Saturday, February 26, 2011
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Stephen Hrusovski (right) fashioned his pizza to look like himself. Is there a likeness?
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Second grade teacher June Gunn (center) is a master with pizza dough after hosting the heart pizza event for the last 25 years.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Placing the cheese on the pizza hearts was the favorite part of the process for Haley Donnadio (left) and Addison Kaschak.
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Karter Kellgren stretched his pizza heart into a Mickey Mouse shape. He was getting excited about his family’s trip to Disney World that was planned for a week after the Feb. 13 event.
By SARAH FOOR
Love was sweet at North Elementary on Feb. 14, and also cheesy, meaty, and doughy, as June Gunn’s second-grade class created heart-shaped pizzas to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
“Our pizza event today is a wonderful lesson on measuring and creativity, not to mention being pretty tasty at the same time,” said North principal Mike Masucci, after popping in the cafeteria to make his own heart pizza.
Gunn has been making Valentine pizzas for 25 years, and has no plans to mess with a classic.
“I’d say that having wonderful helpers like PTA representatives, mothers and grandmothers is part of our success,” shared Gunn. “But good ingredients are also key. We have 7 pounds of bread dough on hand, 5 pounds of mozzarella and 3 pounds of pepperoni, among other toppings.”
Each of Gunn’s students were given a portion of dough that they stretched into a heart and decorated with their favorite toppings. The project integrated math lessons by having the students graph favorite toppings and mastering fractions, and included science when the students learned about dough and active yeast in a tour through Schwabel’s bakery.
The heart-shaped pizzas were often canvases for the creativity of the second-graders. Stephen Hrusovski decorated his pizza in his own likeness. Karter Kellgren stretched his dough from a heart to a Mickey Mouse shape, because he was looking forward to his family trip to Disney World.
However, the students couldn’t quite decide on their favorite part of the project.
“The dough is the best,” said Addison Kaschak.
“The cheese is better,” argued friend Hayley Donnadio.