Upper Elementary

Classroom Menus for the Cafeteria
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 Pyramid unit concepts, and the cafeteria manager selects a student menu 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 having the manager present the winning entry.

• Create a checklist showing food groups needed and the guidelines for the students to follow.

What To Do
1. Review what students learned about body building meals. Discuss why school lunch is a body building meal. (Pyramid Explorations™ Teacher's Guide, Lesson 4)

2. 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 present the menu selected.

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

7. Create 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

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