6th and 7th grade students learns life skills

It was cooking with Kat day on Wednesday in the Life Skills class of Lower School teacher Ms. Forrester, who will be teaching students this year about fundamental practices like cooking, first aid, carpentry, and time management in real-world scenarios.

The Lower School has implemented an elective class for the sixth and seventh grade classes, including art, cooking, information literacy, and music. Each quarter, students take the classes on Tuesday and Thursday.

“Schools throughout America have been phasing out these types of classes and parents reached out to us and asked if we could incorporate them back into the curriculum,” said Ms. Forrester, who also teaches Spanish. “Having these types of classes enable the student to learn in a practical manner, mature, and become self-reliant.”

For cooking day, Katarzyna Garmilla, SAGE food service director at Farragut, visited the class and taught the students how to do certain things like cutting a tomato properly, searing meat, and completing a meal step by step using a recipe.

Hughie Seeley, who is in seventh grade, said he enjoyed taking part in the cooking process.  “My favorite part was learning how to sear the meat. I will definitely use the skills I’m learning now in the future. I’m looking forward to self defense and carpentry that’s coming up.”

Kalynn Miner, who is also in seventh grade, said the practical skills are invaluable to becoming more mature.

“It’s fun,” Kalynn said. “There’s a lot of hands-on activities so you get to actually experience it. We’ve already learned how to do laundry and now I’ve learned more about cooking so I feel like I’m able to help out more at home. I’m really excited to learn how to bake, too. My mom always makes homemade meals and bakes so I’m looking forward to be able to help her more.”

In addition to cooking staple foods like grilled cheese, the students have learned how to do laundry (they actually did a load of laundry on campus) and learned to iron. They are learning about self hygiene, like how to brush teeth and wash hands properly, how to maintain composure during an emergency or if someone else gets hurt, and etiquette like how to set a table property for dinner and use utensils.

In addition, Commandant Todd Wallingford and Kim York-Wallingford visited the class to teach the students the value of respect.

Ms. Forrester is also having Tony LoRusso, K9 Deputy with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department, visit the class to teach the students about self-defense.

 

To see the recipe that the students made in this class, click here.