Innovative Ideas!
Special Education
Deal a Meal!:
Students play a card-style game to learn to put together healthy meals and answer questions on nutrition myths. Cards with pictures of food are placed face down in a pile and students take turns choosing a card and placing them face up in front of them for all to see. They continue to collect cards until they can put four together to make a balanced meal (with a food from each of the four food groups). Some of the cards picture foods that do not fit into a food group so they don't help students make a healthy meal. Also mixed into the cards are "bonus" questions about the foods for the student to answer, for example: Is chocolate milk a healthy choice? If a student correctly answers a bonus question, they get a chance to "steal" a food card that they need to make a meal from another students' pile of cards (all are face up). The student with the most healthy meals made at the end of the game wins!
Corra Colella, St. Gabriel Catholic School
Weekly Life Skills Cooking Class:
A large part of our special education curriculum consists of Life Skills. Every Friday we create a healthy meal or dessert using locally sourced food wherever possible. We plan the meal using a grocery list that we take to a local grocery store to purchase the ingredients. This meal comes in the form of a recipe which the students have to read and then evaluate. Recipes are collected in a cookbook, which becomes a treasure for most students. At the end of the school year we review our recipes and vote on the best. The top three are remade and the Overall Best Recipe of the year is chosen.
While many of the students we serve have never been to a farm, we do teach them where the foods that we prepare come from. We shop seasonally and locally whenever possible. We make everything from scratch wherever possible so our students have hands-on experience with handling food.
We also go on a walk every day so they can experience the seasons and fresh air. This walk gives us a chance to interact and talk about nature and natural cycles.
Cameron Leslie, R. A. Riddell Elementary School
Taking It Further: Cooking to Eat Well!:
The special education class is involved in cooking foods from Canada's Food Guide as well as promoting healthy eating to the school community. The students developed and administered a survey of the staff and students in the school that included questions about their eating habits and attitudes, and used data collection techniques in their curriculum to compile their results.
These survey results provided the students with the inspiration for a monthly healthy eating campaign, including bulletin boards, newsletter sections and spots for school announcements, as well as their healthy cooked meals.
Chelsea Burton, General Lake Public School
Class Restaurant:
With a class that has varying levels of learning challenges, this activity really allows all students to get involved! Twice a month the class develops a menu for a meal. To come up with ideas for the types of food, the class brainstorms together and creates thought maps. In developing the menu they have to devise a recipe for each component of the meal, including a list of ingredients, utensils required and the procedure.
The students learn about balanced meals and must ensure the meals have foods representing each of the four food groups. The class shops for the food as a group, using flyers and a pre-determined budget, then cooks the food together and enjoys the meal as a class community.
Chelsea Burton, General Lake Public School
Healthy Team versus Villains of Bad Health:
Healthy eating plays are created with the help of the characters that make up the Healthy Team and the Villains of Bad Health. These plays are shown at school assemblies every second month, with each having a specific theme.
The plays include characters such as The Fab Four - Veggie Girl, Groovy Grain, Dairy Dude and Captain Protein. Students work on the team that develops and acts in these plays. The students also create posters and announcements to promote the plays.
Ruth Huxtable, Prince Andrew Public School
Smoothie Sailing:
This activity provides students with the opportunity to appreciate different tastes and textures. Students create recipes for smoothies using ingredients from the Vegetables and Fruit and the Milk and Alternatives food groups. They also make and share the combinations in class.
Corra Colella, St. Gabriel School