Scenarios are great tools to engage students! However, sometimes you have a group of students who love to role play and perform skits and other times you have groups that are as quiet as church mice. When that happens let Plotagon Story, a free animation app, come to your rescue. Sharing below how I incorporated it into a Take Charge Today credit card activity titled “What Would You Do?” into Plotagon credit card scenarios.
“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!
Most colleges today have many safety features in place all over their campuses to put students (and their parents) at ease. However, students still need to be aware and think about what they can do to apply good safety practices as they participate in various college life and activities. This Staying Safe HyperDoc is great way to help them explore ways to be safe in a variety of situations. The beauty of this assignment is that it could easily serve as a flex learning activity for those days when school is cancelled, but school work must go on!
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.
Before I even think about letting my students into the kitchens to cook, I want to be sure they have a good working knowledge of the do’s and don’ts associated with kitchen safety. Kitchen Hazards Flipgrid Style is just one of the activities I use to convey and reinforce that concept. There are a lot of things I like about this activity. First, it’s mostly student-directed, secondly, it uses technology and third, it involves a variety of the 4 C’s: collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking.
What is it about cooking challenges that gets students so excited? In my Career & Consumer Sciences class, my students always want to know if we are going to cook! In order to prepare them for adulthood and living on their own, I do incorporate some survival cooking! I try to teach them basic skills, preparing foods or meals that have a lot of versatility or options! My students love chicken tenders and so this challenge was well received and gave them some different ways of preparing chicken tenders using the same four ingredients. Of course, you don’t have to limit this challenge to one specific class or age group as it would work well with junior high level students too because of it’s simplicity!
In today’s day and age where so much of what we need to do requires us to use personal information, it’s critical that we teach students about protecting themselves from identity theft. In this post I will share some of the resources and activities I use with my students when teaching this topic. What I especially like about what I’m about to share is the project extension menu that allows students to have a choice in the way they choose to complete their final project. Because of the personal choice option, students can choose according to their ability, their learning style and their knowledge of technology…and personally, I think I get better projects because I’m letting them decide!
Consumption of fruit in the daily diet is important for all age groups! What’s to love about fruit? A lot actually! Fruit is available in many forms from fresh to frozen to canned and even dried. Fruit is a nutrient dense, low calorie food that can be eaten alone as a snack or incorporated into a meal or dessert. Fruits can be eaten raw or cooked and there are so many to choose from, some more seasonal than others! This fruit lesson focuses on the classification of fruits, how to select quality fruits and explores enzymatic browning. It also features delicious galette labs. Galettes are unique to most students and a little different than making pies, but they are easy to make and amazingly delicious especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!
Back again with another breakout style review activity! This time the escape or breakout centers around pay check deductions and math calculations. Created because, honestly, even though teaching about pay checks is important, it can be boring! This review jazzes things up because student teams are competing against each other as well as the clock to get to the prize box! In the process, they are honing their math skills. Win-win for those of us who need to incorporate core concepts into our curriculum! The beauty of this breakout is that it can be done both with locks and boxes if you have them or digitally if your don’t!
I am a big fan of Michael Pollan’s work! I especially like what he has to say about food in his documentary “In Defense of Food”. Even if I don’t have time to show my students the documentary in its entirety, I do like to focus on certain parts of it. One in particular are his 7 words that he uses to sum up healthy eating: “Eat foods–Not Too Much–Mostly Plants”. It’s a great way to introduce students to different plant based foods! Read on to learn more about how those 7 words equate to a lesson about beans and legumes.
