Turkey Day

Today in Foods was "Turkey Day!" I invited the parents of my Foods students and my administration to come to class to see how to make a Thanksgiving turkey and to sample it, of course. I demonstrated how to prepare, how to de-bone, and how to garnish a turkey. I think the students enjoyed the sampling portion of class the best. I am offing extra credit to any of my students who go to the effort of making their families Thanksgiving Turkey this year. My first period class only had 1 parent come. I am hoping my 4th hour is a little more lively. I have had several students come in to say they were going to bring a guest, so maybe it will be a larger crowd.
This is the only picture we got before the battery on my camera died. Oh well. I will charge the battery when I get home. So much for putting a picture of the finished product on the blog.

Burritos

I know I am a little slow getting this one up, but I did take pics of this lab and I do want to mention it. We made burritos with homemade tortillas in my FACS class last week. I think the students really liked making their own tortillas. They learned really quickly to roll the dough thin in order to get a tortilla. Some of the tortillas looked a little bit more like a pita, but they sure tasted good!

Pancakes

I have the coolest students!! Today my FACS classes made pancakes and we had a blast! I know, I know, a simple recipe right. I can easily justify the simple recipe though, with all the other learning skills. Some of the pics below will explain. Some of my students made small silver dollar pancakes...

And some made really, really big pancakes. It was a lot of fun to see them trying to turn their large ones. Students used a lot of teamwork and coordination (and luck) to get them to turn out well.

Some of the groups sat down and had a nice meal. They warmed their syrup and made it a simply, formal affair!

Some of the groups got really creative and made Mickey Mouse pancakes.

I think the students had a good time. I know I did- I also ate about 5 pancakes! First period alone!!

Some of the students started getting a little more creative. Imagination is helpful here...

This is a smiling frog:

And this is a crab:

Stir Fry

My Foods students made stir fry today and my classroom smelled like heaven all day!! I think this lab has been one of the favorites!! Several people followed their noses into my classroom today to see what was cook'n. It was a fun day, a fun lab, and a fun expereience. I really feel like my students are starting to catch on to the basics! Someday, I hope to stock our labs with the proper equipment needed to make some of the recipeis we have attempted this year. I guess I will have to wait until my funds aren't quite so low!

Food Guide Pyramid Review

Basically the whole point of the FACS Exploration class is to give students a sample taste of all the different courses taught in the Family and Consumer Science content. Right now we are looking at the nutrition aspect of FACS. Today, simply to review what we learned last time, I had the students work as groups to create the food guide pyramid. It was an activity that was similar to what we did in the Foods class a while back. I made it a contest, with rules, to see who could create the correct pyramid the quickest. I took a pic of the winning group and they won suckers!

Thunder Lab

Today in FACS we made Thunder Juice (smoothies) and Thunder Twists (Pretzels). I think the lab worked out fairly well. One group made me a small pretzel and I thought it was yummy! Here are some pics of the products!

Eggs Benedict, minus the Hollidaise Sauce

Today in foods we made eggs benedict. They turned out great, excpet for the hollandaise sauce. I looked and looked for a simple hollandaise sauce recipe that I felt would be affordable and simple enough for my students to make. I did not pick the right one. None of the groups were able to turn out a good sause, despite various attempts to alter the recipe. The students had a good time eacting the rest of the product though. At least students learned how to poach eggs today. And they learned a good recipe to NOT use for hollandaise sauce. :-)