Write a menu

Try this fun exercise next time you go out to eat or order takeout to help build language skills with your fourth or fifth grader.

In this activity your child writes a menu using descriptive words.

What you’ll need

A restaurant menu
Paper
Pen or pencil

Here’s how to do it

Next time you go out for a meal have your child pay attention to the words in the menu. Ask her questions about the menu such as “How is the food described?”

Does the writing create a picture of how the food looks, smells or tastes? Does it make you want to order the food?”

At a later time have your child write her own menu. Have her think about what kind of restaurant it is and who would be going there. Help her think of items to include and ways to describe the food. Discuss the difference between writing “peanut butter and jelly sandwich” and writing “crunchy peanut butter and wild raspberry jam served on country white bread with or without the crusts.”