As I come to the end of another term at St Luke’s I reflect back to the start of the year when I was told I would be co-teaching Stage Two. This term students were offered a ‘Passion Project’ within their stage instead of Adventure Learning. Students were asked what they would like to learn about and accordingly topics were created. This time we were asked to teach Master Chef! Having no idea what to teach 8-10 year olds that didn’t involve cooking or baking, my colleague and I quickly turned to Google. We were amazed to see the number of ideas that swamped the Internet.
We decided to link our ideas with the expectation that by Stage Two, students should be able to make their own lunch. With that in mind, we asked Stage Two students for suggestions on healthy foods and snacks they would like to eat. The term ‘healthy’ didn’t go down too well but tweaking the name to ‘fun’ snacks with fruits and vegetables was well received. We threw in some not so healthy snacks as well, just to keep the balance.
As a group they were asked to design their snack and then choose one to create. They learned that planning, creating, presentation and the clean up were all part of being a good chef. I learned that it didn’t take much to keep them on task. Each week they welcomed their project with excitement and anticipation. It was so rewarding to hear them say things like ‘this is so much fun’ and ‘this was the best day of my life’. It was equally rewarding seeing them carefully pack their end product to take home to their parents, not forgetting to take a photo first. Sr. Theresa was an added bonus as she came in each week and helped the kids with getting those creative juices flowing.
This experience has definitely reiterated to me the power of motivation and interest in the given subject, as the student’s excitement around creativity and experimentation heavily contributed to the success of the unit.