It's a five hour class with a 1/2 hour break for lunch. I start with basics like the saw features and operation. Then blade selection, tension, saw speed and feed rate. We start cutting straight lines, curved lines, then lines with angled inside and outside turns, all in 3/4" pine.We then move on to heart shapes, and heart shapes with an inside cut. Then a Teddy Bear with three inside cuts. These easy shapes came from an old Patrick Spielman book. I no longer have that book, just cut out pages, so I can't tell you the name.
I find using 3/4 pine easy to start with for begginer students and it's inexpensive.
We then move on to a project in 1/2" hardwood. Usually wood that I have laying around in my shop. This class I had Cherry, Walnut, Mahopny and Sapele. It's a project with lots of inside and out lines and one inside cut. It's from the same book and they have the option to have an 1-3/8 hole drilled for a mini clock fit up.
The final project is a Steve Good clock that has six inside cuts.
I demonstrate each project and explain how to make each cut with lots of tips.
Keeping the class down to 4 or 5 allows for individual attention to each student.