My students need slow cookers and copies of twenty-four fiction and nonfiction books, including Who Wants Pizza, Kitchen Science Lab for Kids and Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook.
No matter what yardstick you use--CCSS, No Child Left Behind or something else, my students need help with number sense, math and science awareness.
This year for the first time in my short teaching career, I am teaching a first and second grade combination class and I need more engaging math and science materials and strategies for my students.
Many of my children are the dependents of deployed military personnel. Our school is close to two military bases, Fort Elmendorf Air Force Base and Fort Richardson Army Base, and my first and second graders attend an older, urban school designated as high poverty that does not have many resources other than textbooks. My 27 kids are great students but they suffer from serious handicaps. Seven students are over a 1.5 years below grade level. I have six English Language Learner students. All of my students qualify for free breakfast and lunch. They all want to learn and they work very hard. They love learning but they need help with homework. Drill and Kill is not doing it for them. We have essentially no math games, apps or materials for them.
Many of my students are English Language Learners who have recently arrived in this country. They attend school in one of the most multicultural districts in the United States. Our school is designated as high poverty and many of my wonderful students are deemed at-risk.
My Project
I am requesting 27 Crock-Pot slow cookers and books. Students need slow cookers and copies of twenty-four fiction and nonfiction books, including Who Wants Pizza, Kitchen Science Lab for Kids and Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook This will prepare us to put the science of cooking and recipes including Everybody Serves Soup into action. I plan to invite families to school to learn about the project as I introduce science of food and how to use slow cookers. I will show how to measure, ask questions and help students read recipes.
Then, I will read the book, Stone Soup, and we will eat soup that kids prepared in our classroom slow cooker.
Kids will explain how they read the recipe, measured the vegetables, and learned to read the clock.
Each week, there will be a new vocabulary list, a new math skill (measuring, weighing, counting, etc.) or science task, and a new simple recipe to make as homework. On Friday, students will take a quick assessment/test about the math/science and vocabulary. Then we will share the new book and cook in the classroom. Students will make the recipe so they can show their families how to cook as part of their weekend homework. This exciting project will make homework fun and testing less of a chore. It also helps build family involvement. Kids will eventually create and illustrate a class cookbook!
Cooking can be a great opportunity to develop reading, math and science skills and to boost students’ confidence as they prepare different foods.
Everybody cooks and everybody learns. When kids follow a recipe, they are readers! When kids measure, they are mathematicians! When kids find out the origin of a recipe, they are geographers! And when kids cook, they are chemists! Every time they follow or modify a recipe they are experimenting with acids and bases. And unlike in a laboratory, they can eat their experiments.
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