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…
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.
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!
The 5 Second Rule Game is a must have for my classroom! Not only can the game be played as is, but it’s easy to adapt to FACS content or even just use the time for quick, fun reviews. The rules pretty much stay the same for the “FACS: 5 Second Rule Games” which engage, challenge and build relationships as students compete against each other in this fun adaptation!
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…
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.
When creating lesson plans and activities, one of my goals is to try to incorporate as much movement and hands-on engagement as possible. Not only do students
enjoy it, but it seems to pique their interest and gives them a little break from the screens. I love how Shannon Stevens, a FACS teacher from Ohio, does just that in her Interactive Bulletin Boards for Child Development project! Additionally, Shannon wanted to encourage the use of “soft skills” with her students and this project requires student teams to collaborate and communicate with each other as they create and finally provide feedback to other teams after class presentations. While this lesson focuses on child development, the interactive bulletin board concept can be applied in any content area. Read on to learn more…
Several years ago I learned about the teaching strategy called Hexagonal Thinking. There are many variations on how to utilize the concept in class, but the one I want to focus on is the Hexagonal Keyword Links for FACS Content. This is a great brainstorm, review or assessment activity to use with your students to see how they apply the information related to topics you are covering. Read on to see how Hexagonal Keyword Links works and all of the ready to use examples. As always, if you have ideas for others, please let me know.
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!
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!
