Students in Mrs. Fritz’s Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) Food and Travel class at Umatilla High School spent the week leading up to winter break preparing cookie decorating kits for the school’s Frozen-themed holiday celebration, where students enjoyed spending time with friends and participating in a variety of activities.
In total, students assembled approximately 200 cookie kits for the celebration, which took place during the last hour of the school day on Friday, December 19th.
The project allowed students to practice a range of skills, including kitchen safety, sanitation, baking, teamwork, and communication. Throughout the week, students worked through each step of the process together. On Monday, they prepared the cookie dough. Tuesday was spent rolling out the dough, cutting the cookies with cookie cutters, and baking them. On Wednesday, students made the frosting and began packing the kits, and on Thursday they finished assembling and decorating the boxes.
Each cookie decorating kit included two cookies, two small containers of frosting, one small container of sprinkles, two popsicle sticks, and a quote from the movie Frozen, tying into the theme of the celebration.
Mrs. Fritz shared that one of her favorite parts of the project was watching the students take ownership of their work. “Seeing students take assembling the boxes so seriously and watching everything they made come together was really rewarding,” she said.
Students also reflected on what they gained from the experience. Ninth-grade student Paola Gallegos said the project helped her learn how to better communicate and work as part of a team, especially with classmates she had not worked with before. Another ninth-grade student, Adamary Lemus, shared that she enjoyed seeing students receive the cookie kits and hoped they had fun decorating and eating them with their friends.
Many students said making the frosting was a highlight of the project, especially getting to taste it along the way.
The cookie decorating kits were one of several activities offered during Umatilla High School’s Frozen-themed holiday celebration. The event included athletic games, a study hall, video games, board games, cookie decorating, craft workshop, and a movie.
The celebration is an annual tradition at UHS, with a new theme selected each year. This event gives students an opportunity to enjoy time together and head into winter break on a positive note.