The kindergarten and Grade 1 students in Mrs. Lamarche’s and Ms. Pedersen’s classes at Kinnikinnick Elementary School ran an ice cream restaurant on Tuesday, June 16, as part of their community unit.
After going on several field trips to various locations in our community this spring to learn about a variety of jobs, the students decided to turn their classrooms into ice cream restaurants for a day. The students made all of the decorations for their rooms, wrote out menus, made their uniforms, and named their restaurants (The Swirly Rainbow Monster Ice Cream Shop and The Star Power Ice Cream Café).
The students were interviewed by some of the Grade 7 students and then placed in jobs. For several weeks, the kindergarten and Grade 1 students learned about the roles of cook, server, dishwasher, reservation clerk, host, busser, and cashier. They role-played their positions and learned to work as a cohesive team.
The day of the restaurant arrived and students took their jobs seriously. They did a phenomenal job of demonstrating what they had learned: taking phone reservations; greeting and seating guests; writing down orders; reading recipes and completing orders; cleaning tables; washing dishes; totalling bills and making change; and generally managing their respective stations in preparation for the next wave of guests.
Families, community members, the School District No. 46 superintendent and trustees were in attendance. All in all, over four different sittings (plus a day of practice where the Kinnikinnick support staff were treated), the students served ice cream sundaes and root beer floats to almost 140 guests.
This amazing learning experience would not have been possible without the support of the companies and families who gave donations to the event. After all costs were covered, the students made $150. These funds will be donated to the Kinnikinnick breakfast program, in support of hungry children.
