One of my favorite things to do is find ways to recycle environmental print items for educational life skills use in the classroom! On a teacher’s budget, we are always striving to find ways to save money, yet provide the best education for our students. I found a way to use to-go restaurant menus for a life skills/reading lesson. Not only are restaurant menus travel brochures free, but they are materials that you see in everyday life! Being able to read and order from a menu is a very important life skill to have for students that plan on being in the community often (hopefully all strive to be in the community often!!) In my opinion, the best way to teach life skills is to have hands on learning with real materials! If you’re teaching high school or transition, this activity is very age appropriate!
Getting Started
Where do you find to-go restaurant menus? Sometimes they come with weekly circulars in the mail, but it’s rare. I usually pick up a few menus when I go out to eat. Yes, sometimes I look a little crazy taking 3 menus, but if someone gives me a weird look, I pull the teacher card. A majority of restaurants have menus at the front, as well as nicer fast food places like Panda Express or Rubios. The best way to get more menus is to have your class go on a community walk (CBI) to a local restaurant and each pick up a menu to use when they get back to class. Next time you’re on vacation, grab one of each brochure in the rack! If you have any popular travel destinations nearby you, take a community trip and pick some up!
Using the Menus & Brochures
If you want to re-use the menu or brochure several times, you can have a lesson where you ask students to point to specified items (e.g Find the drinks, Tell me how much the orange chicken is, Tell me which appetizer you would order.) For non-readers, I love using cut & paste activities. I do often use cut & paste activities with my readers as well though because who doesn’t benefit from visuals!! It’s a fun activity for students to identify the main parts commonly seen on a menu or brochure.
Example IEP Goals:
- Student will identify the location, cost, what is the brochure advertising, & contact info on a travel brochure, given 1 gestural prompt, in 4/5 trials over 2 consecutive weeks, as measured by observation, data collection, and/or work samples.
- Student will identify restaurant name, a main entree, an appetizer, and a dessert, on a restaurant menu, given 1 gestural prompt, in 4/5 trials over 2 consecutive weeks, as measured by observation, data collection, and/or work samples.
Download the Differentiated Restaurant Menus Worksheets
This activity includes two levels: cut & paste, and a write it in version.
Download the Differentiated Travel Brochures Worksheets
This activity includes two levels: cut & paste, and a write it in version.
Do you like Recycling Environmental Print and Cut & Paste activities?
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