Teach a course, unit, or lesson on housing? Look no further for ready to use ideas and resources! I’ve started a collection of resources based on topics. If you have an activity, lesson or resource to share, please share in the comment section below.
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.
Ever need an activity that is easy to do, requires little prep and is totally adaptable to any class? The activity I’m sharing in this post is one of those and is super easy to leave with a sub if you know you’re going to be out. How do I know this? Because I used it in two different classes on different days and with different subs and the student outcomes were no less than impressive! The format is basically the same, you just have to change out your topic, hence the versatility!
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.
While shopping for a baby gift, I noticed the variety of rattles available for infants. There were rattles that were simple, plush, noisy, colorful, interactive, chewable and even battery operated….so many to choose from! I had a difficult time choosing one to add to my gift and it got me to thinking that new parents must feel the same way. Do infants and babies even need rattles? What is their role in infant development? It was then that I decided to add a lesson and project about rattles and how they affect development to my infant unit!
There’s an App in the iTunes store called the “Zonk Review Game”. It looked like a fun, interactive game. Unfortunately, there was a small fee to purchase which made it a “no go” for me as my school district doesn’t pay for Apps. I started asking myself how I could adapt this game using games I already had…and guess what? I figured out that I could use my towering block games as a substitute for the digital game. The beauty of this adaptation is that it’s still interactive, still competitive and easy to create and use. And if that wasn’t enough…this activity gets bonus points because I can reuse it over and over again in any content area. Read on to find out how you too can adapt and create this game for your own classroom review games.
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!
