Lunch Choices... Quick, Painless, and a Great Way to Start the Day! {Psst... a freebie too!}

Lunch Choices.  Ugh!  I used to have a chart in my room and each kid would put a letter behind their name to show their lunch choice.  But I always hated the bottle neck up at the chart each morning... and then calling up kids who forgot to choose... and then transferring the choices from the chart to a new form that I had to turn in... or kids who would not pay attention and grab the wrong letter... Yikes!

So, now I have a very simplified system for lunch count.  At my old school, we had to turn in a slip with each kids' name and their choice each day.  Now we just hop on the computer and input the number of each item wanted, so it's pretty quick.

I do lunch count orally each morning.  I call each kids' name and mark off their choice on a paper that I have in a sheet protector so I can easily wipe it off at the end of each day.  I like calling out for each student.  It gives me a quick second to see each kid, touch base with them, give a smile, and also serves as a quick attendance check.

My sheet looks like this:

If you click the picture, you can download a similar copy that opens in Powerpoint.  There are three slides using the same graphics.  One has a similar table, one has a four "quadrant" system for making tallies or jotting kids' names, and one is blank so you can create your own table to suit your needs.

Enjoy!  Don't forget to leave some Labor Day lovin' if you like the file!  :)

Tomorrow is my first day back, so I may be absent from this blog for a day or two... I'm hoping not, but you never know!