"Cooking" themed classes?

[summerthyme]

I've heard of some people doing cooking classes where the students have to follow a recipe in English and then cook their own food.  I'm just wondering how you pull this off -- are you in schools that have access to western-style "home ec" classrooms with working kitchen equipment, are you borrowing things from the school cafeteria, or are you making things like no-bake cookies or food that requires just prep work and no actual "cooking"?

Also, about the ingredients - do you purchase them yourself (which would be expensive, I imagine) or do you ask the school to fund the activity?

[cwells]

I try and find activities that don't require actual cooking. I have done alot of activities using fruit and making slices or jelly etc. that just require prep and refrigeration. From time to time I have taken in my portable gas range (you know- the camping style ones) and made pancakes or something similar. I've purchased all of the supplies myself.

[sonya]

I've done a 5 minute cake one where we just had to have the microwave brought into the class.

Lots of recipes at this link...
http://www.instructables.com/pages/search/search.jsp?cx=partner-pub-1783560022203827%3Anpr2q7v5m6t&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=10+minute+cake

Sonya

[willchang84]

One of my books had "class party" as a theme, and they described how to make tuna sandwiches.. The students were pretty excited making the sandwiches and they were responsible for bringing all the ingredients, and materials themselves..

[Janitor]

I have done sandwiches and pancakes with my students. I have bought the stuff myself but I kept things at a minimum by separating the students into groups. Thus, cutting a sandwich into four pieces saves a lot.

Peanut Butter Jelly works well with the students and adding the "peanut butter jelly time" song adds to the fun. The main thing is to keep it organized and time the lesson so that the students only get edible items when you need to use them.

The biggest problems that I have had stemmed from giving the students everything at once and then finding out that the boys ate all of their bread and the girls had dissected everything because they were extremely picky eaters.

Giving the students roles is another good thing to do in groups. Each student does one thing like; cutting, spreading, cleaning etc.

[summerthyme]

Thank you for the replies, and Sonya, thank you for the link!  My MG(2) afterschool class (usually 6-8 students) told me they want to learn about desserts/sweet foods for their next class, and those recipes look perfect -- we have a microwave in our teacher's room

Janitor - thank you for the tip about roles and dividing students.  I was wondering about getting eight small mug cakes done, but I think 2 oversized mug cakes might be a lot more do-able (and, you know, there's that whole 'teamwork' thing and all that, ha ha).

[sonya]

I also did the group thing and each group had to bring a mug to make their 'cake' in!  Very, very, very successful!

Sonya

[teacher_del]

If you have TV/internet in your cooking classroom, you might look up some video recipes on eHow and use them as a listening activity before making the recipe itself.  I know deviled eggs is up there, and I've had some success with that recipe and students aged 11 (international) and up.  S'mores were crazy popular.  Yummy yummy s'mores.  (I use Sable cookies in place of graham crackers.)  I've also brought French toast in to an adult class, and they loved even the reheated quarter-slices with optional honey.  That may or may not have been influenced by my habit of adding cinnamon sugar to the toast while it's frying.

[cinnamon]

My school has actually paid for some supplies I've asked for. I've made sandwiches, and I have bobbed for apples with my advanced after school kids. Am thinking of doing toffee apples with them soon or maybe pancakes.
Our school has a few of those little gas stoves floating around, so if you can get your hands on them then there are quite a few things one can do. Have also made home made play dough with some kids.

[trentniino]

little pp of things in a kitchen. 

[mffrance]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3-OAwhIvU0

This is a link to make ice cream in a ziploc bag.  We did this today and it was magical.  Yesterday we put the kids into pairs and told them then one partner must bring a big ziploc bag with ice in it (about an ice cube tray full) and the other partner must bring a small 200ml carton of milk, like they pass out at school.  Then the students came to me and I slopped some salt into each person's bag and gave them a small ziploc to pour their milk concoction in.  This went really well and for my 8 groups to make their ice cream, eat, and wash up their own bowls and spoons, it took an hour.  The school purchased sugar, salt, small ziplocs and vanilla flavoring (powder or liquid).  Adding cocoa or chocolate syrup also works out or using chocolate or strawberry milk.  Have fun!!

[pickle]

This is a link to make ice cream in a ziploc bag.  We did this today and it was magical.  Yesterday we put the kids into pairs and told them then one partner must bring a big ziploc bag with ice in it (about an ice cube tray full) and the other partner must bring a small 200ml carton of milk, like they pass out at school.  Then the students came to me and I slopped some salt into each person's bag and gave them a small ziploc to pour their milk concoction in.  This went really well and for my 8 groups to make their ice cream, eat, and wash up their own bowls and spoons, it took an hour.  The school purchased sugar, salt, small ziplocs and vanilla flavoring (powder or liquid).  Adding cocoa or chocolate syrup also works out or using chocolate or strawberry milk.  Have fun!!

Now that is cool!  I'll have to try that myself sometime!

[Meg.Kol]

I made Jell-o and peanut butter with my students during winter camp.  Jell-o was bought at the foreign food store in Itaewon.  It's cheap, all you need is a kettle and measuring cups to make it and they really enjoyed it.  When we made peanut butter the school paid for the peanuts and bread.  The students had to take off the brown outer part and put those in a food processor (I brought that from home) with oil and sugar. 

[mscorpgrl]

The ice cream lesson looks amazing! Do you think that we could use snow instead of ice cubes, or would it melt too fast?

[mffrance]

Snow would melt before the kids got it in the school.  I didn't have a single group that had trouble bringing ice with them.  We just made sure that it was the first lesson of the day.  The Jell-o is a good one too.

[machoman]

i had my students make korean food, but everything had to be done in english.  and i also required them to do a video which they edited themselves. 

here's the sample:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhBHoAUXKho

[tom.s.avery]

This winter camp I went all out with my 5th and 6th grade students. We baked cookies!

I was quite lucky in that we managed to pull a few strings to buy an oven (for around 150,000W) on the English budget (I think it's shared with the Daycare centre which has a huge budget due to unnecessary government support). Once we had an oven the rest was quite easy. Just had to be very strict with the students, to the point that if they step out of line, they have no cookie. I didn't want floury clothes... And so even the more difficult students followed the rules very well.

Ingredients are pretty cheap (we managed to get them on the camp budget too), cookies are very simple to make, and it took up almost 2 hours without cleaning time. I baked them in the afternoon by myself, they only made the dough and prepared it.

This was really great since Koreans don't have a huge selection of baked goods, and it's something that I grew up with and can share easily (now that we have an oven). I'm hoping this is something I can do regularly with some of the teachers! I think it'd be cool to have a cooking culture class.

[mffrance]

i had my students make korean food, but everything had to be done in english.  and i also required them to do a video which they edited themselves. 

here's the sample:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhBHoAUXKho

Love the video idea!!

[gembira]

I think making sandwiches is a good idea. Has anyone tried making a BLT?

[jemimared]

ham and cheese sandwiches are very popular! I made them last camp, and snuck in lettuce and tomato... hehehe  ALso, we ate quite a bit of icecream, and we did the below worksheet. The link for the video is on the w/s.
This wintercamp i'll make no-cook fudgeballs. They are very basic. Just google a recipe.
And I've attached and all purpose step by step worksheet, where the students can write the recipe and method of their favorite food. (or you can stipulate, How to make ramyeon, how to make a cup of tea. Whatever you feel!)