School Cooks Lesson Plans

By registering with School Cooks you will receive 6 free, high quality lesson plans specially devised by a panel of PSHE and Science Co-ordinators to meet the aims of the Key Stage 3 PSHE curriculum.

  • Lesson 1: Making it in the media – thinking about your career Topics covered include: What skills do celebrity chefs have? How do they compare to chefs and celebrities? Exploring other jobs in TV and the media.
  • Lesson 2: In the best of health – how to lead a balanced and healthy lifestyle Topics covered include: How much is one portion? What does the body use each food group for? How to create a balanced meal.
  • Lesson 3: You are what you eat – understanding what’s good for you Topics covered include: Recognising key ingredients in common meals; discussing preservatives used in pre-prepared foods; exploring the reasons people don’t want to cook.
  • Lesson 4: Appliances and sciences – understand what’s happening with your food Topics covered include: identifying which kitchen equipment is used for what; on what occasions measuring is more or less important when cooking; studying basic chemical reactions in cooking.
  • Lesson 5: Be on the safe side – know how to stay safe and sound Topics covered include: the need for hygienic practice in the kitchen; safety in any kitchen and basic first aid.
  • Lesson 6: It’s all in the presentation – making the most of what you create Topics covered include: describing effective presenting skills; the need to address your target audience; responsibilities and accountability when posting anything on the web.

Each lesson contains a wide range of different resources which make it easy to engage with students and encourages them to explore the ideas discussed in class. These include PowerPoint lesson guides, teacher’s notes, classroom resources and interactive videos and learning tools. See below for more details.

Sample lesson:

Lesson 3: You are what you eat – understanding what’s good for you

Covering:
  • Recognise some key ingredients in common meals.
  • Discuss the ingredients used to keep food edible for longer and make it taste ‘better’.
  • Challenge the reasons people give for eating ready-made meals.

PSHE objectives covered:
  • 1.2a, 1.2b – Healthy lifestyles
  • 2.2a, 2.2b – Decision-making and managing risk
  • 2.3a, 2.3b – Developing relationships and working with others
  • 3f – How a balanced diet and making choices for being healthy contribute to personal wellbeing
  • 4e – Work as members of groups and teams, taking on different roles and responsibilities
  • 4f – Pupils evaluate their own personal development and learning, set realistic targets and goals for future life choices and develop strategies for meeting them
  • 4h – Make links between personal wellbeing and work in other subjects and areas of the curriculum and out-of-school activities

This lesson is about recognising the key ingredients in everyday meals. It will look at: the preservatives and additives used to keep ready-made meals edible for longer. The excuses for not cooking – no time, no skills, dirty dishes and cost – are also explored and exploded.

Resources:
School Cooks provides a range of resources - both in class and online – which students will use during lessons and as part of their homework. As each student is registered individually, there will be the opportunity to host quizzes and questionnaires which can be automatically graded online – reducing teachers’ workloads.

Lesson plans include all the following:

PowerPoint slides
These slides guide the students through the lesson, setting out the lesson objectives: key ingredients in common meals and challenging the reasons people give for eating ready-made meals. It poses questions to students and encourages them to explore a wide variety of ideas.

Teacher’s notes
The teacher’s notes provide notes and answers on the subjects and questions covered in the lesson such as the health implications of eating ready-made food. This means no extra research or planning is necessary.

In class resource – questionnaire
Once the pupils have discussed the lesson they will then produce a persuasive newspaper article encouraging people to ditch microwave meals and cook fresh - which can be both self and peer assessed through the use of a questionnaire.

In class resource – wordsearch
This printable word search will encourage students to use the language discussed in the lesson in a fun and engaging way.

Interaction with Eat The Chef website
During the lesson teachers will be able to access resources on www.eatthechef.com such as videos which will promote class discussion.

Homework and Interaction with School Cooks website
To save teachers the task of marking PSHE homework the School Cooks website sets a series fun and engaging tasks to test pupils’ understanding of the lesson. These can be marked online with teachers automatically receiving their students’ marks.