Lessons Learned From Making a Red Velvet Cake
Ever since my seven-year-old autistic son, Barclay, was able to stand on a chair and reach the counter, I’ve had him in the kitchen with me. He loves to collect the tools needed for whatever dish we are whipping up. He then selects the ingredients and places them on...
The Mega Pack for Summer
The temperatures in Virginia have finally gotten into the 90s this week, and with two little kiddos that sometimes means days are spent inside out of the scorching sun. This can be challenging when all our little ones want to do is eat snow cones and bask in their...
Presents, Cookies, & Books for December!
The weather in Maryland is turning chilly again so what better way to keep active learning engagement than with presents, cookies, and themed books! There are so many ways to differentiate and extend the following activities so do not feel like you must stick with...
Fall Cooking
Why You Should Start Cooking in Your Classroom this Summer
I was presenting at a PD recently and asked the crowded room, "Who does cooking in their classroom?" I had barely finished the question before I launched it all of the benefits and skills that can be targeting through cooking activities. I was so caught up...
Thanksgiving Cooking with Free Recipe
I love cooking with my student around this time of the year. There are so many great Thanksgiving dishes to make. Stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin fluff, cranberry fluff, and green beans seem to be popular for my students. I usually do different...
Free Download: Ice Cream Sundae Visual Recipe
For my end of the year celebration with some of my classes the special education teachers and I are having our students make Ice Cream Sundaes. I know it is not the healthiest but it is the end of the school year and my students deserve a little treat...
I Spy Food Themed Books!
I created these food themed books for my students because when doing different cooking activities I realized they didn’t know some of the names for common cooking tools or the vocabulary to describe different types of food. What started out as one book...
Veggies with Hummus and Ranch Dip!
After learning about fruits and vegetables all last month I wanted to do a cooking activity related to my theme. We had so much fun making hummus and ranch dip to eat with lots of different vegetables. It was a perfect end to our fruit and vegetable...
Advanced Cooking
If you teach older students or students who are working on more grade level academics, you may be thinking that cooking isn't going to work for your class. Oh how wrong you are my love. You can adapted cooking activities to include high level skills like...
Summer Treats & Snacks Visual Recipes
Whether you are trudging your way through the final days of the school year, embarking on an epic summer school journey, or getting yourselves nestled in for a fun summer home with your own babies - it's time for some fun. It's time to loosen the reigns, let your hair...
Visual Recipe Round Up
Let's give a little round up of all of our visual recipes! Visual recipes are great because they give structure, simple directions, and a visual cue for each step in a recipe. I like making recipes that are simple and straightforward. It makes the whole cooking...
Why You NEED To Do Cooking In Your Classroom
Like I've been saying for the past two weeks, it's okay that we are (slightly) checked out now that the end of the year is so close. And guess what? Your kids are too. So what's a fool proof way to grab their attention and sneak in a tiny bit more learning before the...
Valentine Ooze with Free Recipe!
We are making Valentine Ooze this week in speech. You can’t eat it but the kids love making it and playing with the gooey mixture. It’s so awesome. This is a simple recipe which targets following directions, building up vocabulary, and sequencing....
Holiday Treats with FREE Recipe!
A fun and delicious treat. You can do this with store bought frosting but I had my students make the frosting! If you want a free copy of my frosting recipe click here – holiday-frosting Sasha also made a Christmas Cone Recipe which includes the steps to...
Winter Treats and Snacks!
Cooking is such a fun activity that sneakily incorporates a lot of learning. Shhh. Don't tell your kids. If you have work avoidant kiddos - the ones that will do annnnnything to get out of doing even a tiny bit of work - you better make cooking a part of your...
Visual Recipes for Thanksgiving
Holidays are all about traditions. One of my classroom's favorite Thanksgiving tradition is cooking a big Thanksgiving feast. We have so much fun. Over the years, we've streamlined the process to make it a little bit less chaotic but that dang pile of dishes after is...
What’s Cooking in Speech???
There are so many fun Halloween recipes! This month I let some of my groups of students vote on which recipe to make. With my older students I usually do one cooking activity a month. In these groups at the beginning of the month we plan out our speech sessions for...
Visual Recipes: Summer Treats & Snacks!
It's June, people! Whether you are trudging your way through the final days of the school year, embarking on an epic summer school journey, or getting yourselves nestled in for a fun summer home with your own babies - it's time for some fun. It's time to loosen the...
Tips for Making Your Cooking Lessons Run Smoothly
If you living in the special ed world you have probably heard of using cooking lessons in the classroom. This always sounds really weird to people at first. I get confused faces and some weird reactions from those out of the loop. But a lot of time we know how cooking...