Mix It Up Day in the Cafeteria

Ever feel like you are just in a rutt?  Sometimes routine can be a good thing.  Other times breaking the routine can create a memorable learning opportunity. 

Recently, our 5th grade students and teachers felt like they were in a rutt in the cafeteria with behaviors and conversations that were not always creating the type of environment kids felt good about.

Rather than impose harsh consequences, assigned seats, or give the broken record of reminders, every 5th grade classroom held a morning meeting with our counselor, Mrs. Mullarkey, and either Mr. Gerstner or Mr. Erbrecht to talk about the issues that were occurring and help students problem solutions to take ownership themselves of creating a positive place to eat every day. 

Out of those conversations came the idea for a Mix It Up Day.  As 5th graders entered the cafeteria yesterday, they were each given a different color slip of paper to correspond with a random table for them to sit at with people from different classes and different friendship groups than where they normally would sit. 

Mrs. Mullarkey gave them a Scavenger Hunt of ice breaker discussion starters for them to get to know one another better and give examples of positive things they could talk about.

At the end, we held a grade level wide meeting to reflect on what was different about lunch that day and how it made them feel.  Every 5th grader committed to take control of getting a positive lunch time back and had fun in the process.  Every one walked out feeling like it was possible to have 100 friends to sit with at lunch on any given day. 

One 5th grader commented on the way out..."Best lunch EVER!!"...maybe we'll just have to try again sometime soon. 

It's a great example of how taking a Responsive Classroom approach to model and provide kids with positive choices can make a difference in a big way.   Thanks guys! Mr. E.