Just imagine a large room with food on the floor, on the tables, and in the seats. The noise level is so loud you can’t hear the person next to you speaking. Left jackets, lunchboxes, and other personal items on the floor and on the table. Does this sound like your lunchroom? Well, we have the answer for a new and improved lunchroom!

First, create lunchroom expectations so everybody will know what is expected when they visit the lunchroom. Be sure to share your expectations with the entire school and have them posted as reminders.

Below is a copy of our lunchroom expectations. We found that this is what works best for our school. We took a copy to every classroom and had the teachers post them so the students can be reminded every day. You may have to revisit your expectations several times before you get them just right.

Next, you may want to come up with some type of rewards for the classes following the expectations. Everybody wants to win something!

This is a copy of what we call "Level Up Rewards" because you can win prizes at different levels. When we first posted the rewards, we came up with them on our own and soon found out the students wanted something different. We had our school complete a padlet where we received lots of ideas for rewards and quickly changed our poster.

We wanted the teachers to be rewarded for encouraging all of us to be good citizens and follow expectations when asked so we worked with our principal, Mrs. Davis to create the Highland Wildcat Lunchroom Belt. Every day a class is selected to win the belt by following the lunchroom expectations better than any class in the school. There is a guide for the adult lunchroom monitors to follow each day when selecting the winning class.

We had no idea that the belt would be so desired by all the teachers. This is an extreme competition at our school. Because the teachers are so excited about the belt the students are excited too. Teachers get to wear the belt for the entire day until the winning class is selected at the end of the day.

Everyday students go to the lunchroom to eat. The adult monitors take note of each class visiting the lunchroom and how well the Lunchroom Expectations are followed. During our afternoon announcements, at the end of the day, the winning class is announced by the playing of their class song. As the music is playing, we run to that class and deliver the Highland Wildcat Belt! As you will see in the video clips below the classes are always excited when we show up at the door. We then travel to the lunchroom to add another clipart to the name of that class on the lunchroom bulletin board and also hang the teacher's picture for the day. This let's our entire school know who the class winner was the previous day. The teacher also wears the belt the next school day.

You will want to celebrate your school's success. We frequently share successes during morning announcements or during rallies. We even meet with our principal to keep her informed.

You will want to share your project with your school community. We post our class winners in our schoolwide google classroom and sometimes on our school Facebook page.

If you would like to know more about A Recipe for Wildcat Success or if you have any questions, please contact our teacher at latonya.rowe@johnson.kyschools.us. We will email you back.