When this year’s presidential candidates debated, they were asked questions about how they would approach foreign policy, security and the Supreme Court. The biggest issues the fourth-graders in Kathy Hancock’s class had to face: how do you respond if someone says your candidate has too much sugar?

Instead of debating the merits of Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Gary Johnson or Jill Stein, Hancock’s social studies students at Mile Creek School in Old Lyme promoted different brands of cookies. Hancock said that from the start, she wanted to teach the election process without involving any specific candidates because it could become political with her students’ parents. Replacing the candidates with cookies keeps it neutral.

“They’re learning about the election without dealing with all the nastiness,” she said.

Hancock, who has taught in the Lyme-Old Lyme school district for 25 years, said she had taught bits and pieces of the election in previous years, but this was the first year where she did a full unit on the election process. Mile Creek has a student government, so students already knew a lot about how elections work, and they made posters for their candidates, wrote speeches and debated each other to prove whose cookie should win. They also read “The Kid Who Ran for President” by Dan Gutman to discuss the election from a child’s point of view.

“The class discussions are very positive,” Hancock said, citing her students’ enthusiasm with the book and the rest of the unit. “They’ve certainly risen to the occasion and I’m really proud of them.”

The three social studies classes held their debates the Thursday before the school-wide vote Election Day on Nov. 7, since the school was closed for the actual election on Nov. 8. In the first class of the day, nine students sided with Republican candidate Oreo, while five students supported Democratic candidate Chips Ahoy, and three students backed the double chocolate gluten-free cookie made by Enjoy Life as the Green Party candidate. Hancock also included vanilla sugar-free wafers as the Libertarian candidate, but no one in the first class chose that cookie.

Each group opened the debate with the history, varieties and nutritional benefits of their cookies. The Oreo group touted their success over more than a century of sales, while the Chips Ahoy surrogates promoted their varieties including cookies with Reese’s peanut butter cups. The Green party pointed out that their cookie is allergen free and safe for everyone to eat.

Some crumbs flew as parties accused each other of containing alcohol or tree bark, which gave Hancock an opportunity to discuss the role of fact checking in debates. With time running short, they skipped ahead to the last question and complimented their competitors for their taste.

To wrap up the unit, the fourth-grade classes ran the school polls Nov. 7, checking in staff and students, escorting them to the polls and handing out the all-important “I Voted” sticker when they finished.

Oreos swept up the competition with 181 votes compared to Chips Ahoy’s 89, double-chocolate gluten-free’s 28 and sugar-free vanilla wafer’s three votes.

a.hutchinson@theday.com