More Teaching Ideas

Classroom Menus for the Cafeteria

Grade Level: Upper Elementary

Heidi Wagner, third-grade teacher at the South Harrison Township Elementary School, Harrisonville, New Jersey, links classroom learning to the cafeteria. Students create school lunch menus to reinforce Five-Food-Group concepts taught in Arianna's Nutrition Expedition™. The cafeteria manager selects one to feature on the lunch line.

Advance Prep
• Talk to the cafeteria manager about your project and ask about the guidelines that must be followed when planning school lunches

• Set dates for submitting children's menus and announcing the winning entry to the students

• Create a checklist (or ask the cafeteria manager to create one) showing food groups needed and the guidelines for the students to follow

What To Do
1. Review what students learned about nutritious meals in Arianna's Nutrition Expedition™ Activity 5, Arianna Travels the Orient Express.

2. Transition into a discussion about lunch, and tell students that they are going to create a lunch they think kids would like to see on the school menu. Their job is to think about foods from the Five Food Groups that kids really like, then plan a balanced meal using those foods.

3. Break students into groups of 3 to 4 students. Have each group brainstorm foods and menu ideas that would work well for school lunch.

4. When students are done, have them create a menu using the checklist.

5. Collect menus, check for accuracy, and submit them to the cafeteria manager. Have the cafeteria manager visit the classroom to announce the menu selected.

6. Let students know the date the special menu is featured so they can plan to eat school lunch that day.

7. Create and distribute announcements, posters or flyers advertising the special lunch to the rest of the school.

"We had such fun coming up with unique, kid-friendly lunches. The students were proud that the entire K-6 school was eating a lunch we created!"
- Heidi Wagner