Practice Makes Perfect - Lunch Doodie

 

Posted in cafe-a-gym-natorium

 

200 children sitting side by side(touching) at a table with food and sharp objects....Now that you have that picture in your mind you understand why I changed the word duty to "doodie." You might only understand if you have ever had lunchroom supervision duty.

Total disclosure: My school practices PBIS methods but we are not an official PBIS school. We visited PBIS schools and did our Pinterest research. (LOL) Well you know what I mean. We do believe in being specific in our teaching of routines and behaviors in all school settings. 

 

I can assure you that children have not been taught how to eat lunch at a table with 25 other students in the school cafe-a-gymn-atoriaum. Think about it. Where does your family eat dinner? The car? Standing at the counter? Watching TV? Gone are the days of the sit down family dinner! Not in all cases, I know.

Seek first to understand. Next time you have lunch doodie stand and look at the kids. Try to guess how many sit down to a family meal 1-5 nights a week at a table? Better yet, ASK THEM! (I highly recommend you also ask them if their parents have told them to chew with their mouths closed. To their credit they may not remember being told not to chew with their mouth open:):):)

How do we practice? My goal/suggestion is at the beginning of each quarter do a refresher lunch training.

• Special class teachers are the lucky few who are assigned lunch doodie. (Art, music, pe, library, etc.)
• We do not have a separate lunchroom and gym. Lunch has to be scheduled around PE.
• At the beginning of special classes for each grade level, once a quarter, the teachers bring them to the cafe-a-gym-natorium instead of their special class.
• The special class teachers are in the gym with me to go over rules in case I forget any of the rules.
• We are all in this together. The kids need to see that we all heard the same rules.
• If you have access to the lunch trays I recommend "pretending" to get their supplies carrying a tray and then practice "dumping" their trays after they are done.
• If you are a really nice principal you could include a cookie on their tray for fun. (I think I am nice but I totally forgot this bonus last time we practiced.)

They may not have sit down dinners at home very often but they do school lunch like this EVERY DAY.  Once we teach them how it works they can be successful in this crazy environment!

What are your lunch doodie secrets of success??