This is the 2nd year that I had my class participate in the restaurant project. We began restaurant prep in April preparing for the grand opening May 6th. We began learning about good and services, jobs, and communities.
Then we made a KWL chart about Mexico. The K is for what we know, the W is for what we want to know, and the L is for what we learned. We filled the K and W in together. Then the students scoured through books from the library with stickies and pencils to find the information they wanted to learn about. It was so neat to see their excitement when they found the answers to their own questions. 
We went to a local restaurant and they gave the students a tour of their restaurant. They told the students about their jobs and what is means to be a responsible employee. The students got to ask the employee's questions. A few questions I remember were "How do you balance the tray with drinks?, What happens if you run out of food?, What happened if you spill something?, etc." I love that we live in a community that is so open to helping educate our children.
When we got back to class that day we made a concept map of what we would need to run a restaurant and they also received job applications where they choose three possible jobs they would like to have in our restaurant. They had to choose from these (host/hostess, drink waiter, waiter, cook, cashier, busser). After they submitted them I held interviews and discussed with them their strengths for certain jobs. They were so excited when I revealed the jobs positions...they sat and clapped for each other...haha!
This year we took a trip to a local Publix to further the students knowledge about goods and services in our community. They got a tour of the meat processing area, the fruit station, the deli and the bakery. It was such a fun day for the children and they learned a lot from the trip.
The bakery…the students got to see a cake decorated and then they got to decorate their own cookie.
They toured the deli and got a sample of cheese!
They watched how they prepare the fruit and got to sample a strawberry….yum!
They felt how cold it was in the freezer.
They learned the different materials Publix recycled.
The week of the restaurant we worked on decorations and how we were going to set up the room. They made big Mexican flags, colored little flags to make banners, and made our Dancing Tacos sign. Once the room was set up we got to work practicing our jobs. The students waited on me, each other, and high school peer counselors.
Next post the Grand Opening…
