Showing posts with label Foods. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Foods. Show all posts

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Copy Paper Box Lids

One common workplace item that I frequent scavenge are the box lids to the copy paper. They truly come in handy for SO many things! Here is one way I use them in foods:


When I refrigerate overnight ingredients (like sugar cookie dough/above left, or chocolate chip cookie dough/above right), I group the containers by class and nestle them in the box lids. That way when it's time to set up, I only have to pull out one box rather than four or five bowls. The dimensions of the lid fit the depth of a typical refrigerator perfectly, and the sides keep what I'm carrying from sliding off.


I have a kid in my third hour who writes about poop a lot. You've probably had a kid like this yourself, so don't judge : ).

The lids are also good for supplies that you only use on occasion. For example, this year I've decided to store the hand mixers together outside of the student kitchens. Outside of the baking unit they really don't get used much, they take up room, the cords get tangled, and so on. I also always do a quick check of all the mixers before a lab when we haven't used them in a while (make sure the beaters still fit well, the motors are running, etc). This is much easier and quicker to do when they are all together, rather than having to go kitchen to kitchen.


When we do need them, I just set the box lid out on the table with the ingredients and the kids grab one. It's also handy that it's easy to inspect the mixers for cleanliness when they turn them back in, rather than when they surreptitiously stuff them in a drawer.

More on copy paper box lids - and the boxes themselves! - later...

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Egg Cartons & Table Space

I don't know about you, but I think this semester just flashed by! Finals are next week already!

 Egg cartons can take up a lot of space on an ingredient table, so I have two cartons that I've cut down to a smaller size:


If my kitchens need a total of six or less eggs, I use the little guy; seven to twelve, I use the bigger one. I just take eggs out of the newest carton, place them in the appropriately-sized one that has been trimmed down, and set out for the kids to use. Then I store it for the next time I'll need it.

Extra hint: I usually place one extra egg in the modified carton, so that the kids don't throw it away by mistake.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Job Wheel the Sequel

A year and a half ago or so I posted about a job wheel I created to assign miscellaneous tasks that need to be completed after each cooking lab. This year I've switched to displaying it on the projector during labs; it's easy to rotate the wheel in PowerPoint, and the different images accommodate classes with different numbers of cooking groups.
 

The morning Foods class only has four groups, so they are responsible for:

TABLE - clean off the ingredient table (close lids/boxes/containers, wipe off table)
FLOORS - sweep ALL of the kitchens and common area in between
TOWELS - make sure all towels are in the washing machine
POWER - check all kitchens to make sure all appliances are turned off


The afternoon Foods class has five groups, so one kitchen from that class is responsible for washing the ingredient containers. Meaning, if there was an ingredient I had poured out into a bowl or set out on a plate, I would take that item from the assigned kitchen and they would be in charge of washing and putting it away.

Below you can see a green bowl set out under the salt (the idea being that they lean over that bowl when measuring, rather than their mixing bowls or the table); on this day the "green" kitchen was assigned to Ingredient Containers, so it was their extra job to wash and put that bowl away.


I have to say, I'm impressed with how well this works. They always remember to check the board for their "extra" job, and I don't have to nag them to sweep or whatever. I'll also add that they're much more careful about brushing stuff onto the floor, knowing that someone else will have to sweep it - or that the other group may get revenge on them later on when it's their turn to do the sweeping :).

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Pie Bags in Action!

Over the summer I posted about trying out pie bags, and today was my first opportunity to see them in action in the classroom. Epic success! They made rolling out the dough SOOOO much easier for the kids, and almost entirely eliminated the insane flour mess that usually accompanies such labs. Check 'em out!

Very little flour required! Nice clean rolling pin, too!

Check out the clean countertops!

The bag easily peels off after rolling.

See how little sticks to the bag, even with minimal flour usage.

There's still always one group that completely overdoes the flour, but look how contained it is!
(I concede it drives me crazy that they chose to line their cookie sheet AFTER getting a bunch of flour on it, but oh well...)

This simple, wonderful invention took an enormous amount of stress out of this lab, both for me and for my students. Highly, highly recommended!

Available at Amazon.com and miscellaneous kitchen stores (like Kitchen Collection at the mall), in two different sizes. Let me know what you think if you try one!

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

OCD Much?

Okay, I get that this is becoming borderline psychotic, but here's my latest classroom kitchen upgrade:


And now for the close-ups:



Lest there be any confusion whatsoever as to where I want these items to be stored after they are washed, rinsed, and thoroughly dried, there is now a visual guide in each of the upper cabinets. Drawers are next. Watch out, world.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Mild-Mannered Antioxidants

This is how I explain antioxidants and free radicals in class:


And yes, this does go in their notes:

By now they've pretty much all figured out this is no normal class.......

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Google Fail & Vitamin Poem

So we're all familiar with this internal dialogue/scenario:

"Hmmm, you know what would be great in this lesson? ____________! Let's Google that..."
6 seconds pass...
"There we go! Modify this a wee bit, combine with that... boom! I'm done! Now for Boardwalk Empire!"

And we're also familiar with this one:

"Hmmm, you know what would be great in this lesson? ____________! Let's Google that..."
16 minutes pass...
"What the heck??!! I CANNOT be the first person who has thought of this! What is the deal with these scurvy pirate teacher hoarders??!! Don't people know how to share??!! Dagnabbit!"

************************************************

Yeah, so I fell prey to Scenario #2 tonight, and I had to {gasp!} create my own wheel.

All non-teachers are now completely lost. Too bad.

In Foods 1 I'm working my way through a very basic introduction to the major nutrients. First, I will digress and discuss my Foods curriculum philosophy. I do not cook first quarter. For one, IT'S TOO DARN HOT! No air conditioning does not lend itself to a pleasant lab experience. Two, I find that it's absolutely crucial to spend a substantial chunk of time right out of the gate on nutrition; once we start in the kitchens the only thing the kids care about is "When're we gonna cook again? What're we gonna cook? Why do we have to learn this? This is stupid, why aren't we cooking?" and so on and so forth. So I start out with a big nutrition push, then go deeper as we cook our way through the different units.

And I begin with a basic overview of the six major nutrients, and drill them until they've got the real basic info and then we can begin to have intelligent discussions and really dig into the issues.

All this to say that this afternoon I was revamping the notes we take on vitamins, and I thought I'd really like them to be able to recall what each vitamin does, which is actually quite a bit of information and I don't want to spend days upon days just on vitamins. So, I'd need to boil it down to just the key information and give them some tricks to help them memorize them. At which point I thought, "There must be some kind of little poem or song out there about the vitamins!" Wrong. Could not find anything. Well, anything at all useful. Some weird stuff and some incomplete stuff, nothing helpful.

So I wrote my own. And since I am not a scurvy pirate teacher hoarder, I am going to share. Let me forewarn you that this is no work of genius; also, you really have to want it to make some of the syncopation work. Here it is:


And as I am big on both skeleton notes and graphic organizers, here is the form of the poem that my students will actually receive:

 And here's the filled in version:
We'll see how it works out!

And in case you're wondering, once we get into the more complicated stuff, I make them come up with their own stupid poems and memory devices, but first you gotta model, model, model.

Happy Sunday night!

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Grocery Bagging

I LOVE getting to bag my own groceries! This is primarily due to the fact that about 98.4% of all baggers out there don't seem to know what they're doing.

Disclaimer: This is a rant. Brace yourself.

1. I always bring my own bags. One of the beautiful things about the reusable bags is that you can fit 3-4 times as many items into them. For whatever reason most baggers only fill these bags maybe one-third of the way. This drives me crazy.

2. Despite the fact that I want them to use my bags, I think it's only common sense to wrap meats in plastic before placing them in the fabric bags, in case they leak. I'd say the odds of a bagger offering to do this or automatically doing it is somewhere around 50/50.

3. I place my items on the grocery belt in logical groupings so that like items will be bagged together. For example, I put all of my frozen items together so that they will be bagged together. Likewise refrigerated and pantry items. Yet when I arrive home I will have one bag (2/3 empty) with ice cream, a cucumber, Juicy Juice and toilet paper all mixed in together. The rest of the bags will follow suit in containing a jumbled up mess.

I realize this is an over-controlling impulse, but seriously, there are sensible reasons! Keeping the cold items together keeps them cold; also, the ice cream won't melt while I'm sifting through the rice/ground beef/toothpaste/one bag of frozen vegetables bag looking for it. Not to mention that it takes significantly less time to put the groceries away if they are grouped by location!

In my life I have had maybe half a dozen baggers who have had their acts together, and one of them was a former student of mine whom I taught about grouping groceries on the conveyor belt.

Is it just me? Does anyone else have this issue?

Sunday, August 4, 2013

TPT & YouTube

Apologies for double-posting in one day...

I have after long delay decided to jump on the Teachers Pay Teachers bandwagon: 1) I've received many, many requests for my foods lab task cards, and 2) Who can't use a little side money for their classroom? Prices for task card label sets are only $1 each (and in MS Word, so completely open for customization), accompanying recipes are free (as they should be, I didn't write 'em!). Please note that only the .doc file for the labels is for sale - you still have to do the printing, the sticking, the assembling, etc.

Click the TPT button on the side of this blog, or click here to check them out if you're interested. Right now there are three sets available: Cheddar Bay Biscuits (just like Red Lobster!), Sugar Cookies, and Pancakes. All recipes are sized to an appropriate amount for one cooking group, and all task card sets are prepared for a three-person kitchen (because you just know that somebody's going to be absent on cooking day!).

Also, I am beginning to upload my lab demonstration videos to YouTube, under the channel "facsclassroomideas." They all have close-up shots that focus on what I'm actually doing, so while you'll hear my melodic voice you won't see me, just a pair of disembodied hands :). Feel free to use in class or as inspiration for creating your own lab demo videos. Or if you're extremely bored one night, fill up a bowl of popcorn, kick back and... call someone! Watching my demo videos is no way to spend a free evening! : )))))







Monday, July 22, 2013

Foods Lab Prep: Unopened Containers

A little advice for people teaching Foods for the first time. Whenever you have a new package, carton, box, bag, jar, etc that you will be using in a lab, always, always, always, ALWAYS open the container yourself before the lab. Always. Why? Because when you set out unopened containers for the first time, you're probably expecting a result something like this:


What you are actually going to get is something like this:



I am so not kidding. And this is the best case scenario, wherein the food inside the container didn't go flying all over the place (chocolate chips? bread crumbs? etc...)

p.s. These were demonstration items assembled in my home. And yes, it was painful to do this to the peanut butter. We all have to sacrifice for our art.

Friday, July 12, 2013

Product Testing for Pie Making

Pies. I love 'em. I love getting to teach pie-making in foods class - if there's anything 'retro' about Family & Consumer Science, it's that if you take a foods class you should be able to leave knowing how to make an apple pie from scratch. In my opinion, anyway.

There is of course the downside to the pie unit. Complaints of "The dough is too cold and hard to work with," "I can't roll it out evenly," "I can't make a circle." Then there's the MESS: the over-flouring, the flour all over the counters, all over the floors... the flour that's STILL all over the counter after it dries, because they didn't really wash the counters they just moved the flour around and it dried in hard, flat blotches all over the counters... you know what I'm talking about.

So about two years ago I found this handy little contraption, the Harold Pie Crust Maker, and I decided to try it out today (yes, it took two years for me to get around to it, but in all fairness I didn't teach pies this year!).

Essentially it is a zippered bag that you roll the pie crust out in.


It comes in two sizes - 14" and 11". I purchased the bigger one because I could adjust for smaller crusts if need be. Here's how it worked; stated directions are in standard type, my comments are in Italics.

The directions say to lightly flour both of the insides of the bag. I also added just a pinch to the dough itself. I used much less than a tablespoon altogether for the dough and both sides of the bag.

Zip the bag up all the way around, then roll. The dough was extremely easy to roll, and I think faster than standard methods. I didn't go all the way to the edges, because I didn't need a full 14 inches. I think it's probably best to try to avoid going all the way to the edge, because the dough can get caught in the zipper when you open the bag.

Unzip the bag, carefully peel the top side off of the crust. Then invert on the pie pan, and carefully peel back remaining side of bag. I couldn't believe how easy it was to cleanly peel both sides off, as well as invert it into the pan without disaster.

The crust turned out a great thickness, and there was almost no flour or sticky/crumby dough left over in the bag - and none on the counter!!!

Hand wash the bag with soap and warm water. The bag was extremely easy to clean. Drying was a little tricky just because of it's awkward shape, so I just hung it over the faucet to blot with a towel and then I let it air out there so that the zipper would fully dry. Julie, that's the Snoopy quilt you made for me years ago in the background on the couch! Kristine, that's the afghan that you made for us for our wedding years ago!

Kind of irrelevant, but here is the finished product I created with the crust - it is a "Sawdust Pie" from this pie cookbook. If you're into baking pies, I highly recommend the book!

My overall opinion: I am definitely going to try using these in class the next time we bake pies! They are not that expensive - the big one bounces between $6-$7 dollars on Amazon, the 11" is usually just under $5. They're also available at a lot of kitchenware stores for a similar if slightly higher price. You'd have to make sure the kids clean the bags well, but they are much more likely to do that successfully (and in a timely fashion) than clean up their flour messes. It also takes the stress out of trying to make a circle for a novice baker, as well as makes cold dough easier to work with. I imagine it would work well with pizza dough, another bonus - I'll have to try it out the next time I make pizza at home.

If you face any of the issues I mentioned at the beginning of this post, my suggestion is pick up one of these bad boys and try it at home for yourself - I think you'll be just as impressed as I was!

And seriously, check out the "Pie" cookbook!

Sunday, May 19, 2013

A Few More Kitchen Tips

One of my pet peeves is when measuring cups and spoons are thrown pell-mell into a drawer; it's messy and it takes the kids about ten times longer to find the tool they need. Because of this I have them put these items back on a ring after they clean up. I highly recommend to them that they take them off of the rings to begin with so that they don't have to wash all of them, but at the end they need to be hooked together again, in nested fashion.

The problem with this is that the rings that measuring cups and spoons come attached to are usually difficult to work with. You have to struggle to get them to open wide enough, and to keep them open as you add things on or take them off. Hence, I toss the plastic rings and replace them with book rings... much more user friendly!


I couldn't find any yellow ones, but they are available in colors, if you'd like them to match your kitchens. Check out the pretty green book rings:


I also have all measuring equipment kept together in one crate; that way again we're not searching for random tools. As long as they pull out the "measuring crate," they have everything they'll need to measure. A few years ago WalMart had these mini crates for sale in a myriad of colors, a perfect fit:


Finally, I just found these baskets in the $1 bins at Target about a week ago:


I load these with dish towels and dish cloths before the first lab of the day and place them in the kitchens; the students are then responsible for refilling them as part of their clean-up at the end of the lab, so that the next class will be set up. One less thing I have to do myself, and prevents later classes from running back and forth to the laundry baskets.

Simple little things like these can make all the difference, don't you think?


Friday, May 3, 2013

Refrigerator Security

One of my pet peeves is when kids open the refrigerator to "just see what's inside;" hence, one of the first rules we go over starting the very first day of class is that no students are allowed to touch the fridge or the freezer! There's always one or two that want to test this though, and when there are so many things going on during a lab it can be difficult to catch them in the act. So, a couple of years ago I began installing these in my refrigerators:


Refrigerator alarms! You can pick up a two pack at WalMart for about $10. You install them so that the two pieces are less than half an inch apart, and then they are activated when they are separated. I install them on the inside so that they are hidden (and can't be slyly turned off or "borrowed"). You can choose either a chime or an alarm sound, both of which are loud enough to easily hear from across the room. And it scares the crap out of the first kid who tries to sneak into the fridge! It is hilarious - and even better, mucho effective at keeping the little rugrats out. Definitely a worthwhile investment!

Monday, April 29, 2013

When the Best Lab Plans Fail

February 2, 2016 Update: Over 100 new FACS resources including those listed here are available in exchange for a small donation to fight blood cancer - see details here!

Don't you love it when a colleague says "Oh your job is so fun and easy - you just get to cook and eat with the kids all day long!"

Right. Easy.

It's amazing how many teachers (parents, administrators, etc) think teaching a classroom full of public school kids how to cook something is the exact same as teaching one of your own children/grandchildren at home. Amazing, and maddening. Why is it that I can pick out about 42 issues with "Freedom Writers" and "Dangerous Minds," but the English teachers all seem to think that "Superbad" is a fair representation of home ec classes? Neat rows of well-stocked two-man lab stations, and time to make homemade tiramisu in ONE class hour? Wha?



We all know that just handing a recipe to a group of kids and saying "Go cook" is not going to work. Even if you've gone over the recipe. Repeatedly. And demonstrated. Repeatedly. Once they get into the kitchens, it's always a free-for-all. Always. No matter how many times you warn them "Now, once you get into the kitchens, it is not a free-for-all - that's why we spend so much time learning the rules and preparing." So much oxygen that we'll never get back.

Part of that is just the nature of trying to fit a round peg in a square hole. Recipes are typically designed for only one cook who then sets aside the time he/she needs to create the final product. In our classes kids work in groups to prep, create, eat, and clean all inside of 44 minutes (or 88 minutes divided, etc). Real-world recipe reading skills are not the same skills needed to succeed in a classroom kitchen setting. 

All this to say that most FACS teachers strongly believe in lab plans, meaning making the kids sit down and write out who is going to do what and when. That way on the day of the lab - theoretically - there are no arguments over who does what, and the tasks are completed in a timely dovetailed fashion rather than all of the group members standing around watching one person complete one step at a time as you would do if you were cooking independently in your own kitchen. Theoretically.

The first few labs are always the toughest - after all, the kids have to learn for themselves that if they stand around and watch one person do one thing at a time they are not going to have time to eat AND they will not receive a pass from their beloved teacher when they stay after the bell finishing clean-up. After the first few they get the hang of it and things begin to run pretty smoothly.

However, I have run into two problems with this at my new school. One, we only have a few labs, so there's really not much time for that "getting the hang of it" phase. But the second one is the biggie.

Attendance.

Now I have faced attendance issues at every school I've taught at, but this one takes the cake. At the beginning of the year I spent time on lab plans, then came to discover it was a massive waste of time, no matter how far out in advance we began to work on them. There was no way of knowing how many people were going to show up on lab day or who they would be. I couldn't even assign groups the attendance problem was so ridiculous.

At the high school level when there were attendance 'surprises,' the kids could pretty much handle the adjustments - we'd have to combine groups, someone would have to change roles, someone would have to do two jobs, whatever it took. The situation usually worked itself out.

At the junior high school level, the abstract thinking abilities are just not there yet for a substantial number of the students. Which makes perfect sense, if you know your Piaget; however, it also means that making lab plan changes on the fly is not a realistic possibility.

All this to say that I had to throw out the lab planning concept at the end of the first semester and come up with something different. 

And that's when I began developing Cooking Lab Task Cards***.

We still go over the recipe in detail. I still demonstrate the labs (actually, I've taken to creating videos and showing them on the SMART Board. That way everything is close-up and everyone can see very well. They can also watch them at home if they're absent, as I have posted them on YouTube). We still go over the different jobs. But on the day of the actual lab, whoever shows up is handed a task card.

THE EVOLUTION OF LAB TASK CARDS

Even though the first two classes to cook this semester were small and filled with very cooperative kids, I was dreading the first lab and trying to think of ways to make it run more smoothly. Then I thought, why not give them each a to-do list for what needs to happen before the lab? I hand wrote a list of supplies on little slips of paper, creating a set for each kitchen. When we went into the labs I handed each kid a paper, and magically they all did what the sheet said!

It was at that point that I began developing the actual cards. On the front of each card is a list of that person's assigned prep responsibilities - tasks that have to be accomplished BEFORE any actual work takes place.


Once that is accomplished, then they have the steps that they are responsible for on the back.


These cards have worked wonders! Somehow, with a short, detailed list of what to do in their hands they are able to more or less stay focused and get things done the way that they should be done.

I went through quite the evolutionary process with these - as mentioned I began by handwriting supplies on slips of paper for my first experiment during my first rotation this semester, which worked pretty well. Then I reworked the lists, added the jobs, and typed and printed them on labels and slapped them on index cards, which worked well until a class in the second rotation decided it was okay to just ball them up and throw them away rather than give them back (really? You really thought you should throw that away?). 

Now that I've used this method several times, I've created a more permanent product for my third rotation. 

HOW-TO:

1. I create a "prep" label and a "steps" label for each person (A/B/C: if there is a fourth person, I double up the weak readers; has worked well so far) for each day of the lab. For this I use Avery 5168 3.5" x 5" labels.

2. I cut colored 8.5" x 11" cardstock (one set for each kitchen in its corresponding color) into four equal pieces.

3. I affix the labels to the cards, and laminate (not the flimsy roll stuff. I do not want these getting trashed - I go for the 5mm, yeah buddy).

4. I hole punch the cards, and use a book ring to hold together all of the cards for that recipe.


5. I store the cards in a 4 x 6 inch index card box (check out these from Amazon!).



Admittedly, this is a LOT of work initially. However, they are enormous time-savers (and frustration-savers!) once created. Additionally, each class only cooks three or four times, so I only have to create four recipe sets, which are then used in 12 different classes throughout the year as I go through my rotation.

I'm just bummed I didn't have this together 7 or 8 months ago!

And since I have to change everything up for next year, I'll have to make four more recipe sets, but I'll have the summer to do that... and then I'll already be set for the following year!

Again, if we spent more time in the kitchens (or if I were working with an age group more capable of formal operational thought), I wouldn't employ this method. But, when only offering a small number of labs within a short period of time, I want the emphasis to be on their hands-on foods experience rather than their ability to break down new and complicated text into a series of dovetailed tasks. 

And of course I would also like to retain some fraction of my own sanity and sense of well-being.

***Update: Sets of task card labels are now available in my TPT store for $1 per set. Recipes are also available for free download. Check 'em out at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Facsclassroomideas.
Please note that only the labels are for sale - you'll have to do the card making yourself! : )

Sunday, January 6, 2013

The Last Few Precious Hours...

Well friends, this is it - school resumes tomorrow. 1st hour starts at 7:40am. Are you ready?

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon completing odds and ends grading - make-up work, a quiz I gave the last day before break, work turned in from in-school suspension, etc. My mind was screaming "No! No! Not yet!"... you know how it is.

The primary reason I'm not 100% enthusiastic about tomorrow (other than having to get up at some dreadful hour again) is that it's going to be a weird week. We have two "regular" days, two final exam days, and then an Institute Day. You can imagine how seriously junior high kids take final exams, not to mention elective class final exams, so it's going to be rough. Especially since my kids all leave me and switch electives after this week.

I am pretty excited about brand new rosters coming up, though. The bummer about switching schools is that two weeks into the school year you realize about 40 things that you wish you had done differently/wish you hadn't done at all/wish you had done, but you've got to wait a whole year until you get that second chance. I get my second chance during the first year this time! So not only do I get to revamp procedures/rules/seating/etc, I get to revamp curriculum/projects/instruction. And since I've put all of my classes on a rotation, three of the four big units I've taught this year (sewing, foods, child care) I've already been through three times, so this will be the fourth time through. I love fitting six years into one!

In other news, it's been a while since I've mentioned a product/piece of equipment that I find extremely useful. So today, let me rave about my Rachael Ray Bench Scraper!


This thing is a fantastic piece of kitchen equipment, I absolutely love it. I used to be attached to the traditional method of using my chef's knife to transfer ingredients, but this gadget holds so much it is so much more convenient! The ridged rubber handle makes it easy to grip, and it lays flat when you set it down unlike many other scrapers. It is ideal for scooping up piles of food, chopping apart dough, or scraping pastry. Right now it is offered in four colors: orange, purple, blue, and red. If they would just add green and yellow I would buy them for my school kitchens! Guess I'll just have to look for a generic option for those kitchen colors.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Being Green

Whew, things have been so busy! As is always the case with us teachers, I know. I've been logging many a Saturday hour trying to get my kitchens kid-ready. My first group has begun their "Food Unit" rotation, and as soon as we get through food & kitchen safety they'll get their first peek. Luckily it's a somewhat smaller class, so I can focus on four kitchens and let the other two go a bit longer until a larger class rotates in.

One thing that I found desperately necessary in this classroom was relining the kitchen drawers. Most of them are lined with contact paper which must be at least one, probably two, decades old. It's worn out and faded and grimy.

Of all places, Staples had just what I needed: neon, solid-colored contact paper. At my local store they carry yellow, blue, red, and green - four of the six colors I'll need.


Nothing fancy, just clear and obvious which kitchen you're in. Now I just need to find some orange and purple contact paper, and I'll be set!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Job Wheel

There are a few extra tasks that need to be completed during cooking lab clean-up that fall outside of the individual kitchens, and I much prefer to put the kidoodles in charge of these than do them myself. To fairly create a job rotation, I made this job wheel which I change every cooking day:



TABLE – clean off the ingredient table (close lids/boxes/containers, wipe off table)
FLOORS – use the big 3 foot broom to sweep ALL of the kitchens
TOWELS – make sure all towels are in the washing machine, add detergent, start cycle
POWER – check all kitchens to make sure all appliances are turned off

The kids are great about checking the wheel and taking care of business!

Dishwashing Soap

One thing that all new Family & Consumer Science teachers learn within their first two cooking labs is that if you put a full bottle of dishwashing soap out in each of the kitchens, the kids go through it like no tomorrow. For a while I used the smaller bottles and just refilled them from a larger bottle – it got the job done, but the outer labels tended to get pretty gunky after a while. Then I found this fabulous idea from http://facsideas.blogspot.com/ - use craft bottles! Definitely a “why didn’t I think of that???” kind of moment. Fill these up part way and they last for several labs, the squeeze tops prevent extra soap from running down the sides, and they are very easy to clean. Thank you Shelley!