets a shaved ice. After several rounds the mouse ended up with a triple sugar rush, then he passed out from said sugar rush, and then while passed out he dreamt about more shaved ice.
With happy faces and tongues stained with many colors, the kids finished up their shaved ice and stories, lingered for a few minutes to catch up with friends, then headed back into class, probably daydreaming of more shaved ice too.