Preparing Meals

Learning how to prepare meals is an essential life skill. Meal preparation allows for a variety of students with a range of abilities to work on a selection of academic and functional skills. Here are some tips for meal preparation in the classroom.

• Choose a recipe that is simple enough for your students to follow with limited assistance. If the students are not at the point where they can safely operate the stove or that is not a goal at this point, choose a no – heat recipe.
• Recipes can be displayed visually and can also be watched on video
• Plan your activity by assuring that you have specific goals for each student in the activity and that those goals are clear to all the individuals supporting them.
• Plan the recipe.
  • Detail the steps of the recipe (e.g. Chicken and pasta bake)
  • make a grocery list for needed ingredients
  • go to the grocery shop and purchase the items
  • organising equipment and food for cooking
  • cleaning up and storing leftover ingredients
• Older students should be working on more practical recipes that they would be able to make on their own after they transition from school. Simple things like scrambling eggs, making sandwiches, making coffee or tea, making toast, and making a simple meal might be good tasks to work on depending on the skills of the students.
• The teacher could assign roles based on the skill they want the students to work on. For instance, a student working on reading directions could be the reader, while a student working on measuring could measure out the ingredients. Remember that there are many roles that can go into a cooking project from setting the oven temperature, to stirring, to using a mixer or a blender, to measuring, to timing.
• Incorporate assistive technology and communication tools as appropriate for your students. For example:
  • Students working with PECS or picture systems could ask for the ingredients needed to complete a step (and if the student is just learning to communicate, choose an ingredient that would be reinforcing that he or she can have a taste of after asking so the reinforcement is more immediate).
• Include instruction on good hygiene and food safety procedures. For older students it could mean learning to wear gloves (as they would need to on a job site), washing hands after handling raw meat (as well as before cooking), and proper handling of food when serving.
• Share the food the students make. Older students could invite peers in for a snack or meal and serve them and share food. Nothing brings people together for social interaction like food and the gives the students who did the cooking an opportunity to be proud of their accomplishments.