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Wycallis Elementary students create projects in pizza form

October 26, 2009

Well-rounded book reports

CAMILLE FIOTI Times Leader Correspondent

DALLAS --- Writing a book report is a project that most kids are expected to complete in elementary school.

But instead of requiring students to write a traditional essay, Caitlin Cooper, reading specialist at Wycallis Elementary School in Dallas, came up with a more creative, “hands-on” approach to the task.

Given the fact that pizza is just about every kid’s favorite food, Cooper had her students in Ms. Joseph’s fifth-grade class make book report “pizzas.”

Using the classroom’s “Who Was” book series, the students read biographies on people from all walks of life such as Albert Einstein, Amelia Earhart, Johnny Appleseed, Louis Armstrong and the Beatles. The students then created a “pizza” based on their lives using construction paper, glitter and glue. The eight slices of each pizza represented major elements in the subject’s lives, with details and little-known facts written on the toppings.

Grotto Pizza donated the pizza boxes, with “The Legendary Taste” logo emblazoned on the lid. Covering some letters of the logo with strategic positioning of white construction paper, the students personalized the lids to spotlight their famous figures, such as “Abraham Lincoln-The Legend.”

“They had fun putting the project together,” Cooper said. “They enjoyed having the option to choose the person they studied about, and looking at their life as a whole.” The project has even sparked an interest in many of the students to research and read biographies on their own, Cooper added. “Some read about the Beatles and they’ve never even heard of the Beatles before,” she said.

Cooper said all fifth-graders are expected to present a book report in some form, whether it is a “pizza” report, or a “Wax Museum,” where students dress up and quote facts about the person they read about. “It’s about presenting knowledge in different ways,” she said.

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