Category: Professional Development

All About the Roux–ONE PAGER

In my opinion, knowing how to make a roux is a ” kitchen basic” that students should know how to create as it’s the base for many soups and sauces, including gravy.  This interactive assignment incorporates a strategy that I’ve been seeing a lot lately, mostly in the ELA world where it’s used to summarize important text information.  I thought it would work well as a  way to highlight and summarize important food information. So, here is my rendition of a food related one pager.

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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.

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Kitchen Hazards Flipgrid Style

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.

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A Culinary Introduction: My Slice of the Pie

Most teachers spend a few days at the beginning of the new school year doing activities that help them get to know their students better. These types of activities help teachers learn more about their students and also begin to help establish a positive teacher-student rapport. A Culinary Introduction: “My Slice of the Pie” is an engaging food themed activity shared by Sherwood High School’s ProStart teacher Lisa Gilbert of Maryland. Read on to learn more…

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Grading Kitchen Lab Performance

Grading cooking labs is challenging mostly because you can’t see everything all at the same time, never mind write it down. I see many requests for lab evaluations. Here is what I could find that other teachers around the country use. Some are better than others. There are at least enough ideas to get you started in creating your own lab grading method.

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Teaching About Fashion Trends

It’s interesting to watch the trends in fashion change as new ideas emerge and old favorites get an update! Like history, fashion is bound to repeat itself and what’s old will become “new” again to a new generation! If you teach a course on fashion, you no doubt incorporate a lesson or unit on fashion trends. Read on to get an update on activities for teaching an old favorite!

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Cooking Show BINGO

My students love cooking shows (especially the competitive ones) and so do I!  With that being said,  I wanted to be able to use them in an interactive way, not just with questions that had to be written out and answered.  I wanted to be able to engage my students and have some educational fun at the same time. A former student of mine, who just happens to be a computer genius and good friend of my son, designed and gifted me with this computer generated Cooking Show BINGO board game. This Google Sheets program has the capability of creating different board versions at the click of some keys so it saves having to manually recreate and reproduce different boards for your students!  How cool is that? Read on to learn more about how you can create these for your classroom use.

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Nessie: Hand-Sewing Infant Toy

Enrichment means to improve something…in this case the “something” was basic sewing skills (and fine motor skills). This year I chose to do a hand-sewing enrichment activity that was an extension of the rattle lesson in the infant unit.  Students worked on their small motor skills while creating and hand-sewing an infant toy or rattle which was affectionately named Nessie.  Please note, this project could easily be adapted to machine sewing if you have sewing machines in your classroom.

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Chicken Tender “Chopped” Challenge

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!

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Fruit Lesson & Galette Lab

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!

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