On Monday, the Rivers Class took a walk over to Stacks, a pancake restaurant on Washington Street. Thank you to Ms. Wise, Jack's mom, and Mr. DeMarco, Ralphie's dad, for walking along with us. And thank you also to the many others of you who offered to come if we needed more help.
At Stacks, we talked with Alexis, the restaurant manager. Alexis answered the children's questions about how a restaurant works: where the money goes, how the servers get the orders to the kitchen, where the pancakes get made.
Alexis also explained about the menu and all of the options there are for toppings and, especially exciting to the children, the shapes that pancakes come in at Stacks.
When we returned to school for a story and dismissal, the Rivers Class spent a moment discussing how we could share what we have learned with others. One idea was to make a menu. Another idea was to make pancakes for people. It sounded like the children might be interested in having a restaurant.
On Wednesday, several people worked with Ms. Sytsma to make menus. Others helped Ms. McHugh change the drama area from a space that was more like a kitchen to a space that was more like a restaurant with a separate kitchen and dining room.
Everyone enjoyed playing restaurant, taking orders, making food, and dining. But we ran into some misconceptions. When the chefs finished cooking, they often ran out to the dining room with the food, for instance. And we did not have all of the ingredients we needed in the kitchen for some of the menu items.
Next week we will work on figuring these things out, the roles of the restaurant workers and how to make the simulation more realistic.
