Preschool Activities--Let's Play Restaurant

This is an activity that you can stretch out over a couple of days and give the kids active participation in the planning, creating and finally doing!

The plan is to make menus for their own pretend restaurant. Next they will learn about setting tables (keep it simple here--not a four course meal). And the final days they take turns being the waiter, the cook and the customer.

You use this as an opportunity to talk about healthy food choices, different kinds of food, favorite foods, and favorite restaurants.

Materials Needed:

Pictures of vegetables, fruit, dinners from magazines or Sunday food flyers.
Glue Sticks
Paper
Fake food items (optional) or great imaginations!
Paper plates, cups and napkins

Activity:

One day is spent cutting out the pictures for the food. Talk about what should go on each page--maybe just two items per page. Label the picture so they can see the word and the item.
Staple the pages together to make the menu. You should make several.

Next day the kids take turns setting up the restaurant and taking turns being the waiter, and the customer. The waiters set the table with a plate, cup and napkin.
This is also a memory game for them because most preschoolers cannot write. It is fun to see if they remember the order.

It is a fun way to talk about food choices and general health.

You can then have snack time when the tables are set up and everyone gets to have something real to eat.