Tag: Middle School

Gifts from the Hands

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Some of the most cherished gifts our family has received over the years have been made by the hands of the people we love. In fact we look forward to those gifts every year as they’ve kind of become a tradition. Sometimes those gifts made with love were born out of necessity due to limited resources available to go out and purchase store bought gifts, but many times they were made and given out of love for the recipient(s) of the gift. For example, many years ago, very close friends of ours began making us a delicious candy-like treat that can only be described as “Christmas Crack” because once you start eating it, you can’t stop! We love the candy and our friends and look forward to that gift every year! After all, how can you look at, use or consume that wonderful gift without thinking fond thoughts of the talented person/people who took the time to make it for YOU! Why not teach your students how they can use their talents, time and resources to make gifts of love to give to those in their lives that they cherish most during this Christmas and Holiday season?

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Fashion: Barbie Draping Project

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How many of you remember playing with Barbie when you were little? Furthermore, how many of you remember designing clothes for said Barbie? I remember both, so I can’t wait to share this creative project designed by veteran teacher Deb Crockett from Canon City High School in Colorado. Deb has been assigning this project for the last 10 years. This lesson was prompted because she wanted to give her students a hands on experience to the different areas of the fashion industry. This project gives them a chance to be creative in so many ways. Students get to be a fashion designer, a fashion photographer, a fashion writer and they can then expand on their graphic design knowledge by creating the poster. This poster could also be produced using their computer applications skills learned in their business classes. You never know when you might spark and interest in the students, and bring back some fun memories at the same time!

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Apples: Web-Activity & Labs

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It’s fall, apples are in season and they are relatively inexpensive! Varieties of apples are sold everywhere from roadside stands to grocery stores so why not incorporate them into your foods class? That’s exactly what Jessica Uplinger of Field High School, Ohio did. Jessica created this lesson and lab because she has very large classes and needed a thematic unit where she could divide up her class and have half of them in the kitchen preparing a lab while the other half is engaged with an assignment. The end results? Her students ended up enjoying every aspect of this lesson, especially the labs! Why not give it a try in your foods class?

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Famous Chef Research & Bulletin Board Project

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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.

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Communication Skills Lesson & Activities

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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.

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Newborn How-to Stations Using QR Codes

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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

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Kitchen Measuring Skills: Adjusting Recipes Activities

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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.

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P.I.E.S: The Areas of Development

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For anyone that is not familiar with the acronym PIES, it stand for the areas of development. P=Physical, I=Intellectual, E=Emotional and S=Social. Just as addition,subtraction, multiplication and division are the foundation for math and the alphabet is the foundation for reading, the PIES are the framework for child development. A child’s development is like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle…each piece is important to the whole puzzle just as each area of development is important to the whole child. When talking about the development of children, it is difficult to discuss the concepts that relate to the whole child without knowledge of the basics. Knowing the PIES helps students to understand the various ways that children grow and develop.

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Family Life Cycle: PREZI Project

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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.

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Consumer Rights & Panera Bread

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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.

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