Cooking+in+the+Inclusive+Classroom

__Cooking in the Inclusive Classroom __

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For students who need assistance with language, communication, sensory integration motor and social skills, cooking offers significant opportunities for students to learn and practice them in a fun environment inclusive environment. In Australia, there is a growing concern in regards to the disappearance of basic cooking skills among young people (Caraher & Reynolds, 2005). Schools are in a position be able to teach these skills, as well as encourage healthy eating. Individual activities and achievement often occur in the classroom, but cooking promotes team work and responsibility, which holds considerable importance in an inclusive classroom. =====


 * =====Food and Kitchen Safety =====
 * =====Nutrition and Healthy eating =====
 * =====Equipment Identification =====
 * =====Where food comes from =====
 * =====Reading\following recipes =====

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Furthermore, incorporating cooking into the classroom can offer children the opportunity to develop valuable life skills they may not get outside of the classroom. =====

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When cooking in an inclusive classroom, it’s important to clearly outline what skills are required for the cooking lesson, and the adaptations that will need to be made to support certain student’s special needs. =====

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Students should have a clearly outlined role, it is especially important that a child with special needs has a role that actually contributes to the success of the activity and the group working in unity towards a common goal. =====

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 =PowerLink 4 Control Unit=
 * *Switch Control Devise - ** for those students unable to physically control appliances in the cooking session. These devises are a wonderfully inclusive option for those young or older students who may not be able to participate in the classroom cooking session without them. By attaching these devices to the blender, electric fry pan, food processor etc. these students gain the ability to control their environment and become an active participant of the class group. =====

===The new PowerLink 4 control unit allows switch users to control up to two electrical appliances with single [|switches]. **Six unique modes** of control allow you to define exactly how, and for how long, appliances will be turned on. PowerLink will accept any single switch, including AbleNet’s Big or [|Jelly Beamer wireless switches].===

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The Kitchen Classroom (Mayer, 2010) is a an innovative cookbook and resource designed for teachers and parents for teaching cooking to students with special needs. It contains a series of easy to follow visual recipes as well as a cd-rom with over 500 photos and step to step instructions so non-readers, as well as readers can follow along, take part in steps and know what to expect ahead. =====

The following is a specially designed visual recipe for children with special needs.

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CLICK HERE FOR STUDENT RECIPE EXAMPLE =====

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Visual recipes could be used for the whole class quite easily, as to not only isolate certain students. Not only that, but the visuals would be of benefit to all students. =====

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Also included is a teacher/parent recipe which explains the cooking activity, teaching strategies and skills that are being focused on. The following is an example of such.

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<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">[|CLICK HERE FOR TEACHER\PARENT RECIPE] =====

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<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Recipes are coded so that each step shows what skill is being reinforced (maths, science, literacy, communication, social skills, sensory skills, fine and gross motor). =====

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<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The book is an effective inclusive resource because the author has created a framework. The activities are carefully scaffolded for the child’s development as to allow for the greatest chance of success. =====

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<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Many schools throughout Australia have taken part in the Kitchen Garden program, where students are responsible from growing fresh produce and cooking with it. =====

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<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The website offers an in-depth look at the program as well as large amounts of resources for incorporating cooking into the classroom. =====

I found the above websites very interesting, and being someone that is studying hospitality and food technology, I feel that cooking can provide an inclusive education for any student. Cooking is one of the most socially diverse and fun ways to educate a child, as every culture has it's own way of doing it! Cooking is a great way to involve every student, and also the opportunity to involve the parents and further community as well. It can be used as an educational tool for any age, and can teach values other than just those of the home economics basis. There is one website that I have found particularly useful in the past called 'Cooking for Kids'.

Cooking for Kids is an American website that contains various ideas and lesson plans on how to educate students in the cooking classroom. It is aimed towards primary school students, but there are some activities and ideas within the website that could be easily varied to still provide an insightful, fun and interesting lesson for students in middle school (a maximum age appropriate level of 15-16 years).

For example, one particular recipe is for 'Hot Diggity Dogs', which focus largely on cutting the food into triangles, circles and other shapes. So this would suited well to an early primary school class. It is essential that students only undertake closely guided lessons that are age appropriate, as safety is always a must in the kitchen - particularly when knives, stoves, and ovens are at times being used.

REFERENCES:

http://www.earthskids.com/cooking_with_kids.aspx

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<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Caraher, M & Reynolds, J. (2005) Sustainable food futures : lessons for home economics pedagogy and practice. Journal of the Home Economics Institute of Australia =====

==All of the ideas presented here are increasingly helpful to myself as this is the area that I will be teaching in. Accessing this information is so much easier now! I will post some further information in regards to creating an inclusive classroom for students with individual needs as well now!==