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Bentley students make pies for Thanksgiving
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Saturday, November 29, 2008 11:33 PM EST
Argus-Press Photo by Anthony Cepak: Steve Eastman helps his granddaughter Kayla John core and peel apples as her fourth grade class at Bentley elementary school in Owosso make pies for a fundraiser Wednesday morning.
OWOSSO - Bentley Elementary's fourth-grade fundraiser for a trip to Mackinac Island was a sweet success this week.
Mike Raffaelli's fourth-grade class sold apple pies for Thanksgiving to help fund the May trip and his 21 students wasted no time getting their hands dirty making the holiday treats Wednesday at school.
Raffaelli said the class pre-sold approximately 100 pies, which meant all of them had to be made Tuesday from scratch. The project took almost the entire school day, which - of course - meant the kids were excited about getting away from books a day before their holiday weekend actually started.
“We thought, since it was around the winter time, ‘Let's make some apple pies so they will be ready for the holidays,'” said Raffaelli, who has been teaching fourth-grade for 13 years.
The students made a combination of traditional and Dutch-style pies. The only preparation purchasers needed was to stick the pies in the oven Thanksgiving morning. Each pie was sold for $8.
The students worked different stations, from peeling apples to making the crust.
Sierra Davis, 9, said she enjoyed making a pie from the ground up.
“When you push your hands into the mix over there, it feels like you are actually putting your hands into swamp garbage,” she said while holding her plastic-glove covered hand, which was covered in mix.
And while the kids did the crux of the work, parents and grandparents came to join in on the fun.
Steve Eastman, a grandparent who was helping the students, said he thought it was a good idea that is fun for the students and teaches them a life skill.
“It will show them that they can cook too and teach them to be a little more self reliant,” Eastman said. “How many kids go home and bake pies?”
The idea originated about a month ago with parent Nicole Davis, who also helped throughout the entire process.
“This is an event that kids can be more involved in, rather than just doing a fundraiser where they go and just have somebody order something,” Davis said. “It's all hands-on for the kids and it is truly something that they are going to remember. Not too many teachers are willing to be this adventurous.”
Raffaelli said he was worried the class was underprepared for such an undertaking, but luckily it all went smoothly.
“We took a chance and a risk,” Raffaelli said. “But we knew that is was going to be fun for the kids. So, no matter what happened it would be fun.”
But was Raffaelli an expert pie baker before Tuesday?
“I like eating it,” he said with a smile. “Before this, the only experience I had was with a fork and it was already cooked.”
- Contact Michael Peterson at 725-5136 extension 223 or mpetersonarguspress@gmail.com.