This lesson comes with a pretty tasty outcome.
Every Friday is a cooking day for students in Jocelyn Crabtree’s moderate learning difficulties (or MLD) class. Joined by their fifth grade buddies from the general education classes, these students are working on communication skills while prepping yummy dishes.
Jocelyn Crabtree has been at Marrington Elementary for two years and previously led the school’s cross categorical classroom. She is now leading the new MLD program.
In her class, life skills are incorporated into the students’ learning. Some of this is being accomplished via the new Friday cooking class, during which Crabtree’s students work with their fifth grade buddies to follow recipes (that they will later devour).
On Oct. 17, to tie into the month of Halloween, Crabtree’s class enjoyed making an easy popcorn-based snack dish called “Monster Munch.”
Who: Special services teacher Jocelyn Crabtree and her kindergartners from the MLD class, plus fifth grade buddies from the general education classes
Where: Marrington Elementary
What: This lesson focuses on helping Crabtree’s students follow step by step instructions while communicating with their buddies to accomplish a task.
Friday’s activity started with Crabtree going over the instructions and having her students demonstrate their understanding of the steps via worksheets. Sometimes they have just a few steps to follow, sometimes it's upwards of 20.
“They have to…do the sequence of the recipe before we even get into the cooking, so that they follow multi-step directions in chronological order,” she said.
Once they finished that part, the students received the ingredients they needed to make the Monster Munch: popcorn, nuts and assorted candy, plus a large mixing bowl and a spoon for stirring.
It is a very engaging lesson; students enjoyed pouring the various items into the mixing bowl and stirring everything together. The fifth graders were very good about talking to Crabtree’s students and cheering them on as they completed instructions.
However, it's up to no debate, everybody’s favorite part is nibbling on the food at the end.
The class has done a handful of cooking lessons this semester, from candy pretzels to s’mores krispies. Crabtree said they do a lot of popcorn-based recipes because they are easy, but eventually they will transition to some more difficult dishes this school year, like grilled cheese sandwiches.
“We do trial and error and figure out what we’re bringing back next year and what we’re going to do differently,” she said.
Results: In addition to making and eating a fun snack, Crabtree’s students are working on life skills that will set them up for success later on in life.
“They work on communication skills and get to make an easy recipe that normally is something they can make at home and not super complex,” she said. “They get to use their socio-emotional skills and get to communicate with some general education peers that they don’t typically get to see in an everyday occurrence.”
Another bonus – the parents love it. Crabtree will share photos of the cooking lessons with families, and after each completed cooking class, the students put the recipes into binders – called their cookbooks – so they can make the dishes at home. Parents have even told Crabtree that their students have been wanting to help out more at home – especially in the kitchen.
“This lesson is making a positive difference because it is incorporating life skills that they can use now, and later on in life,” Crabtree said.