Topic: Safe Work Practices

Unit 1: Kitchen Safety

Outcomes:

 Students will be able to understand what goes into kitchen safety equipment and burns.
 Students will be able to understand why it is important to have safety and sanitation in everyday
kitchens.
 Students will be able to articulate how to properly wash hands and how to prevent food borne
illness.

Day 1

Topic: Safe Work practices

Standards:

Strand 2, Standard 5- Students will identify safe work practices.

Strand 1, Standard 1 - Identify types of knives, understand their proper use and care, and demonstrate
proper knife safety.

Strand 1, Standard 2 - Identify common small ware food preparation equipment, and how it is to be
safely used and cleaned. (i.e. knives, mandoline, piping tools, parisian scoop, scales)

Lesson:

Relationship to Unite Structure: Today we will be talking about knife safety but specifically the anatomy
of a knife, how to store it, and the different types, and over the next couple days going into other types
of safety and then into safety and sanitation. In order to be in the kitchen and be safe, it is important to
know how to properly handle the equipment, we will be using, as well as knowing what to do if there
were ever any accidents that occur in the kitchens. But today we will specifically be talking about knife
safety.

Technology – Using my laptop to create my lesson is using technology, as well as finding the research for
the correct information. As well using knives are technology based because of how they are made in
that they are a tool being used in my lesson to show the students.

FCCLA – It is important to mention in my lesson the fact that by learning these skills students can then
go and compete with a STAR events competition with knife skills once they have practiced a lot and feel
confident in their skills to do the right cuts.

Career – By talking about the FCCLA, and the different types of knives, I have and can talk about how
different professionals use these different types of knives in their every day to help them with their
proper knife skills. You need the right tool for the right job otherwise things don’t always go as smoothly
and there is more risk of injury.

CTE – By knowing how to use a knife correctly, you are using important skills in the cte program.

Materials:

 Lesson Plan
 Knives – all
 Cutting board
 Rag or paper towel for underneath cutting board

- First off, I want you to split up into groups and first talk about a time when either you have
experienced, or have heard of a time about knife safety. This could be from doing it the right
way or the wrong way. But I want you to talk about this for a few moments in groups. (5 min)
- Ask if there would be students who would like to share what their groups talked about. (2 min)
- Now I am assuming that most of the things that you all talked about were times when it didn’t
go right. When someone hurt themselves or didn’t use the proper technique.
- Why do we only hear about these experiences, and not about the times when things go right? (3
min)
o You only hear about the bad experiences because those are the times when things go
wrong and when people get hurt. This is what we want to try and prevent today as we
talk about knife safety.

Anatomy of Knives –

Very rarely when you are reading a recipe will it tell you to use this type of knife, so it is important to
know the different types of knives are, and how they are used.

How to hold it –

- Does anyone know how to hold a knife correctly? Would you like to come up and demonstrate?
- Show the students the proper way of holding the knife. Talk and demonstrate about the proper
way of holding the knife as well as where to place your opposite hand for holding the object you
are cutting, and the different parts of the knife. Tip, Point, Spine, Blade, Edge, Heel, Bolster,
Handle, Butt.
- First talk about the rules before going into the next activity as there will be sharp object they will
be dealing with and I don’t want them to get hurt, but it is important that we have the proper
technique when we use the knives when we go into the kitchens.
- Knife safety (10-15 min)
o For the last little bit, I want to talk about knife safety.
o When you are walking around, how do you think you should hold your knife, when
walking across the room? (Show them how to hold it when doing so)
o What is the proper way of passing a knife to someone? (Show them as you pass a knife
to a student by example, then the student will pass it back)
 o What do you think could happen if there was a knife that was sitting on a cutting board
exposed and people were walking by? I want you to talk in your groups and think what
could happen if a knife was sitting like this (show a knife that is partly off the edge of the
counter)?
o After giving them about 2 min to talk, ask what they came up with.
- When you have a knife that is sitting on the counter that you are using, that you may come back
to, it is important you are aware, of the possibilities of things that can happen just like you have
mentioned. When you are not using the knife, you want to make sure the knife blade is tucked
away under the cutting board until you are ready to come back to it. This will help keep people
safe.
- Pass out knives to a pair of students and have them take turns with having them hold the knife
the proper way as I go around and check each student to make sure they are doing things
correctly. (Keep a strict close eye on all the students as you go around as there are sharp objects
as you scan so others are handling it correctly as well.)
o Different knife edges: (5-10 min)
 Strait edge – this is most common which allows the knife to be sharpened more
easily, and it will taper down at a strait edge angle on both sides creating a razor
sharp edge.
 Chisel edge – Also known as a single chisel edge and most found in middle east.
Essentially a straight edge except that it is only tapered on one side, which is
why it is called a single bevel. This is harder to sharpen, but when it is, it can
create extremely delicate cuts.
 Hollow ground edge – This is a conclave bevel the knife from somewhere in its
middle until it forms a delicate, but sharp edge. This is best for cutting delicate
food like fish.
 Serrated edge – this is a very distinguished edge as it has groves or teeth in the
edge. This is best used for cutting things like bread or things that have a hard
exterior and a soft interior. With this knife, you have to make sure that you are
using a sawing motion rather than just a straight down motion when cutting for
it to be most effective.
o Types of knives: (15 min) (have all the different types of knives out and as you go
through have them guess which knife you are talking about)
 Boning knife – This knife is best used for cutting meat away from bones or can
also be used to fillet fish. It is thin and flexible.
 Bread Knife – Serrated edge and is usually very long to help you be able to cut
the bread without having to do it in more than one cut.
 Butter knife – it is very dull and is usually only used for spreading on butter on
bread.
 Carving knife – This knife is usually a long thin sharp knife, which help you make
precise delicate cuts from large foods.
 Chefs knife – This is a typical knife that most homes will have. It can be used for
almost any task minus slicing bread.
 Cleaver – This has a big wide blade, and is mostly used for chopping through
thick meat or breaking bones if you were in that profession.
  Paring knife – This is used for small delicate work, and has a small sharp blade to
help make precise cuts. It can be used to make cuts in fruit, and vegetables, or
in other pieces of delicate food one may work with.
 Santoku Knife – This can be considered a chef’s knife as it can be used in all
tasks except for slicing bread. This knife has the hallowed out groves for air
pockets to help food not stick and this knife can be found in the East Asian
traditions.

Wrap Up Closure:

- From what we have learned today, there are many different types and ways of cutting with a
knife. However, it is important for you to know the correct ways in order to stay safe, and to
prevent all those accidents from occurring like we talked about in the beginning. Are there times
thought when accidents can occur when you are being safe?
- I hope you can see it is up to us that we all need to help each other be safe, and look our for
ways that we can try and prevent those from occurring as we all are passing with care, and know
how to best prevent these injuries we can better be safe.

Assessments:

 Students will get into groups and be given a scenario of what happens when someone gets
burned or cut and demonstrate it to the class.
 Students will have a class discussion in groups about why it is important to have keep things safe
in your kitchen and not to have equipment in the wrong places and do a wright vs wrong with
pictures.
 Students will do an activity where they see how many germs are spread and why we need to
wash hands.