In my Exploring Foods class, I try to cover a variety of ethnic and regional foods. Quesadillas are a perfect fit for both Mexican and Southwestern cuisine! In this post, you will find a web-based assignment where students learn more about quesadillas before preparing in the 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!
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.
Unfortunately, since the pandemic, Eating Disorders have been on the rise. I’ve been seeing a lot of requests for updated lessons on Eating Disorders. So in this post you will find a variety of engaging lessons to help keep your students focused as they learn more about the three most common types of eating disorders.
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.
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!
After noticing continuous requests for lab suggestions that are doable in 43 minute class periods, I’ve decided to do a recurring series, featuring recipes that can
be completed from beginning to end in a 43 minute time frame. In some cases, longer recipes will broken into two day labs. In addition, I will include my pre-lab review questions that pertain specifically to the recipe. This helps to ensure that students are reading the recipe. It also allows me time to show any videos that may demonstrate the product or specific techniques. So, without further ado, I present the 43 Minute Lab Series: Puppy Chow!
This past spring, I put a post on Facebook as to how I could help teachers and one of the responses I received was to add more lessons to the Off to College Series. The
wish has been granted! This Off to College Series: STRESS lesson explores the concept of stress as it relates to first year college students. However, even if you aren’t teaching it from this perspective, there are a lot of engaging activities that can be used or adapted for other lessons about stress!
My students would always tell me that bacon makes everything better and I agree! There’s just something about bacon that amps up the flavor of
whatever it is paired with! I created this Bacon Lesson & Labs to help students learn more about bacon; where it comes from, cooking techniques, seasonings and even some fun, tasty labs!
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.
