Subject: Imagination
1. Topic-
Make Believe Restaurant
 
2. Content-
Early Childhood Education, learning and teaching about healthy eating is very important. Implementing a preschool lesson plan on healthy eating is beneficial to the children and the family as a whole. Ideas are presented to set up a restaurant learning center where preschoolers can have fun and acquire new skills. Many families go out to eat, and having a theme day all about restaurants is fun and appropriate within such a curriculum. Following is an outline on how to have a theme day about restaurants.
 
3. Goals: Aims/Outcomes-
1.The children should have fun
2.I would like the children to understand and experience restaurant life
 
4. Objectives-
The Children will demonstrate their understanding restaurants by engaging in the functions of a make believe restaurant.
 
5. Materials and Aids-
Suggested Props

These items are helpful for restaurant play. Provide a box for these props to be stored.
- Play pots and pans, Play dishes, or paper plates/cups
- Napkins, tablecloths, and aprons
- Plastic silverware
- Plastic fake food
- Homemade menus and notebook for order taking
- Plastic vase with fake flowers
- Play money and a toy cash register
 
6. Procedures/Methods-

A. Introduction-

Setting the Restaurant Scene

First of all, create a restaurant scene within a preschool or daycare environment. This could be the entire room or just a section. If it's a section, find an area in the room to place a table and four chairs, the children's play kitchen (oven, sink, stove, utensils, required food, drinks, dishes, napkins, and a small trash container. Place a tablecloth and a vase with flowers on the table. Lastly, all the children must decide on a name for the restaurant.
 

B. Development-

Make a Menu

Invite children to cut pictures of food (fruits, vegetables, dinner entrees) from magazines or newspaper food flyers. Together talk about what is good food and the selections you would find in a restaurant. Take a large sheet of construction paper and fold it in half. Help the children to select and glue the food pictures on the paper to resemble a real menu. Label the foods so children can see the written word associated with the pictures. Optional: Make several menus; a breakfast, lunch, and dinner selection.
Make your pretend restaurant special with a logo. Take a rubber stamp with a picture or design of your choice and press it onto an ink pad. Print the logo onto the paper napkins and the menu.
 

C. Practice-

Circle Group Time

With these questions, the young children will have a lot to share.

- Who has eaten at a restaurant before?
- Where is your favorite place to go out to eat?
- Who makes the food?
- How does the food get to your table?
- What other kind of jobs do people have at a restaurant?
- Who pays for the food?
- What is a tip?
- How do you behave in a restaurant?
- Does anyone in your family work in a restaurant?
 

D. Independent Practice-

Roles:

- Chef(s)
- Waiter/Waitress
- Cashier
- Customer(s)


Brief Directions:

1.Decide who will be what role
2.The waiter/waitress will take the customer(s)' coat, show them to their seat(s), give them a menu, and take their order.
3.The chef(s) will prepare their order, and the waiter/waitress will take it to the customer(s).
4.After the customer(s) are through with their meal, the waiter will give them their check.
5.The customer(s) will take the check to the cashier and pay for the meal.
6.Switch out roles and start the process over
 

E. Accommodations (Differentiated Instruction)-

1.Take an Order

When pretending to be a waiter/waitress, it's fun to dress the part with an apron. Equip the "waiter/waitress" with a tablet of paper and pencil. Don't forget to have a child or two seated at the table as customers.
Pass out the menu to the customer. The waiter can present the menu and add this dramatic verbalization as well, "Good afternoon, our special today is spaghetti with meatballs. We also have pizza or delicious vegetable soup. What can I get for you?...Oh, good choice, let me just write that down." Even children who are not proficient in writing can use scribble writing and read the order back to the customer or the cook in the kitchen. This is a great activity for memory skills. Use this same slip of paper for the bill. Children can say, "Will there be anything else, sir/madam? Here's your bill."
Preschool children can now place the fake food onto plates and serve the customer carrying the tray to the table.

2.Paying the Bill

With the use of play money and a cash register, children can get familiar with the exchange of money for a product or service. At this young age, the understanding of exact money value is not as important as the process of paying the bill after a meal in the restaurant.
 

F. Checking for understanding-

The Children will demonstrate their understanding restaurants by engaging in the functions of a make believe restaurant.
 

G. Closure-

We will end this activity by having a group discussion based on what all the children have experienced during the activity.
 

This Lesson Plan is available at (www.teacherjet.com)