Restaurants

Materials

1. menus
2. small tablets
3. pencils
4. clothesline
5. clothespins

Instructions

1. If possible, visit a restaurant, including the kitchen area. If not, read books about restaurants and ask some restaurant employees to visit your classroom.
2. Set up the dramatic play or house area to represent a restaurant. Place a table and chairs behind the kitchen appliances so that the food prep area is separate from where the "customers" eat. Tie a clothesline over the food prep area to clip food orders. Put out the menus, tablets, and pencils.
3. Encourage the children to take turns playing different roles (cooks, food servers, customers). Model for or encourage the "food servers" to use the tablets to write down what their "customers" order. The food server can clip the orders to the clothesline for the cooks to refer to it as they prepare the food in the kitchen.