Cooking to Learn

School:: Palmetto Elementary
Subject:: Special Needs Students
Teacher:: Nancy Rojas
: Sheila Snyder, Robin Baumgartner
Students Impacted:: 33
Grade:: 4
Date:: July 23, 2015

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

License For Learning Plate Fund - $450.00

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 33

The grant was split between three different teachers and impacted 33 special needs students in grades 3-5. Each month the students had the opportunity to engage in a hands on cooking experience that complemented our Unique modified curriculum units. The students had fun rolling, mashing, measuring or kneading to prepare their recipe. Each month they prepared delicious items such as homemade pumpkin pies, corn bread, cookies, and pizza from scratch. Teaching cooking skills to these students gave them the opportunity to increase their independent functioning skills as well as allowing them to use basic academic skills in a functional way. The different recipes allowed us to teach fractions, measurement, science and problem solving in a fun and engaging way. It also brought on discussions about healthy and not so healthy food choices. The students also learned to follow directions, be creative and most of all they learned that cooking is fun. I am very grateful for this grant. It has allowed me to show the students that what they learn in class can be used outside of the classroom.

grant photo

Original Grant Overview

Goal

The goal of this project is to use cooking as an opportunity to integrate math, science, reading, and social skills into the special needs classroom.

What will be done with my students

Each month my students will have the opportunity to use cooking as a hands-on learning experience. All recipes chosen will complement our Unique modified curriculum monthly learning targets. Our unit on “Plants We Eat” is designed around a Life Science study of plants and will focus on cooking vegetables, grocery shopping and menu reading. Our history unit focuses on life long ago and will give the students the opportunity to make such things as homemade corn bread and butter the way it was made in Colonial America. Our holidays around the world unit highlights preparing seasonal cultural favorites such as pumpkin pie, potato latkes and holiday cookies. Throughout the year the students will prepare 10 different recipes as well as write a recipe review to rate for taste, difficulty of preparing, and nutritional value of all projects.

Benefits to my students

Teaching cooking skills to students with special needs is an opportunity to not only increase independence but to use basic academic skills in a functional way. Students learn better in the context of real life situations than by listening to lectures or filling in worksheets. This project can enhance skills such as math, science, reading, problem solving as well as communication. If funded, this project will be available for 3 classrooms of students in grades 3-5 for a total of 33 special needs students.

Budget Narrative

I would like to be able to purchase supplies needed to prepare one recipe per month for 10 months to go along with our monthly unit topics. The supplies purchased would be used by 3 teachers and 33 students.

Items

#	Item	Cost
1	Cooking supplies teacher 1 (10 recipes)	$150.00
2	Cooking suplies teacher 2 (10 recipes)	$150.00
3	Cooking supplies teacher 3 (10 recipes)	$150.00
	Total:	$450.00

Please share this page to help in fulfilling this grant.