Fifth Graders Go Out To Lunch

Fifth graders learn valuable life lessons from going out to lunch.

By: Laura

Crossing streets is an example of life lessons learned by going out to lunch because we have to look out for cars and other people.

Ruling NYC Streets

Now we have reached the destination let’s go inside and find a table.

We made it!

Now we have to look at the

menu we took from the rack outside before we get on line

and order.

We learn how to budget. Budgeting is a skill that will be useful all through life.

Budgeting

Now that we have decided on what we want we have to add the prices.

However in my bag I did find one of my old receipts with my tip calculations. Tips are a good example of real life math.

Money and Math

My friend is ordering food from a counter. This is an example of independence because it shows we have to do it on our own and speak-up.

Speak Up!

Waiting is Boring FunHere we have all finished ordering and are waiting for our buzzers to go off. Then we can pick up the food.

Now we have our food. Let’s eat! The

food is always great! .

Delicious food!

When we have finished we decided to go get frozen yogurt.

We have to be responsible and cleanup.

Time to leave

I can’t wait for next week!

We really had a lot of fun with each other being there while we learned and got to share this experience together.

Fun with Friends

I think fifth graders going out to lunch is a good thing because they develop good habits and skills they could use throughout life early. Lots of people say “oh but they’re two young they don’t have enough experience”. The truth is this will give them the experience required to be a responsible, mature independent. This helps them adjust to the skills now, so they don’t struggle with them later on.

For instance, budgeting is very important because it helps you with prevent money troubles throughout life. And unfortunately I can safely say many of you have gone through that before. If you rarely budget when you are young, then when you get older and your first paycheck you’ll be broke in about a week from lack of budgeting. For example one of my friends only goes out to lunch every other week. She does this so she will not spend too much money and have to keep borrowing money she cannot repay.

Secondly, you learn how to be independent and how to survive without an adult with you. One example of being independent is ordering for yourself. You need to speak-up and tell the waiter/waitress/counterperson what you want. Also, we have to make choices for ourselves when planning or ordering food. It involves making choices because it has to fit our budget and go to our liking. One example of my friends and I being independent from adult supervision was when we managed to go to four different places when we were told we couldn’t. We went to Jackson Hole first. Then when one of us wanted to go to the insomnia cookies and the other wanted to go to 16 Handles (frozen yogurt) and the convenient store. We managed

Fifth Graders going Out to LunchBy: Laura Giaquinto

to go to all of those places and got back to school in time when people told us we couldn’t.

We also learn how to walk the streets of New York City safely. Of course you’ve heard of tragic things happening to careless people. We are always careful. At a young age we try not to get in to bad habits of jaywalking, not looking on the road, or getting involved with strangers.

In conclusion I believe fifth graders going out to lunch is a good idea. It creates a positive experience where they can learn valuable life lessons, while having loads of fun doing something new and being with their friends.

(Continued)

The End!