Students Explore Food at SJHS

Submitted by tiffanie.miley on

Mrs. Natalie Luke is Springville Junior High’s foods teacher. She absolutely loves teaching in the foods class. Mrs. Luke said, “I love seeing kids succeed in making things with their hands. It is also always fun to see the teamwork that takes place in my classroom.” Mrs. Luke also loves to teach about the tools students use to make the different kinds of foods.

When the students start a cooking day they all have different jobs. Someone in every kitchen group grades the previous class period’s grading sheet. The grading sheet is how Mrs. Luke keeps track of every student’s points in each kitchen group. There are usually four students in a kitchen group. Another person goes and gets the food that isn’t already in their kitchen and brings it back. Then the students work together to make their food. When all of the students’ food is made they get to eat it. At the very end everyone in each kitchen needs to clean up. Katie Hatfield, an eighth-grade student at SJHS, said, “If we are good we get to choose our groups in the kitchens.”

Some of the foods that students have made this year are cake, fried rice, taco salad, and many others. The foreign foods class has made more than 20 recipes from places like Italy and Scandinavia. Mrs. Luke said, “My eighth grade foods class has cooked more than 15 recipes while learning about carbohydrates, kitchen management, and safety.” 

This class learns about the tools people use to make food and nutrition. Both of these things are essential to pay attention to in cooking. For example, if someone was making a salad with meat, they would use a different knife to cut the lettuce than what they used to cut the meat with. Someone would also wash the lettuce before putting it in the salad bowl.

Foods Exploration is a fun and easy class. This year there have been people that couldn’t take it because the classes were already full. For the people who do have it, there are many compliments. Jared Shaw, also an eighth-grade student at SJHS, said, “It’s very fun and tasty!”

Attributions
Faith Atkinson, SJHS Staff Writer