With Abuse and Other Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) on the Rise, St. Louis-based COPE24 Launches Curriculum to Teach High School Students Vital Skills to Help Prevent Future Traumas and to Strengthen the American Family.
If you teach a unit on handling childhood injuries, this lesson is a must for you to try! After learning about Flipgrid through a teacher in-service, Diane Senkoski, a sixth grade FACS teacher from Pennsylvania, created a super engaging lesson for students of all ages, using the free app. Even if you are not a 1:1 school or have access to technology, the lesson can be easily adapted for live performances! So, what are you waiting for…set up your free Fligprid account and get started!
This is such an important topic to teach about, one I’ve honestly struggled with over the years. However, when teaching about infant safety this school year, I decided it was high time I put my trepidation aside and created the below lesson and activities. I’m not sure I’ve given the topic the justice it deserves, but it’s a start! As always, if you have additional ideas, please share in the comment section.
UPDATE: The links in challenge #4 are now fixed and all of the Breakaway challenges are again functioning! I’m sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused. Please download new documents as the previous ones for challenge #4 are no longer active.
In my school, human reproduction and anatomy is taught in the Health class to all students in the ninth grade. So ideally, students should know this by the time they take my Child Development class as sophomores, juniors and seniors. Unfortunately, students don’t always remember this pertinent information as we begin discussing conception and pregnancy, so a review is in order! This breakaway or breakout is used as a review for my classes, but could be used as an introduction to these topics as well. Either way, the activities should help to reinforce the terms and concepts to the male and female anatomies, their functions, diagrams and basic conception knowledge.
After teaching my students about Howard Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence Theory, I wanted them to imagine they were a preschool teacher and had to develop activities around a particular children’s theme, incorporating each of the 8 multiple intelligences. After randomly selecting a theme, students create a theme board to share their ideas. In addition, students must explain how each of the activities selected relates to the multiple intelligence they’ve partnered it with. If your students are actually teaching in pre-school programs, this would be a great planning tool for them to utilize.
Occasionally, in my classes, I like to throw out little dilemma or problem situations that students must research and learn more about in order to make an informed decision. I’ve done this with baby sign language when teaching about infant language development in child development two different ways. Prior to going 1:1, I assigned this as an informational interactive foldable project, which could easily be used with interactive notebooks. I’ve also had my students use their iPads to learn more about the topic and then complete a writing assignment, applying their new-found knowledge. I also like my students to learn and share some easy signs with the class in an engaging and fun manner, where students have to use their brains and memory in addition to their hands!
Teaching the changes associated with pregnancy and the developing baby can be challenging! You know that if you just give students the information to read, they won’t! But, if you create an assignment that combines technology with hands-on that forces them to interact with the information, it’s a win-win for all! Thus, the Pregnancy Tower project was created!
In need of more stations to accommodate her large class, Megan Piechowski of Centennial High School, Circle Pines, Minnesota developed additional activities with new topics to use with the newborn care lesson. The new topics are in keeping with the original lesson which includes the use of technology via QR Codes. Many thanks to Megan for graciously sharing her newly created materials!
Many schools are encouraging their students to read beyond the English class. This can easily be done in the FACS classroom as there are so many great books that can be incorporated into the various content areas of family consumer sciences. Below you will find a compiled list of books recommended by content area. If you have any additional “reads” that you use in your FACS classroom that should be included, please add them in the comment section below.
When teaching about environmental birth defects, I like to address a 100% preventable, but 100% irreversible birth defect known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Students learn about FASD by participating in a variety of interactive activities.
