The school garden is put to rest for the winter. We do some indoor gardening projects in the gardening off-season but the cold days of winter bring us mostly inside to our Kitchen Classroom. Our students LOVE to cook. Cooking with students is very fun but It takes planning, a positive attitude, thought and organization to succeed.
Our goal for cooking with students is to use seasonal fresh produce, make food students can replicate themselves at home and to give them confidence in the kitchen. We start with the basics of how to wash a dish, clean a kitchen, practice proper hygiene, safely use kitchen tools and to work together as a team.
There is a wide variety of kitchen experience among our students and all experience levels are welcome. Mistakes are okay, our purpose is to learn. We find most students are interested, engaged and eager to try whatever they make in the kitchen.
How do we pull this off? Our Kitchen Classroom has 7 small kitchens and one large demonstration kitchen. Our Kitchen Classroom is old (1970s old!) but in working order. We assign 4 students to each kitchen. We find the most manageable number of students to cook with is between 20 – 24 students, so this would be 5 – 6 groups. Each student is assigned a number 1 – 4 and is assigned a task based on that number. They are all responsible to work together as a team to prepare, cook and clean.
We have clear recipes and instructions and lay out expectations before the lesson begins. Our Kitchen Rules are: Show Respect, Follow Directions, Work Together, Practice Safety. We have made some delicious food so far this year and look forward to a winter filled with our tried and true recipes along with trying out some new lessons.
Please visit our Recipes section for some examples of what we’ve been cooking.
You can also follow us on social media for updates on our latest projects and recipes.
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