Last spring, every class at Claude Chester Elementary School in Groton walked over to The Bridge Market to take a tour of the kitchen and learn how to make pizza in the market’s brick oven. Many families in the school are also regular patrons or even employees of the market. By the time the students in the school PUPs program returned on Nov. 23 for their monthly field trip to the market, most of them already knew what to do.

Every month, a few students from each grade are selected as “Positively Uplifting People,” or PUPs, for being role models in school. Assistant principal Megan Bibby said Claude Chester is a PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Support) school, and teachers nominate students as PUPs for exhibiting positive behavior. The trip to The Bridge Market is used as an incentive for the PUPs program.

Layla Aldana, 8, and James Mather, 10, said older PUPs go into the classrooms of the younger students to help them with homework or hang out with them when they have free time during the school day.

Karen Dole, who owns the market, said last spring’s field trips brought in almost 700 kids, so the 18 PUPs were a breeze. She has also hosted field trips for local church groups and enjoys doing the programs in the community.

“It’s just a cool thing to do,” she said. “What kid doesn’t like pizza?”

As the rest of the students sat at tables with full place settings, Dole led groups of four into the kitchen to wash their hands and watch Doug Buckla, Jr. stretch and toss each piece of dough. They students put on their own sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. She then carefully slid each pizza into the oven, showing the students how the pizza is moved around inside the 700-degree oven with a peel — a wooden paddle — so it cooks evenly.

Third grade teacher Emily Corona and school psychologist Megan Yanavich chaperoned the trip, and while Corona had attended last year’s field trip with her class, this was Yanavich’s first time making pizza at The Bridge Market.

“They’re super well behaved,” she said. “They’re a really good group of kids, and they deserve a treat for being so awesome.”

The market also houses a Bess Eaton franchise, so once Buckla, Jr. finished tossing a few pies for the teachers, Stephanie Salen set up another table with glaze and sprinkles so the students could decorate their own donuts to bring home. She said some of the kids from last month’s visit told her they wanted to decorate donuts for a living because they had so much fun.

Hannah Harrington, 5, and her sister Riley, 9, both said the donut decorating was their favorite part, but Mather was torn.

“I mean, I really like the pizza because you can add your own sauce and stuff, but with the donut, you can add the sauce and the sprinkles,” he said.

Dole said even though Claude Chester students have the advantage of being able to walk over to the store, she has received interest from other schools in the system, including S.B. Butler Elementary.

“I would love to be able to do more field trips with the other schools,” she said.

a.hutchinson@theday.com

Twitter: @ahutch411