Have you seen all the fun classroom transformation ideas floating around online teacher groups? The reason classroom transformations are so popular is they create lasting memories for the students (and teacher) and are a break from the day to day. They also offer a sort of staycation experience! Lastly, many schools are still not able to do field trips, so classroom transformations are the next best thing! In today's post, Team Lucky Little Learners is ready to share their newest classroom transformation: Restaurant Day. Read on to see how delicious a classroom restaurant day can be!
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Set the Scene
First things, first. You need to set the scene and create a restaurant atmosphere in your classroom! This can be achieved for free OR by purchasing a few things. Here are some ideas:
Placemats/Tablecloths
- Red & White checked tablecloth: these can usually be purchased at the local dollar store or on Amazon.
2. Lay out these diner placemats to call the morning chaos and get students focused and ready for the fun day ahead.
3. Using plain white paper placemats could also be fun for students to decorate. And, they could be placed on the tables before the school days begins. Check out this 50 pack on Amazon.)
Decorations
- Restaurant Signs: there are SO many cute restaurant and learning center signs included in Lucky Little Learner's Restaurant Day pack! These are fun to hang around the different learning station areas. Also, before it is time for students come in, don't forget to hang the “Sorry We're Closed” sign outside the classroom! Then, switch it to “Yes, We're Open”! Your students will get a kick out of this!
2. Plates, Napkins & Silverware: These can be brought from your house (or student house), be plastic/paper or be skipped altogether! (It is definitely recommended to only use plastic dishes if bringing them from home!) These just give the classroom more of a restaurant feel and can be used during snack time!
3. Paper Hats: Who doesn't love dressing up for theme days?! The Lucky Little Learners Restaurant Day Pack includes a chef hat template for JUST this reason!
OR you can snag this 40 pack of Soda Jerk Hats from Amazon. (Although probably don't tell students they are soda jerk hats. Never ending jokes all day…)
4. If your school will allow it, hang string lights from the ceiling for a relaxing cafe feel.
Snag string lights here:
5. Vases of flowers: Try using plastic vases & fake flowers for a cozy cafe feel. The dollar store should have everything you need for this!
6. Serving Trays & Bowls: “Serve” students their work on trays (from the dollar store) or put center materials in bowls!
6. Hang food from the ceiling and walls to create a fun feel!
Music
Background music can definitely up your classroom transformation game! The choice of which music to play will depend on the type of restaurant feel you are going for. Here are a few options. Because there are so many music options, you can pick one, or switch them out during the day!
- Relaxing Instrumental Jazz for Dinner: Smooth, piano jazz band.
2. Cozy Fall Coffee Shop Ambience: This video even has a coffee shop background with fall leaves falling and rain sounds.
3. Outdoor Sea Cafe Ambience: This video features ocean waves, an outdoor cafe scene and even typical restaurant noises (sliver ware, talking). Warning: there is a cute dog and cat that show up and could be a distraction at times. HA!
4. Romance Venice Cafe Ambience: Complete with restaurant background chatter & noises, an Italian cafe scene and a cute kitty, this video gives all the fun feels of an Italian restaurant.
Learning Activities
You might be thinking, okay I have the decorations and the music planned. Now, what will my students do all day during this transformation? Never fear, Lucky Little Learners has you covered with our brand new Restaurant Day Pack! To see all the amazingness included in this pack, read on!
Classroom Restaurant Pack
This classroom restaurant transformation resource includes OVER 250 pages of transformation fun! As a bonus, this pack will hit many academic standards! In fact, students will be reviewing learning all day and not even know it! Take a look below at the activities for literacy, math, science and social studies.
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What's Included?
What is included in 250+ pages of this resource? Check this out!
- Restaurant Day Sample Schedule
- Restaurant Decor/Station Signs
- Build a Pizza Behavior System
- Chef Hat & Name Tag Templates
- Placemat Morning Work-like a traditional cafe kid's placemat with fun activities!
- Bingo at the Diner Game
- Diner Rules Poster
- Snack Bag Label
- Decoration & Read Aloud Ideas
- Completion Certificates
- “Restaurant Day is Coming” home note template
Literacy Activities
- Adjective Menu Activity
- Book Tasting Brochure -place a basket of books on each table. Have students “taste” each book by sampling it and filling out their brochure graphic organizer!
- Common & Proper Noun Pairs Center
- Cooking Up Nouns & Verbs-Connect 4 Game
- Would You Rather Writing Activity
- Verbs At The Pizzeria Word Search
- Pizza at Sally's Companion Activities-comprehension questions, procedural writing, character traits, sequencing.
- Restaurant Toothy-focusing on Grammar
- Recipe Writing Activity
- 3 How To Procedural Writing Options
Math Activities
- Build Your Own Fraction Pizza Activities
- Math Worksheets: Sushi Subtraction, Food Truck Fair, Taco ‘Bout Time
- Money Menu Center
- Pizza Fractions Center: Clip the Fraction
- Math Cook Off: A highly engaging math game in which students complete a question to earn a cooking tool or ingredient. Who will finish the recipe first?? There are two included versions of this game.
Science/Health Activities
- Five Healthy Food Groups Mini Books
- My Healthy Meal Cut & Paste
- Food Groups I Spy
- Food Groups Graph
Social Studies Activities
- Restaurant Economics Flip Book
Read Alouds
Check out these great restaurant themed read alouds! If you like these, make sure to check out the rest of our book recommendations in our restaurant day pack!
Pizza at Sally's
As mentioned above, the Restaurant Day Pack includes companion activities for the book Pizza At Sally's by Monica Wellington. This book describes how pizza is made!
Watch it here:
Grab it from Amazon:
The Good Egg
A cute story by Jory John & Pete Oswald tells the story of a good egg in a “bad” carton!
Watch it here:
Grab it from Amazon:
Little Chef
A cute story about a child chef by Matt Stine & Elizabeth Wenberg.
Watch it here:
Grab it from Amazon:
Purchase the Restaurant Classroom Transformation
Grab everything you need for a scrumptious classroom transformation with one click!
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Other Classroom Transformation Ideas
If you loved the ideas for a Classroom Restaurant transformation, check out these other ideas!
Camp Read-A-Lot
Try a camping day!
Two's Day Showcase
A fun day to celebrate each year on 2/2 or 2/22!
Beach Day
Turn your classroom into a tropical oasis!
Earth Day
Every day is a great day to care for the Earth! How about a whole day of Earth activities in your classroom?!
Snow Globe Day
Happy teaching!
I love this idea. When will the pack be available?
Hello Tami! Thank you for your interest! Our classroom transformation packs are almost finished and will be available to view and purchase in our site shop or on TpT at the beginning of May 2022. The best way to receive notifications when new resources are released is to join our email list. We send out weekly freebies and share early bird discounts when new products are released. Here is the link to sign up: https://luckylittlelearners.com/lp-lucky-little-learners-newsletter/
How can I purchase this restaurant theme pack? I cannot find a link on this site or TPT.
Hello Michelle! Our classroom transformation packs are almost finished and will be available to view and purchase in our site shop or on TpT at the beginning of May 2022. The best way to receive notifications when new resources are released is to join our email list. We send out weekly freebies and share early bird discounts when new products are released. Here is the link to sign up: https://luckylittlelearners.com/lp-lucky-little-learners-newsletter/
When will the restaurant day transformation be available? I’m very interested! Thanks
Hello Vanessa! Thank you for your interest in this classroom transformation pack! This product is just about to be released at the beginning of May 2022! The best way to receive notifications when new resources are released is to join our email list. We send out weekly freebies and share early bird discounts when new products are released. Here is the link to sign up: https://luckylittlelearners.com/lp-lucky-little-learners-newsletter/
Maybe this is a silly question, but how do I purchase the restaurant transformation packet. It looks very interesting, and my students would love it! However, search as I may, I can’t find a way to purchase the documents. Am I missing something?
Hello There! Not a silly question at all! This product is just about to be released at the beginning of May 2022! The best way to receive notifications when new resources are released is to join our email list. We send out weekly freebies and share early bird discounts when new products are released. Here is the link to sign up: https://luckylittlelearners.com/lp-lucky-little-learners-newsletter/
Where’s the link to purchase this classroom restaurant pack? I tried searching for it too.
Hello Janel! Thank you for your interest in the restaurant classroom transformation pack! This product is just about to be released at the beginning of May 2022. The best way to receive notifications when new resources are released is to join our email list. We send out weekly freebies and share early bird discounts when new products are released. Here is the link to sign up: https://luckylittlelearners.com/lp-lucky-little-learners-newsletter/
Please let me know when this becomes available
Hello Brenda! Our classroom transformation packs are almost finished and will be available to view and purchase in our site shop or on TpT at the beginning of May 2022! The best way to receive notifications when new resources are released is to join our email list. We send out weekly freebies and share early bird discounts when new products are released. Here is the link to sign up: https://luckylittlelearners.com/lp-lucky-little-learners-newsletter/
When will the restaurant transformation pack be available?
Hello. This website states that you have a 250+ page student guide to go along with the restaurant classroom transformation. However, I can not find any link to purchase the student worksheets. Where is the link?
Hello Matthew! Thank you for your interest in this classroom transformation pack! This product is just about to be released at the beginning of May 2022. You can sign up to receive a notification when new resources are released by joining our email list. We send out weekly freebies and share early bird discounts when new products are released. Here is the link to sign up: https://luckylittlelearners.com/lp-lucky-little-learners-newsletter/
I need this, but can’t find where to purchase. Please send link.
Where and when can I purchase this pack?
Hello Patti! Our classroom transformation packs are almost finished! You’ll be able to find them in our shop here on the website or in our TpT store at the beginning of May 2022! The best way to receive notifications when new resources are released is to join our email list. We send out weekly freebies and share early bird discounts when new products are released. Here is the link to sign up: https://luckylittlelearners.com/lp-lucky-little-learners-newsletter/
Hello Marci! Our classroom transformation packs are almost finished! You’ll be able to find them in our shop here on the website or in our TpT store at the beginning of May 2022. The best way to receive notifications when new resources are released is to join our email list. We send out weekly freebies and share early bird discounts when new products are released. Here is the link to sign up: https://luckylittlelearners.com/lp-lucky-little-learners-newsletter/
Hi! Where can I purchase this Restaurant Transformation?
Hello Myra! Our classroom transformation packs are almost finished! You’ll be able to find them in our shop here on the website or in our TpT store at the beginning of May 2022! The best way to receive notifications when new resources are released is to join our email list. We send out weekly freebies and share early bird discounts when new products are released. Here is the link to sign up: https://luckylittlelearners.com/lp-lucky-little-learners-newsletter/
I love this ideas but can’t find the link to purchase.
I love this ideas but can not find where to purchase.
Hello Kristi! Thank you for your interest in the restaurant classroom transformation pack! This product and two other classroom transformation kits are just about to be released at the beginning of May 2022! You can sign up to receive a notification when new resources are released by joining our email list. We send out weekly freebies and share early bird discounts when new products are released. Here is the link to sign up: https://luckylittlelearners.com/lp-lucky-little-learners-newsletter/
Where is this available to purchase?
Hello Deidra! This product will be ready very soon – at the beginning of May 2022! You will be able to find this transformation pack and others on our website shop or our TpT shop at that time. The best way to receive notifications when new resources are released is to join our email list. We send out weekly freebies and share early bird discounts when new products are released. Here is the link to sign up: https://luckylittlelearners.com/lp-lucky-little-learners-newsletter/
When will the restaurant transformation with activities be available?
Hello Karlyn! Thank you for your interest in this classroom transformation pack! This product is just about to be released at the beginning of May 2022! The best way to receive notifications when new resources are released is to join our email list. We send out weekly freebies and share early bird discounts when new products are released. Here is the link to sign up: https://luckylittlelearners.com/lp-lucky-little-learners-newsletter/
Thank you! I am already a member so I look forward to the email! 🙂