Project Achieve

While staying true to its purpose and mission as it has for the past four decades, Westbridge Academy continues to provide a therapeutic learning environment for students in grades K-12. Only now the dining options have become a little tastier.

Instructors from several academic areas, such as Community Based Instruction (CBI), World Cultures, Computer/Technology, Language Arts, Workplace Readiness, the Fine and Practical Arts coordinated their lesson plans to organize two fall projects.  The first and larger project requires students to search for international recipes for our Westbridge Academy Student Recommended Cookbook, which can be found on our new website. They prepare a shopping list and then, in teams of two with their teacher (and a carefully crafted budget), go shopping for the ingredients.

While at the supermarket, students put into action many of the academic skills they have been taught, as well as the social skills they are learning through Project Achieve, the nationally recognized social skills program being used at Westbridge Academy.  Back at school they must properly store and organize their purchases. Students also storyboard the steps of a recipe, adding photos of the food preparation, and script the recipe for final presentation. Once completed, the cooking and photo shoot begins (and so do the wonderful aromas coming from the cafeteria).  When the cooking is finished, well, everyone knows what happens next!

Project Fiesta

The second project, the Latino-based Fiesta, follows many of the same steps used in the cookbook project such as the planning and shopping.  Here, they also research various Hispanic cultures, write reports, design fact-based placemats, and discuss the foods chosen to represent the student’s and class’s choices.  They also perform pieces of music, dance and/or read stories from the history-rich cultures.  Our students gain much more beyond academics by practicing a willingness to learn about each other’s heritage while utilizing basic and advanced social skills that will serve them for the rest of their lives.

Students have expressed great enthusiasm for these two projects. Our program often blends together various academic areas to incorporate authentic life skills. Discussions are already underway to add a competitive component to our “Culinary Academy”; perhaps there will soon be a Westbridge Academy Iron Chef!