The day of our cafe my littles came in buzzing! They were so excited to finally see all of their hard work come into play!
We started by having a quick “mock” cafe with another class. The servers pretended to take orders and money. The cashiers went through the motions of organizing the money in the money box. The food prep workers practiced filling pretend orders for servers. The managers walked around checking on guests and solving their pretend problems. Finally, the bussers cleared invisible food and trash from the tables.
We talked about “service with a smile” and “the customer is always right”. We discussed the fact that things WILL go wrong. For example, we could run out of the customer’s favorite kind of cookie and they might have to make a new choice. This happens in the real world. They learned that even bad news can be delivered with a smile and a helping hand.
Finally, it was time for the real deal! Here are some pictures of the action:
You might be wondering what the students were doing when they finished their job or were waiting to begin their job. This was a definite concern of ours also! We had coloring sheets about hope and letter formats available. We encouraged all students to color a picture and write an encouraging letter to Blake. We then saved those to give to her along with the big check on the reveal day. To be completely honest, that wasn’t quite enough. They did a great job with the letters but were restless after they finished. Next year I plan to add a few more time consuming activities to keep them engaged!
What was I doing during the cafe? Basically nothing! It was such fun to watch my littles take over and run things on their own. I had the opportunity to walk around and just take everything in. After all of our hard work and planning, things ran smooth as can be!
The Big Reveal:
Once the cafe was over, we totaled the money were in shock! We were hoping to raise $600 – $800, but $1847.26?! Never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined that! It just goes to show how a school community can really come together for a great cause. We invited Blake and her family to our school. First, we shared a slideshow of photos from the cafe. Then, we revealed the dramatically large check with the total. Finally, we made the donation to their GoFundMe account right then and there! Such an emotional and exciting day!!
