CENTER – Recently Martina Thompson’s third grade class had a fun experience making homemade ice cream in class.

Thompson said that the kids enjoyed it, and she loved seeing their smiles. The kids said that the ice cream was delicious. Thompson got the recipe for the ice cream from the internet. She thought the ice cream would be a fun and delicious project for her class.

Thompson said that the students were told about the ice cream project for about a week. The students learned how ice cream had changed throughout the years. The students were excited but had to earn the project by practicing positive behavior and being good students in the classroom.

The recipe for the ice cream consisted of half of a cup of half and half, 1 tablespoon of sugar, one-fourth of a teaspoon of vanilla, 1 sandwich Ziploc bag, 1 gallon Ziploc bag, 3 cups of crushed ice, and one-third cup of rock salt. The instructions were simple – mix the first three ingredients in the smaller Ziploc bag and mix the ice and rock salt together in the larger bag, you then add the small bag to the large bag, and you squeeze the bag until the ice cream thickens for about 10 to 15 minutes. Once thickened you can eat with a spoon.

Many of the students expressed what they liked most about the project, Derek Sala said that he loved mushing the ice cream with his hands; Arianna Chavez said that she enjoyed pouring vanilla drops into the ice cream to flavor it; Yuriel Garcia said that he liked using his hands to massage the ice cream and he had to either wear gloves or use his sweater to massage the ice cream because it was really cold.

Many students talked about the process of making ice cream.

Berny Chaparro said, “First we put cream in, and then sugar and vanilla. We got another big bag and put salt rocks in with ice. Then we put the ice cream in the big bag to make it cold, and we had to massage the bag together, but we had to do it gently or we could break the bag, and it would taste like salt.”

Amelia Enqurst said that she loved eating the ice cream, “My ice cream was melted, and it tasted very, very, sweet.”

Thompson also said they read all about brain freeze. They read about how it happens and what causes it.

“I think several kids got a brain freeze; I also got a brain freeze too,” she said.

Thompson said she enjoyed making the ice cream with her students and thinks they enjoyed it too. It was a good project.