Category: Life Skills

Dry & Moist Heat Cooking Methods Lesson & Lab

I find that most students don’t know the difference between dry and moist cooking methods. This lesson and lab help them to understand the difference and explore the various ways that the same food can be prepared using different methods. Students enjoy the interactive activities within the lesson as well as preparing and tasting vegetables as they practice and apply some of the techniques. This lesson also incorporates the vocabulary tool Quizlet which helps students learn their terms in an interactive way. Students actually ask me to use Quizlet on a regular basis to learn and assess terms.

Living in Poverty Lesson & Activities

While listening to the news on the radio, it was announced that in Pennsylvania 1 in every 5 children lives below the poverty level. I’m sure this number varies from one state to the next but I thought it to be a rather scary statistic. This lesson and the included activities has students learning about poverty, what causes it, and an engaging simulation to see how easy it could be for some to live in poverty no matter how hard they try to avoid it.

Famous Chef Research & Bulletin Board Project

Famous chefs can be great role models for students who have an interest in the culinary arts field. Because of television,alton.brown shows like The Food Network, PBS and The Cooking Channel, students have access to culinary information, competitions and cooking personalities at the click of the remote. The goal of this project is to help inspire students and advance their culinary skills and knowledge by learning more about these famous chefs.

Communication Skills Lesson & Activities

In today’s society, with the abundance of electronic devices that keep students and adults ever so occupied and isolated, communication skills have never been more important and necessary. This lesson and activities strive to teach students the characteristics necessary for effective communication skills in various aspects of their lives in a fun and interactive way, using a variety of techniques. I’m sure there are many other activities that could be used in addition to what you will find here so, if you have a great way to teach communication skills, please share at feedback@familyconsumersciences.

Newborn How-to Stations Using QR Codes

Many teachers are encouraged to incorporate various forms of technology into their lesson plans. QR Codes (Quick Response Codes) are everywhere…magazines, promotions, informational brochures, and even advertisements, so why not make them part of your classroom? QR Codes are like bar codes linked to hidden messages, websites or videos. I’ve been wanting to use these for awhile, but just didn’t know what I wanted to do with them. As I was updating my Child Development curriculum and lesson plans, I figured out the perfect way to use them in my Newborn Care unit. Read below to see how I am using QR Codes within this lesson/activity. Please share how you use QR Codes in your class room in the comment section below or shoot me an email with your attachments at Kim@FamilyConsumerSciences.com

The True Cost of a Habit

Habits are a part of life. Sometimes they creep up on us and sometimes we have to work hard to achieve them. For example, we don’t think about the fact that we might stop for coffee on our way to work every morning, but we certainly know how difficult it is to eat clean or exercise on a daily basis. Some habits are free and the benefits are priceless, but others are costly, not only to our wallets, but also to our health, our emotions and our relationships. This lesson has students looking at the true cost of the habits that might be part of their lives now or in the future. Hopefully, this activity will help them to really think about the consequences associated with habits before they decide to continue them or help them form healthier ones.

Kitchen Measuring Skills: Adjusting Recipes Activities

My junior high students have always struggled with multiplying fractions when I teach how to adjust recipes. I didn’t realize how much until I implemented a pre/post-test as my student learning outcome (SLO) project for my teacher evaluation. Students weren’t grasping this concept and it was consistently showing up as a weak area. I realized I needed to add more practice to what I was teaching my students in class so I decided to make it a little more interactive. This lesson is very adaptable to the ISN if you are using them in your classroom.

Family Life Cycle: PREZI Project

If you like power point presentations, you will love PREZI presentations! PREZI is a free web-based technology used to create smooth presentations. This tool is user friendly, allows for easy video, image, music, and text insertion, offers a lot of pre-made templates to choose from and allows you to store all of your creations in one place. You can also save and edit PREZI’s created by others too. This project is used to introduce the family life cycle stages in a different mode. In the past, my students have done this family life cycle project poster style, that is, until I discovered this tool. Students enjoy, not only making them, but also viewing them and since the video clips are inserted into the presentation, there’s no jumping from screen to screen via links. This project also saves trees as students just share their links to their project and I can pull it up for easy grading.

Consumer Rights & Panera Bread

Panera Bread has taken a stand to raise the bar and become transparent in their new campaign to offer consumers the best nutritional quality possible. They even put their promise out there for the whole country to see in the form of a letter, ads and commercials. As I read the letter and watched the commercials, I was impressed with the measures they are taking and think it’s a great example of our consumer rights in action. That’s why I am using it as a realistic way to reinforce the consumer rights with my students, as well as include non-fiction reading and writing into my curriculum.

Create Your Own Omelet: Panini Grill Lab

There are appliances and then there are appliances! Some do only what they were created for such as a donut maker while others are great uni-taskers, capable of completing the most unique foods. My students wanted to see the capabilities of some uni-tasking appliances (as well as learn how to make omelets) and thus the omelet lab was created. And, this.lab.was.AWESOME!! I have never had so much positive feedback with a lab as I did this one. So, enjoy this fun lab and share your most unique recipe prepared on a panini grill in the comments section below.