Recently, I saw a kit for a Peep Cookie Coop and it made think that this could be a great STEM challenge for students in the spring of the year, similar to the
gingerbread houses many do in the winter. The “Marshmallow Peep Coop: STEM Design Challenge” is a great opportunity to test your students’ creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving skills while they have fun designing and implementing STEM concepts. Continue reading to learn more!
Tag: Middle School
Dessert Madness Championship
It’s March and that means spring, warmer temperatures and basketball playoff games! Why not add some excitement to your class by adding a Dessert Madness Championship? This can be around general or specific desserts such as muffin madness, cookie madness, pie madness, ice cream madness…you get the idea. This also makes for a great bulletin board display if you choose to enlarge everything!
Quinoa Mini-Lesson & Lab
When you teach about grains, do you include quinoa? If not, you might want to consider exposing your students to this ancient grain. In this Quinoa Mini-Lesson & Lab, students get a quick overview followed by a tasty 43 minute lab and quick project! Take a look, give it a try and give your students a chance to try a potentially new food!
Love Languages for Children Lesson
Make It Fancy Lesson & Lab
One of the best ways I’ve ever taught about plating and presentation to middle schoolers revolved around premade snack foods: aka Twinkies and Yodels! This Make It Fancy Lesson & Lab is an instant hit with students and it’s really an easy low-prep lab for teachers to implement as well! Need something quick and easy, give this two day lesson and lab a try…you won’t regret it!
Family Strengths: Game Night
Family Strengths: Game Night is a great way to teach your students about components that make up a strong family! Not only does it get the entire class involved, but it’s a lot of fun! While many students may have grown up with a night set aside for games, many don’t get this opportunity for “community” in their own homes so this exposes them to it as well as a variety of board games that have them communicating, collaborating, thinking, practicing patience and good sportsmanship among others. It’s also a great lesson to do around the holidays as it is a pretty low prep lesson on your part, but engaging enough to keep students interested.
Regifting: A Talking Points Lesson
Who hasn’t received a gift that simply “wasn’t you” and needed a gift, but didn’t have time to go to the store so you ended up giving that “unyou” gift to someone else? This
is called regifting and the concept became popular during the 1990’s in a Seinfeld episode, although I imagine it began long before then! This Regifting: A Talking Points Lesson explores this controversial concept in a variety of ways! It’s the perfect time of year to give it a try!
30 Days of Holiday Fun Project
December is a hectic time for most families making it even more difficult to spend quality time together. This 30 Days of Holiday Fun Project is a great project to help promote family bonding when schedules are busy and harried! Add diversity by incorporating many different holidays. Read on to learn more…
NEAT=NON-EXERCISE ACTIVITY THERMOGENESIS
It was so much fun collaborating with Darci Friberg, a Missouri FCS teacher, on this NEAT=NON-EXERCISE ACTIVITY THERMOGENESIS lesson! I can’t encourage peer collaboration enough as each person brings so much to the table in the way of ideas and perspectives! I truly believe that we are better together. This lesson would be a great addition to a Food & Nutrition class, Health & Wellness class or even as part of a FCS Comprehensive class as it’s a topic we can all relate to even if you’ve never heard of it! Keep reading to learn more about this concept and let me know if you want to collaborate!
Child Safety: Mystery Powder Identification
When teaching about safety in child development, it’s important to discuss mystery substances that may or may not be toxic, but look like a variety of possibilities. The Child Safety: Mystery Powder Identification is a quick little activity where students observe substances via pictures and try to identify the substance. Not as easy as you might think! Read on to see how this works…