Pizza Project

TAKES THE CAKE:  A couple of weeks ago, I made the mistake of showing CJ a photo of a multi-layered pizza 'cake' I came across on the Internet. He instantly declared that's what he wanted for his birthday cake this year.

So, I had a couple of weeks to think about making it, and Sunday, we gave it a go.

The first thing we did was make dough. A LOT of dough. Six good-sized pizzas worth.

I made sure each crust was a little bigger than the cake pan above, and then I baked each of them for about 5 or 6 minutes. Once they cooled, I cut them out to fit into the form.

We made a big batch of sauce, and then it was time to build the pizzas.

 The kids did the 'decorating' ...

Raining mozzarella!

Here's a shot of the kids contemplating whether or not to go to five layers. Of course, the answer was 'yes.'

CJ turns 12 this year, so he wanted a 12 on top. 

My rolling pin looks like a baseball bat in this photo. smile emoticon Appropriate, since we were watching the Mariners game while making it.

The stack made, it was time to fashion the dough band/wrap that would bind them all together. I made them do the math to figure out how long the wrap had to be. 2*pi*r wasn't too hard to mentally calculate.

Out of the oven, it was heavy and smelled heavenly.

CJ couldn't wait to carve it!

 He was quite pleased with the result.

All in all, not too difficult a project, and it's a 'cake' he'll remember for a long time, no doubt.

SHAPE UP: Over the weekend, I came across a template to make a colorful, flexible paper craft called a 'flextangle.' 

This video shows how they're made and how they work. 

https://youtu.be/pta1R7g05Xg

A link to print the PDF template pictured below is here: http://babbledabbledo.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Flextangles-Template-BABBLE-DABBLE-DO.pdf

Here's Annabelle's flextangle in action!

DOLLARS AND SENSE:  The kids are exploring the issue of education funding in their social issues group this month. We found an interesting infographic from USC's RossierOnline about how countries measure up when it comes to funding and student performance.

It would seem to demonstrate that more money is not always the answer to better or more effective education. ... 

Of course, we realize that this infographic is just one snapshot, and that literacy rate is just one measure of success in education ...

Click here to see a larger (readable!) version of the infographic above: http://rossieronline.usc.edu/u-s-education-versus-the-world-infographic/