Category: Child Development Lessons

Love Languages for Children Lesson

February is always associated with hearts and love! Are you and your students familiar with the love languages? Why not use this Love Languages for Children Lesson to teach your students about Gary Chapman’s five love languages as they pertain to parenting? Read on to learn more.

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Multiple Intelligences with Potato Head Toys

If you teach about the multiple intelligences, you may want to give this one a try. Multiple Intelligences with Potato Head Toys will not only engage your students because this is a hands-on activity, but you may even get a smile or two out of your students as they “play”—oops, I mean “learn” about this topic!  So, if you have some of these classic toys stashed away, it may be time to dig them out and give them a new life and purpose in your classroom!  If not, I’ve linked them below.

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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…

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FCS HOT Topics: Good Idea or Bad Idea

One way to get students talking is to throw out a contentious topic because there are bound to be differing views!  I’ve taken some topics that I feel fit this category
for both food and child development/parenting classes. FCS HOT Topics: Good Idea or Bad Idea has students looking at each topic and researching in more detail the good and bad components of it before sharing with the class. Not only is this an engaging assignment because it includes collaboration, communication and critical thinking, but it could be done weekly or quarterly and is tied to a writing assessment for those of you who need to include writing as part of your curriculum. The lists below obviously do not include every topic, but if you have a great topic that you believe should be included, please let me know by adding it to the comments.

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Children’s Book Character K-Cups

Last fall, I saw a lot of cute children’s book character pumpkin projects surface all over social media!  While the pumpkin characters are/were super cute, I feel like the project limited itself to only the fall season.  With that being said, I wanted to come up with a similar project, but one that could be done ANY time of the year and with minimal cost as empty K-Cups are used as the base of the character!  AKA~ Book Character K-Ups!  How’s that for sustainability and upcycling!

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Project: I’m Bored!

Ever wonder how many parents over the years have heard the phrase “I’m Bored!” during the summer months from their child or children?  In this “Project: I’m Bored!”,
students research and curate activities to engage children of all age groups to not only prevent boredom, but help promote the developmental areas (PIES). This project is a great end of the year assignment or could even be used as a project for a substitute if you have to be out for day or two! Be sure to read on to learn more…

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Picky Eaters Lesson

Did you know there are six types of picky eaters?  I think we’ve all been exposed to at least one of them in our classrooms, especially when trying foods prepared in
the lab!  So, what’s a parent to do when they have a picky eater?  This Picky Eaters lesson has student groups exploring the six types and perform skits as they present the information on why it occurs and what parents can do.

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P.I.E.S: Puzzle Piece Activity

I love when teachers take ideas from the website and add to them!  That is exactly what Shannon Stevens, a FCS teacher from Ohio, did with my P.I.E.S: The Areas
of Development lesson. Shannon created the P.I.E.S: Puzzle Piece Activity to use with students in her Child Development class. She wanted to add a component for the students to share their knowledge of P.I.E.S. along with something that could be displayed in the classroom for other classes to enjoy. Additionally, she wanted a technology free activity!

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Prenatal Mystery Bags

you’re like me, you don’t always want to teach things the same way; you want a refresh!  When teaching about prenatal development and the changes associated with both mother and baby, the Prenatal Mystery Bags assignment offers just that…a refresh!  This ready to teach assignment is one I did years ago, but decided it needed an update so, in this post, you will find two different ways to use this with your students.  Choose the one that works best for you and incorporate many of the 4 C’s (communication, critical thinking, collaboration and creativity) as your students work through the activity!

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Problem Based Learning: Parenting Dilemma

Problem based learning projects are a great way to engage your students and incorporate some rigor.  How, you ask?  Problem based learning projects incorporate
many, and sometimes all of the the 4 C’s; Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration and Creativity.  The Family Medical Leave Work Dilemma takes a real world problem inspired by a Washington Post article and provides just enough information for students to come up with a viable solution.  If you’ve ever wanted to try problem based learning in your family or parenting classes, why not start with this one?

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