Wyckoff Students Get "Taste" Of New Jersey In End-Of-Year Project

WYCKOFF, NJ — For an end-of-year assignment, fourth-grade students at St. Elizabeth School in Wyckoff, with help from classroom moms, made a massive, 4-foot long cake of New Jersey, carving out each of its 21 counties and then icing them, student advisory board member Mara Hroncich said in a June 15 news release.

Karen Klypka, the fourth-grade teacher at the private school, assigned the project to the students after studying ideas, topics and events related to the state all year, many of which were highlighted on the cake in decorations.

Subjects included on the cake were the original residents of New Jersey, the Lenni-Lenape; celebrities, such as writer Judy Blume and singer-songwriter Jon Bon Jovi, "firsts," such as inventor Thomas Edison's lightbulb, and the first nearly complete dinosaur skeleton; and attractions, such as the Cape May Lighthouse and the Liberty Science Center.

Klypka, who has taught at the school for 40 years, brought back the tradition, after it was taken away for two years by the coronavirus pandemic. Students, the news release said, enjoyed the cake, which included the Jersey Shore made of cotton candy, Swedish fish and jelly beans, and got a "taste" of New Jersey as well, the news release said.