As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, many of us find ourselves having to provide activities or lessons to our students that can be shared through remote learning. The following “Handwashing Activities for Distance Learning” may offer you some ideas that you can share with your students for enrichment or new learning. Either way, they are practical life skills and habits to learn and practice during these difficult times.
Food Dilemmas are great to use as stand alone assignments or to assign as a culminating project in any given lesson or unit. More importantly, since many of us are on hiatus from our normal teaching routine, food dilemmas are an ideal solution when having to prepare e-learning or flex lessons, especially during this corona virus pandemic!
After students learn about the dietary villains, we compare a variety of fast food potato options looking at calories, fat and sodium levels. We compare different fast food options calculating calorie, fat and sodium differences and then apply it to an alternative fast food potato recipe prepared in the lab. Students then choose a fast food menu item, researching to find a healthier homemade version that saves them calories, fat and sodium in this fast food project makeover.
The dietary guidelines recommend that we limit these three bad boys: fat, sugar and salt (oh my!) in our diet to reduce our risk of serious health effects. Sometimes this is easier said than done with teens! In order to make this more interesting and palatable for my students, I’ve turned it into a mini comic book project. That is, of course, after they’ve initially learned a little about these dietary villains!
Reading and deciphering a food label is like learning a foreign language to many students! Some get it quickly and easily, some don’t and require more practice! Reading a new food label is an interactive lesson that has students cutting, pasting, and annotating various pieces of label information before learning how to decipher the numbers to determine its healthfulness. Once students understand the concept, their label reading skills can be reinforced by practicing on empty food containers!
Sharing another Struggle Meal lesson that I presented at the Missouri FACS conference last summer! This lesson titled, A Glo-Bowl Affair, is a fun, engaging lesson that was inspired by both Frankie Celenza’s Struggle Meal Grain Bowl episode and by activities suggested in the EduProtocol Field Guide (amazon affiliate). I hope your students find this lesson and all of its activities as enjoyable as mine did!
When teaching about whole grains, I like to cover the following six categories: wheat, oats, rye, rice, corn and barley. I do this as an overview because it’s a great way to introduce and expose students to a variety of whole grains that can be incorporated into different meals. After all, 100% whole grains are part of a healthy, nutritious diet!
My students have been practically begging me to let them bake cookies. They have been relentless! Since they were so excited, I gave in! Because I haven’t taught this in many years, I had to update my cookie unit. I decided it was the perfect time to share my Cookie Baking unit with you because it fits so well sandwiched between the holiday breaks!
“Convenience Foods & A Can Do Struggle Meal Challenge” was another lesson I shared with Missouri FACS teachers during their July conference. This challenge was a big hit with my students! As a teacher, I love to see my students in full collaboration mode as they create, plan and execute their ideas!
Once again, I was in need of another way to teach cooking methods to my foods class that wasn’t a copycat of what I teach in the foods unit of my comprehensive FACS class. As always, I wanted a lesson that was engaging and interactive for my students. So, the cooking methods jigsaw puzzle project was created! This lesson assigns a cooking method to each student who must do the research to complete the informational puzzle piece. Once completed, students move their way throughout the room as they collect notes on all of the other assigned cooking methods. Students will use their notes and apply the techniques as they move through various cooking labs.
