Tag: junior high

Kitchen Safety Chart for Kids

Teach about kitchen safety? Who doesn’t need a visual reminder from time to time of how to be safe in the kitchen, especially when working with younger students? This chart was created and shared by middle school FACS teacher, Debbie Madson, from Virginia.

Hot Cocoa Mix Comparison Lesson

My junior high classes rotate every six weeks which doesn’t leave a whole lot of time to cover all the material that I need or want to. Because of this, I find myself trying to piggyback multiple concepts and standards into a lesson or activity. So when I teach about how to calculate unit prices and read package labels, both ingredient lists and nutrition facts, it makes sense to combine the two into a hands-on hot cocoa mix taste testing lab. Not only does it get the students into the kitchen, but it ties back to everything we covered so far in the rotation, helping them to review the concepts previously learned. In the lab students determine which product they think tastes the best and then in the follow-up students use the product labels to compare everything from unit price to ingredients to nutrition. Do students know their brands like they think they do? Can they determine the healthiest brand for their dollars? This lesson helps them find out!

Equipment Activities: What am I?

My classroom runs much smoother when my students are engaged in interactive activities. That’s one of the reasons why I POST.IT.NOTESlove these activities! The first is a fun little game that gets students up, moving around and tests their knowledge of basic equipment used in the kitchen, the sewing room, or the nursery. All you need is a list of equipment and some post-it-notes or index cards. This activity can be prepared as a one time use activity or you can make reusable cards with yarn. This activity is very versatile and can be used like a pretest to see what students know about the basic equipment used in each area or it could be used as a review activity after teaching about them. Another fun review game is played on the laptop or electronic devices such as phones, ipads, tablets, etc. using a web-based technology called Kahoot. Students beg to play this fun, interactive game and are very competitive. Try them out and be prepared to see your students engaged, learning and having fun all at the same time!

Quesadillas: A Nutrient Dense Mixed Food Lesson & Lab

When teaching about the food groups in MyPlate I find it’s also important to explain the concepts of mixed foods, empty calories and nutrient dense foods.  Junior high students are often confused as to what these terms actually mean.  After…