One of the best ways to keep students engaged is to have a classroom transformation. Why not have a Coffee Shop Classroom Transformation? It can be as extravagant or as simple as you want. Either way, your students will want to be a part of all the activities you have in store.
My students know I love Starbucks and coffee, so it was only natural that I would transform the classroom into a cafe at some point during the year.
Coffee Shop Decor
The decor was super simple. I purchased green tablecloths, green tissue pompoms for the ceiling and yellow flowers at The Dollar Tree. I used white butcher paper to create the Starbucks logo on the wall and green butcher paper to create "Today's Menu" for the wall. I just wrote that in chalk.
I used donated Starbucks cups to hang from the ceiling. I also put flowers in some of those cups on the tables for a coffee shop feel.
Other items that added to the ambiance were aprons and hats that I purchased from Oriental Trading Co. these were for my students to wear so they felt like real coffee shop baristas. I got my Starbucks coffee shop apron from eBay.
Now for the Content!
I knew I wanted this transformation to be a few days long based on the material I wanted to cover. For this particular classroom transformation I went cross curricular with the content. The subjects I covered were reading, math, writing and science.
- Reading:
I planned two reading activities. The first one was a non fiction reading passage about tea and coffee. The students read, answered the comprehension questions and filled out the Venn Diagram based on the passage's information. Comparing and contrasting were text structures we worked on for two weeks.
The other reading activity was "Don't Judge a Book by its Cover." This was an idea inspired by Hope King. I usually get many free books from Scholastic Book Clubs for my classroom library each month when my students place orders. I save these books for this activity. I try to get at least one for each student in my class, but usually I get a few extra.
I
teach many lessons through out the school year about not judging a book by its
cover and choosing a "just right book" based on interest. I wrap each book cover in brown paper from The
Dollar Tree and I print numbered tags on sticker sheets I found on Amazon.
Each book is labeled with a numbered sticker and placed around the classroom for
the children to “taste” by reading a page or two. If the student likes the book
and wants to try and “win” the book to borrow, they can fill out the double
sided tag.
On one side they write their name and the book number. On the flip side they write if they think it is fiction or nonfiction, how they know, and why they want to be the first in the class to read it. After all the students have filled out the raffle tickets, we have the book raffle. Whoever wins the book gets to borrow it from our class library first. Then all the books eventually become part of our classroom library. Win, win!
- Math:
For math, I had centers set up with a coffee shop theme. The following are the activities I did with my students. I
set up each station with various materials for the students, and each station had an activity sheet and manipulatives.
Donut Shop Math: I ordered mini donut erasers from Oriental Trading but you can print and laminate the mini donut pictures from this coffee shop resource.
What’s the Cost?: For this activity I laminated a menu and had my students use fake money to work out each problem.
Order up: I used Starbucks coffee cups and holders (donated by a local Starbucks), coffee beans, marshmallows and tea bags for the kids to have a real “barista” experience. You can certainly use pictures of these items laminated if you do not want to get the actual items.
Drinks Drinks Drinks: I used mini coffee cup erasers from Oriental Trading but you can print and laminate pictures of cups. Another option is to have your students draw pictures.
- Writing:
For creative writing, my students had the chance to create a new drink for the coffee shop or a coffee shop store front. First, they got a planning sheet to
fill out about what they wanted to create. For their final copy, students created a flip book with all of their drink or store front information. Adding final touches of
color to their design made their creation become realistic and personalized.
- Science:
My students love science! They love investigating new things and using what they know to make accurate hypotheses. That is why this was a great experiment for them. They know a bit about mixing colors from art class so it was perfect. We used coffee filters, black markers and water droppers.
We spoke briefly about colors, what they knew about colors and what they thought was going to happen when we added water to the black dot in the center of their coffee filter. The children were pleasantly surprised at their results. My students were so engaged with this activity they even asked to do it again!
I found that this coffee shop classroom transformation was my students' favorite this year. I honestly think it was because they were able to become the baristas for the week. Thank you for checking out this classroom transformation. I'd love to help you plan one for your classroom. Feel free to email me any questions you might have about this, or any other classroom transformations. Thanks for stopping by!
No comments