The annual Primer Pie Contest will be taking place as part of primer’s current study of the State Fair on Oct. 21. Students have been engaging in many activities to prepare them for this event, primarily focusing on their social emotional learning skills.   

The Primer Pie Contest is an event where the primer students invite families, faculty and seniors who were past primer students to come and vote for the best pie.  

The students make little pies and the big pies that will be voted on can be entered in by families of primer students and staff members. 

The students take on a hosting role where they run the voting booth and take on jobs like passing out utensils and hand sanitizer before they get to enjoy their own work.   

The class is incorporating pie into their class activities, using it as a visual element to aid their studies of fractions.  

This unit introduces the kids to actual live practice with a lot of developmental skills that they wouldn’t be able to learn on a work sheet. The students have engaged in asking each other questions about their favorite pies to help them with the social element. 

“They have little stick-on mustaches, and they say, ‘I mustache you a question,’” Primer Team Leader Janice LaMendola said.  

According to LaMendola, this project is intended to be purely up to the students, giving them a scenario where they can come up with something and watch it come to life, an opportunity they most likely won’t have again for a long time.  

The students came up with their own theme, with this year’s being “Polka Dot Primer Pie”.  The kids are creating their own decorations consisting of placemats with polka dots and classroom designs hung up around the primer classroom.  

“A lot of work goes into it. It’s not just ‘here’s pie!’” LaMendola said.  

Ninth grader Alex Gamble reflects on her primer experience during the contest. She remembers going to different stations and trying many different pies. 

“It helped open my brain to being more explorative towards foods and now I am willing to try many different varieties,” Gamble said.