April is National Autism awareness month so I thought it would be a good time to share a mini-lesson on the subject. The Autism Mini-Lesson gives an overview of Autism, dispelling the myths from the facts and culminating with an awareness project. This would be a great addition to your disabilities unit or use as a stand alone for your child development or parenting classes.
Category: Human Development
Love Project
When teaching about healthy dating relationships, it’s important to explore where we get our ideas about love! Why? Considering how the media dramatizes everything, often making it difficult to discern the realistic (healthy/positive) from the unrealistic (unhealthy/negative), the Love Project has students exploring a variety of media sources to analyze and deconstruct the message. Continue reading to learn more!
Love Languages for Children Lesson
Time Management Lesson
Time is an amazing thing! We all have equal amounts of it! It’s something we all need, however, we all view it and use it differently! Is your personal and family time balanced or is it a hot mess? This Time Management Lesson explores a variety of concepts associated with time management, culminating in an engaging family planning exercise that will have your students thinking critically as they organize life events for a family!
Family Strengths: Game Night
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.
Importance of Small Talk
There was a time when keeping students quiet was a challenge because all they wanted to do was talk! Now, not so much! Sadly, many students want to avoid
talking to you, their peers or anyone else at all costs. Importance of Small Talk is a great lesson to use with students at the beginning of the school year, new semester or even as part of a communication unit. Not only does this lesson give insight on the importance of small talk, but it encourages small talk among students and helps build relationships as they get to know each other! Continue reading to learn more…
Relationship Videos
Movies and movie clips can be a great way to add and increase interest to a lesson or topic. Jeff Brown, of Colorado, teaches a Psychology of Relationships
course (any many others) at Rampart High School and has an amazing collection of Relationship Videos that he has created for that class. He is graciously sharing his video collection with us, along with his websites which are chocked full of materials for various content areas. So, if you’ve been struggling to add more interest and engagement to your relationship lessons, you are definitely going to want to check these out!
Mental Health Awareness: Chalk the Walks
Not only is May designated as Mental Health Awareness month, but for many schools it’s also the end of the school year! As the year winds down, students get
antsy and yearn to be outdoors as the weather gets nice. Why not combine the two by getting students outside to create sidewalk art that celebrates mental health awareness? Continue reading Mental Health Awareness: Chalk the Walks to learn more!
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?
Crayon Life Lessons
Who knew something as simple as crayons could teach some important life lessons? The Crayon Life Lessons teaches students a variety of lessons about acceptance, diversity and uniqueness that can be used in all settings from home, to school, to work in a unique way. I used it in my child development classes, but it could be used in any class as an enrichment activity!