Category: Human Development

My Life in Song

As the end of the school year draws near, I thought it appropriate to assign this distance learning activity titled, My Life in Song to my Individual & Family Studies classes. My Life in Song is a reflection activity that asks students to sum up their life in a minimum of 5 songs similar to how James Taylor did in a recent Parade Magazine interview. As with many of my recent assignments, this can be an E-learning activity as well as a traditional classroom assignment.

Family Resume

The Family Resume is a great project to culminate a family unit as it asks students to apply the information and concepts learned to their own family. This family resume project has E-Learning written all over it, but can definitely be used in a traditional classroom as well!

Life-Long Partner Shopping Spree

Several months back, I received an email about updated resources from The Dibble Institute. This update included an article about a university study, titled “What Youth Seek in Partners,” that sparked this life long partner shopping spree activity. I thought it would be interesting to recreate the study at the high school level and compare the results to the actual survey results. Initially my students thought this would be an easy activity, but on the contrary required much thought on their part. What was rather unique about the outcome of my survey, were the similarities of answers. My results, completed with two different classes, almost mimicked those of the university rankings. Read on to see other activities associated with this lesson/activities.

Reinforcing Family Concepts via Movies & One Pagers

To say that I’m a little obsessed with one-pagers would be an understatement! While worksheets are fine for assessing students on their knowledge of information, they don’t offer the creativity and engagement that one-pagers do. In this post I am sharing how I use “reinforcing family concepts via movies and one-pagers” as an alternative to a worksheet assignment. Two different program options are included just in case you don’t subscribe to Netflix.

Idealistic, Realistic & Unrealistic Relationships

When I begin teaching my unit on dating, I always begin by looking at idealistic, realistic and unrealistic relationships! This activity is used as a springboard into other dating and relationship topics and always generates some interesting discussion! It’s low prep and you can pick and choose from the below examples or do them all! Either way you’re sure to get some lively student responses!

Families in Children’s Books

Many years ago Carol Erwin, of Nebraska, shared an activity with me that gave students the chance to analyze the work of the family. Students enjoy reading  about different families in children’s books as they complete a series of prompts. It’s important for children to see how families interact and be able to recognize and relate to different family structures, stages of the family life cycle, and family functions. So if you have access to a variety of children’s books about families or a local library, you may want to grab some books and check this lesson out.

Family Life Cycle Collage Project

In the past, I shared a technology based project titled, “Family Life Cycle: Prezi Project”. The project required students to create a Prezi to introduce their assigned stage of the family life cycle. I totally used that project until I didn’t! Why? My students are unable to create Prezi’s on their iPads; they can only view them. Because of this little snafu, I’ve had my students create hand generated collages around their assigned family life cycle stage, using their iPads to research the information. When students were finished, they displayed them in order on my wall like a train, and I must admit they looked pretty darn impressive!

Starter Pack Meme Ideas

My son recently introduced me to “starter pack memes” which I had to look up! He had to create one for a college “get to know you” activity and once I knew what it was, I thought it would make a great, fun and interactive activity. So, below you will find my starter pack meme ideas for topics that can be used in a variety of different content areas along with instructions for creating.

What Children Need Silhouettes

What do children need physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially in order to grow and develop? Students brainstorm ideas and share their knowledge of children’s needs to raise awareness and show others the responsibilities of parents and caregivers as they create their own “What Children Need Silhouettes”.

Children & Self-Esteem

Teaching students about self-esteem is important at any age, but it’s super important to emphasize how critical it is to a child’s development. In this lesson I share some ideas and activities that help students understand what self-esteem is, the difference between positive and negative self-esteem, how it’s developed, why it’s important and who/what helps to influence it. So, read on to learn more about this lesson!