“May I Take Your Order, Please? ”

Materials

1. Picture menus (some restaurants have free picture menus)
2. Grocery store inserts
3. Laminating machine
4. Scissors
5. Glue
6. Construction paper

Instructions

1. If possible, get free picture menus from a few restaurants and laminate them. Keep a few intact, and cut apart the other laminated menus to get individual pictures of the various food products.
2. If you don't have picture menus, make your own. Simply cut out pictures of various food products from your local grocery store inserts and advertisements. Glue the pictures onto construction paper to make your menus. Make sure to cut out several pictures of the same food products, so that some are on the menu and some are not. 
   Tip: Ask parents to donate grocery store inserts from their newspapers. This way you will have multiple copies of the same food products.
3. Encourage the children to take turns playing the role of waiter or waitress while the rest of the children play the part of customers.
4. Customers place orders by pointing to food product on the menu. The waiter or waitress tries to remember what the customer orders, goes back into the "kitchen," and picks up the matching food product pictures.
5. The waiter or waitress delivers the food pictures to the customer. If the order is correct, the children switch roles. This continues until each child has had a chance to be a waiter or waitress.
6. This is a great way to help children improve their memory skills.