The Heritage Home-schoolers of Dunbarton have been busy for the past seven months making an apple pie.

They were finally able to taste the fruits of their labor on Saturday March 24, after their rod puppetry performance, based on Marjorie Priceman’s book “How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.”

The performers shared apple pie with all in attendance after presenting months of research and fun in an engaging show. The project was inspired after some of the members attended a rod puppetry performance in the spring of 2006. The group chose a piece of literature that was packed with adventure and opportunity for education and set off on their adventure together in the fall of 2006.

The literature chosen provided a unique journey for the home-schoolers. The main character in the story sets out to make an apple pie and finds that the market is closed. This causes her to travel to six different geographical locations to find all the ingredients to make her apple pie. The children were able to enjoy multi-cultural studies spanning the regions of Italy, France, Sri Lanka, England, Jamaica and Vermont.

In September to November of 2006, the 13 children began their studies by attending a series of clubs hosted by different moms each week, which highlighted aspects of the book. The clubs began by focusing on the different regions of the world the character visited, then carried on with other topics such as cooking in “taste of the world” club and art and music around the world. They enjoyed math and science studies and immersed themselves in the book.

The building of the puppets took place in December and January. The eight first- through fifth-grade children used clay, dowels, paint and fabric to bring to life their specific characters in a rod puppet, while the five younger children built paper mache masks to animate a specific animal in the book.

In February and March the eight older children each became a director of their own scene in the puppet show and called the shots for scenery and props. They also added extra lines and incorporated at least one element of study from their fall clubs in each scene. The children wrote to the author to let her know of their studies, and to thank her for her inspiring work. The students also received hand-written letters back from Priceman just before their show.

On March 24 at Dunbarton Elementary School, the children preformed their multicultural puppet show for approximately 50 friends and family.

Emma Soucy, 7, created a puppet she named Haley Humor, who served as the comical narrator of the show.

Moriah McInturff, 8, named the main character Mia and packed her with the personality needed to persevere through all these adventures.

Olivia Dodd, 9, was the puppeteer who created Isabella for the Italy scene. She delighted the audience with some Italian dialect while passing along some semolina wheat to Mia for to grind into flour for her pie.

In France, Mia met up with Gabriella, performed by Eden McInturff, 10, and her chicken George, performed by Wyatt Dodd, 4, at a French Cafe. It is here that the audience was invited to taste the famous cake Gallette de Rois in celebration of the holiday Epiphany in France.

Three audience members were crowned King or Queen Bean when they found the hidden bean in their pastry. Mia picked up the chicken for the much needed eggs for her pie and was headed to Sri Lanka next.

In Sri Lanka, Mia witnessed a savaran dance in celebration of the holiday Esala Perahera. Amy Davies, 10, dressed in handmade traditional Sri Lankan attire, performed the dance with homemade savarans. She then peeled some bark off the Kurundu tree for Mia to grind into cinnamon for her pie, while a leopard, William Soucy age 5, napped beneath the tree in the rainforest.

Mia found some milk in England from a cow, played by Elana Conover, age 5. The puppet named Clarice, who was performed by Cassie Conover, 10, instructed Mia on how to pasteurize her milk, if needed, and gave her some useful math facts to equip her for pie measurements.

Mia was getting exhausted by the time she got to Jamaica. Erin Davies, 7, created a song-filled puppet in Muna, who serenaded Mia to relieve her stress. Mia then picked up some sugar cane in Jamaica before heading on her way.

Mia almost forgot to get the apples! An audience member or two were helpful enough to remind her to have a pilot drop her off in Vermont. It was there she met up with Grace Frost. Grace was created by Morgyn Soucy, and she had a cute cat, Jachin McInturff, 4, and dog, Amber Conover, 3, wandering around her apple orchard.

Grace picked apples off her tree for Mia while flooding the ears of the audience with rich literary treasure.

After returning home, Mia made her pie to the tune of “Just keep goin’ on,” which was the theme song for the performance.

The children ended by performing a dance to their theme song and the animals shined during a harmonica solo.