Restaurant Project

Why did we choose this project?
Playing restaurant role-play is always very popular when we have food toys available. We decided to do this project to help make their role-playing experience more realistic.

What activities did we do?

English – Learning commonly used phrases in restaurants, such as “Can I take your order? I would like…, Can I have…” We also learned vocabulary for different foods and drinks. The children also practiced reading and writing skills by reading and making menus.

Math – Counting skills, one-to-one correspondence (We would like 3 drinks. Child gets 3 drinks).

Art & Craft – Designing menus, making food with different media (paper, clay).

Cognitive – We played memory games where children tried to remember different orders. During role-plays, children thought about the layout of the restaurant.

Physical – We played balancing activities (walking with a tray of plastic food and dishes)

Social Skills – We did a lot of role-play activities to develop children’s ability to converse in a practical situation (making orders, taking orders).

Other – We visited a restaurant (Anna Millers) in Landmark Plaza, where the children enjoyed seeing the kitchen, looking at the different equipment, learning about deliveries and learning about the different jobs (cook, waiter/waitress, manager).

How did we conclude this project?

We concluded this the same way we started – with a restaurant role-play. The point of this was to see how the children’s experience would improve the realism of their role-plays. Our final role-play saw two different groups open a restaurant for teachers and friends. There was a huge improvement in their organizational skills (who did what), their attention to detail (reservations calendar, cleaning tables, general setting up of restaurant), and the language and phrases they could use (“What does the drink bar have”, “It’s hot, please wait a minute”).

Afterwards, we discussed what was better about their role-play. Their answers included:

“We made a drink bar”, “We were not so messy” & “We made the food you ordered and did not give the wrong food”.