The Take-Out Curriculum: a NYC Lesson for Reading and Writing in K-1, with a Follow-Up for Grades 3-8
This idea came from Pat Martinez, an award-winning kindergarten teacher, who became inspired as she walked to work along the streets of NYC. It will work in any city that has lots of restaurants that offer take-out food. If you live in a rural area where take-out menus are rare, your family might do some take-out research the next time you visit a city!
This is an example of a unique curriculum created not from the teachers’ or students’ interests (our most reliable sources), but from their immediate environment. The beauty of this mini-curriculum is multi-fold: it’s fun, it teaches every required subject, and it’s absolutely FREE! Designed for the K-1 level, it’s perfect for anyone on the threshold of learning to read and write.
The Take-Out Curriculum
Step One: Phys. Ed. and Social Studies
Get to know your neighborhood by walking everywhere. This is a lot of fun!
Collect take-out menus from as many different restaurants as you can find. This might take a week or two. Keep the menus in one place.
Step Two: Geography and Art
Draw a map of the area or of a given block. Avoid giving drawing instructions. Some children may draw a map from a birds-eye view (seen from above), or from a head-on view, as if they are facing the block. Some may draw a landscape, others a diagram.
Show the child which way north is on the map. If possible, go to the actual setting of the map and use a compass. Add a symbol to the map showing north: an arrow pointing north above the letter N.
Step Three: Math
Count your menus.
Sort them. How many categories can you find?
Make a bar graph on graph paper using the categories. Color in the bar graph.
Are there more pizza menus or more Chinese menus? Which category has the most and which the least?
Step Four: Language Arts and Social Studies
Examine the menus.
Are the restaurant names in different type or colors or languages? Can you read (or sound out) the names?
How are the paper menus folded?
How are the menus organized? Are foods separated into appetizers, entrees and desserts? Meat, fish and vegetables? Pizza and pasta? Are the prices always in a column?
Step Five: Writing
Create a menu of personal favorite foods (at least two or three, or as many as the child wants).
Fold a sheet of paper however you like. It might have one fold and open like a greeting card, or three folds, or no folds at all.
Create a restaurant name or menu title.
Decide how you want to organize your menu. Consider adding categories for groups of foods.
If the student is learning the phonetic sounds of letters, they are free to invent phonetic spelling. This method has kids writing before they can read. There is a sense of ownership over the writing when the student constructs the words. My five-year-old son made an American Food Menu, which he spelled “a Mrkn Fud mnu.” (Of course, he learned to spell over time.) Avoid correcting spelling or suggesting ways of improving the menu.
Include prices for each food item. (Prices can be imaginary, such as $0.00 or 73 cents.)
Step Six: Art
Illustrate and color your menu.
Make the title stand out. Add color if you like.
Clip images of food or draw foods, if you like.
Add a border or any other decorations you want.
Step Seven: Science and Health
Make a dish from your own menu, following safety precautions in the kitchen.
Discuss the science of making the dish, such as heat convection, the temperature for melting cheese (if making pizza or a tuna melt) or boiling water (if making macaroni & cheese).
Measure ingredients. Notice weights and quantities of each package.
Read nutrition labels. Discuss how to make a balanced meal that includes this dish.
When Ms. Martinez was transferred from kindergarten to the third grade, she graduated from take-out to restaurant dining. Her students ate in different neighborhoods, mapping their routes through Manhattan. They studied the history and geography of Korea and ate Korean-style barbecue in Koreatown (32nd Street between Madison Ave. and Broadway). Anticipating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, they ate real soul food in Harlem, celebrating African-American history in more ways than one. They ate at their favorite neighborhood pizzeria, sampled Israeli food, and more. Students always came prepared with a list of questions for the owner or manager, ranging in topics from the origin of the food and recipes to restaurant management. They wrote up the interviews afterwards (organizing research from a primary source), and compared them. They drew pictures of storefronts in each neighborhood, noting the presence of different cultures. They polled their taste-testing opinions and graphed the results. A cost analysis and nutritional analysis of the meals (food groups, perhaps) would fulfill additional goals in math, science and health. This Restaurant Curriculum can appeal to all ages, and is excellent for grades 3-8. Sadly, it is not free, but it is delicious!
Additional Resources
Mapmaking With Children: Sense of Place Education for the Elementary Years by David Sobel
Amazing Visual Math by DK for ages 4-8
Show Me a Story: 40 Craft Projects and Activities to Spark Children’s Storytelling by Emily K. Neuburger, for ages 5-13.
Let’s Play and Learn! Hands-on educational activities on this website.
Education Uncensored by Laurie Block Spigel
Letting Them Lead: Adventures in Game-Based, Self-Directed Learning by Laurie Block Spigel
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