I am a special education teacher working at Mastery Charter Smedley Elementary School located in the Frankford section of Philadelphia. I am collaborating with a colleague to create a functional life skills program to teach and practice in real time the following domains: reading, writing, math, social studies, art, music, social skills, and functional life skills. Over the past 3 months, our students created a restaurant, B Avenue Café, and successfully ran 2 openings for a self-contained classroom and for the school leadership team. Through the journey, they learned about restaurant hierarchy, their contact information, applying for a job, making decorations, writing a menu, calculating change, food safety/hygiene, confirming reservations, making no-bake bakery items, serving food, cleaning up, and calculating profits. My colleague and I have funded the project on our own, but would like to expand next year with 2 culminating visits to a restaurant.

My colleague and I were trying to find a way to motivate our students (4^th-6^th grade), while practicing functional life skills. We work with students who have learning disabilities, autism, emotional disturbance, ADHD, speech and language impairments, intellectual disability, and occupational therapy needs. Additionally, many of our students have chronically high discipline scores which require creative behavior plans to address their needs. The name, B Avenue Café describes the hallway (B Pod) where our rooms are situated within the school. Our students travel through “B Avenue” every day for instruction and sensory breaks.

In order to break down the complicated process of a restaurant, we first modeled for the students a restaurant experience in our classroom with a Mardi Gras theme. They were reading a novel on the 9^th ward and Hurricane Katrina. The party served as a culmination of reading their novel, learning about the meaning of Mardi Gras, navigating a menu, ordering items based on how much money you earned, and using respectful language when ordering and eating.

We explained to our students that they could earn money each class period, based on their positive behavior and work completion. We also exposed them to real menus and gave them a dollar amount for them to calculate what they could order and how much change they would receive. They practiced setting a table, sitting appropriately with a napkin on their lap, and how to ask for something respectfully. The day of our “soft opening” was a huge success and the students were motivated and ready to run their own restaurant.

As a class, we decided to have the students run the restaurant in honor of fallen soldiers for Memorial Day. Students learned the true meaning of Memorial Day and followed through with patriotic decorations to complete the theme.

The following is a timeline of events that lead to our Grand Opening on May, 24, 2017:

• Review hierarchy of restaurant and positions

• Reading vocabulary words with restaurant/food related words

• Staff collection of up cycled products (seashells, paper towel and toilet rolls, cans, plywood)

• Learning contact information with correct spelling (full name, address, city, state, zip code, phone number, and birthdate)

• Applying for job position

• Writing menu items using descriptive language and creating original names for ice cream sundaes

• Making decorations using up-cycled items (tin can vases, shell name plates, shell flag mosaic, napkin rings, paper towel roll rockets, toilet paper roll poppers, menu board), children’s menu coloring book, paper lanterns, table numbers

• Writing and filming teaser commercial

• Hand delivering invitations

• Taking and confirming reservations by phone and email

• Tie dye socks and t-shirts

• Making fresh flower arrangements

• Preparing menu item checklist, menus, comment cards

• Folding bandannas for checks and inserting golf pencils

• Making and packaging bakery items (correct hand washing/glove procedure, putting labels on bags, making rice crispy treats, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered Oreos, chocolate covered animal crackers, packing dessert items and setting display for the B Avenue Café Bakery)

• Set up tables and reservation desk (table cloth, place mats, plates, utensils, party favors, lanterns/lights, flowers, table numbers, business card raffle, drink station)

• Set up ice cream parlor (ice cream, toppings, utensils, bowls)

• Set up music, menu board, lighting, decorations

• Welcome and seat guests

• Waiter/Waitress take orders and direct patrons to bakery while waiting

• Kitchen staff makes sundaes, server checks order and delivers to each table

• Host asked patrons if they would like lemon in water and general check in

• Clean up staff takes away dirty dishes

• Cashier calculates checks and waiter/waitress delivers to table with a comment card

• Waiter/waitress brings change and thanks guest for coming

• Raffle drawing for B Avenue Bundle bakery tray

• Administration books retirement party for 40 people with B Avenue Café for June 13, 2017!!!!

• Entire staff cleans tables, puts way food items, empties trash, sweeps floor

• Students are able to make an ice cream sundae, calculate profits, read comment cards, and inventory stock

We spent our own money on the following items for our restaurant opening:

• Paper products: plates, cups, napkins, utensils, ice cream cups, table clothes, paper flags/umbrellas, gloves, bakery bags, bakery plates, plastic aprons, wax paper, plastic wrap, cookie trays

• Food: rice crispies, butter, marshmallows, pretzels, pretzel rods, animal crackers, Oreos, melting chocolate, sprinkles (chocolate, rainbow, patriotic, colored sugar), chocolate and vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, caramel topping, strawberry syrup, chocolate syrup, hot fudge, cherries, iced tea, lemonade, bottle water, lemons, Hershey kisses

• Office products: labels, color ink cartridge, card stock, glitter sharpie

• Craft supplies: hot glue sticks, paint, paint brushes, glitter, construction paper, tissue paper, glitter paper, table scatter, ribbon, wooden stars, flag bandannas, spray paint

• Flowers: carnations, food coloring, assorted greens

• Uniforms: socks, dye, hats, tie, colored bead necklaces

• Serving/Baking Utensils: wooden spoons, mixing bowls, tongs, plastic melting bottle, ice cream scooper

• Misc: tea lights, mason jars

We are planning to open B Avenue Café in the 2017-2018 school year, for the following events:

• Fall Festival (October)

• Ugly Sweater Party (December)

• Valentine’s Day Tea (February)

• Spring Fling (April)

• Patriotic Picnic (June)

The production of B Avenue Café would serve the following goals:

• Academic: reading, writing, math, art, music, social studies

• Social Skills: eye contact, asking questions, speaking on the phone, respectful language

• Functional Life Skills: cooking, cleaning, making change, responsibility, using public transportation, knowledge of contact information, applying for a job, food safety, hygiene

• Behavior Incentive

  • Students with high discipline scores will be able to earn money towards the B Avenue Café/Bakery

  • Student employees will earn a paycheck that can be spent during the community restaurant trip

• Student Leadership Rewards

  • Baker’s Dozen

  • Men of Mastery

  • Ladies of Mastery

• Inclusion

  • Self-contained classes will be invited to practice appropriate social skills (ordering, waiting for food, table manners)

We would like funding for the following items/field trips: $2,597

• Mini refrigerator ($110)

• Microwave ($110)

• Toaster oven ($120)

• Waffle maker ($37)

• Blender ($35)

• Cooking/Baking supplies: mixing bowls, wooden spoons, ice cream scoops, serving utensils, tongs ($35)

• Paper products: plates, cups, napkins, utensils, ice cream cups, table clothes, paper flags/umbrellas, gloves, bakery bags, bakery plates, plastic aprons, wax paper, plastic wrap, cookie trays ($175)

• Restaurant trip (2 times/year) ($750)

• Public transportation ($250)

• Food ($600)

• Office supplies: color ink cartridges, card stock, labels ($50)

• Craft supplies: hot glue sticks, glitter, construction paper, paint brushes, ribbon ($50)

• Fresh flowers ($100)

• Cleaning supplies: Windex, Mr. Clean, wash clothes, dish detergent, wash basin ($25)

• Uniform shirts: ($150)

Back Up Plan