Teaching Ideas for Baking and Pastry Arts High School
There isn’t much out there on the internet for a baking and pastry course for your culinary arts or family consumer science students so it can be challenging to find materials to fill the gaps when you aren’t having them actually bake.
Baking-Related Classroom Activities
1.Baking Equipment Scavenger Hunt– Have students search the classroom in pairs to find baking equipment. If they complete the paper correctly, and first, they win! This not only gets them comfortable in the kitchen but can help to build positive classroom relationships and give you an idea of student pairings for future projects.
2. Baking Bell Ringer Journals– Bell ringer journals have saved me so many times in the past because they help to establish a classroom routine and can nip in the bud any unwanted beginning of class behaviors. You can either print them and put them in a binder for students to complete one a day or you can assign in Google. Check out our blog post about ways to use bell ringer journals in the secondary classroom.
We have quite a few bell ringer journals for sale including one for culinary arts, food science, baking and pastry and food science! They all include both pdf versions as well as Google versions.
3. Baking Introduction Lesson– To give students background knowledge about baking before diving into the actual recipes just makes sense. We use a slideshow about the basics of baking and have students complete guided notes and answer questions. If you want want already completed, we have one in our store that is in both PPT and Google.
These types of lessons are great for observations if you can do a little of the presentation and then demonstrate and do something hands on with the students. I think it’s great to have a mix of teacher presentation as well as student work.
4. Quick Breads Recipes– Starting with quick breads is a way to ease into baking because they are less involved and can give the kids some pretty quick and tasty results. Some ideas include muffins, banana bread, zucchini bread, etc.
Download our free chocolate chip muffin lab recipe here!
5- Bread Making– A lesson plan teaching students the basics of making bread. This could include using a recipe, understanding the chemistry of bread making, kneading, shaping, and baking. Our favorite way to start this is by having students make bagels! Another fun one that incorporates knife skills is making focaccia bread art. Both doughs are pretty similar and the kids love the final products. We have an entire blog post about focaccia bread art with high school and middle school students.
6- Chocolate Making: A lesson plan teaching students the basics of making chocolate. This could include learning about different types of chocolate, how to melt and temper it, and how to shape and decorate with it. If you are looking for a lesson plan on chocolate we have one that includes a slideshow, guided notes and more as well as a chocolate taste test activity that your students love and does not have to cost you a ton of money. This one is great during Valentine’s Day or even Halloween, depending on your scope and sequence.
7- Absent Work for Baking and Pastry Arts– Oh boy, when you have to be out it can be a huge pain in the butt! We have this baking emergency sub plan up our sleeves that is super easy to assign and ready to go for your substitute and it’s free!
8- Pie Making and a Pie Sale- A lesson plan teaching students the basics of making pies. This could include learning how to make crusts from scratch, how to fill pies with various ingredients, and how to properly bake them. Of course, we have a lesson for that as well! Check it out and have your week planned between the lesson plan and the baking. Interested in doing a pie sale during the holidays to raise money for your program or another good cause? Check out the blog post about how we set that up every year.
9- Baking Tips Webquest or Presentation Project– Check out this website, it has tons of really valuable baking tips and tricks. Students can either complete a webquest using the website or choose a tip and create a presentation about the baking hack! This is a great way to get them comfortable using baking and pastry terminology and puts the teaching into their hands!
A Culminating Baking and Pastry Project that Will Have Your Students Excited!
10- Food Truck Bake Shop Project– Food trucks are all the rage and you can have your students design a baking or pastry food truck! Check out our lesson plan to help you set it up. Students can use this as a culminating project and actually bake a product their food truck would sell. You can have them present to the class or the school!
