Students at Petersen Adventist School are having fun making chocolate! It all started last school year when Mr. Blumenschein was having Reading class with 4th grade student, Cami. They were reading a book about chocolate and Mr. Blumenschein thought it would be fun to learn how to make chocolate.
To get the project started, Mr. Blumenschein bought cocoa beans. Then, during their free time, the students had fun smashing and grinding the beans. Next, they mixed cocoa butter, cocoa powder and powdered sugar together, heated it up and then dumped the mixture on a cookie sheet. Finally, they placed it in the freezer.
When the chocolate was taken out of the freezer the students broke it into pieces, wrapped it up, and put the pieces into a special box, designed by the students. Then they delivered their chocolates to students at Wisconsin Academy. Encouraging notes were attached to each piece of chocolate. What fun!!
When I stopped in to visit the students again this school year, they were back at making chocolate again! Elijah, a student in Mr. Blumenschein’s classroom, was eager to share the process. He said, “Mr. Blumenschein got a great idea. He put all the ingredients (coconut sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa, almond milk) in a bag, then the students poured the ingredients into a measuring cup. Then we heated and stirred the ingredients until smooth. After that we poured the chocolate into a Hershey mold. Next, we put it in the freezer. When we took it out of the freezer we wrapped the bars in tinfoil. The students decorated and designed labels which said, ‘Petersen.’ We either gave the chocolate away, ate the chocolate, or brought it home.”
The class is now making small, round discs of chocolate and wrapping them in tinfoil and attaching notes of encouragement to each disc. Mr. Blumenschein and his students are bringing cheer to many Wisconsin Academy students.
Mr. Blumenschein said that he and the students have had fun experimenting with using a variety of ingredients especially using different kinds of sugar like Monk, Stevia, and Coconut.
The Petersen staff are planning to give a large chocolate bar to every student that invites a friend to enroll at Petersen Adventist School next school year. What a creative way to involve students in marketing their school!
Sue Nelson, Superintendent for Education