Success StoryPreschoolers Learn to Love using their Manners during Valentines themed Luncheon



Preschoolers Learn to Love using their Manners during Valentines themed Luncheon

Author: Angie York

Planning Unit: Lyon County CES

Major Program: Youth Fruit & Vegetable Access

Plan of Work: Strengthening Families by Caring for Their Health and Well-Being for a Lifetime

Outcome: Initial Outcome

According to Psychology Today, more children than ever before are showing signs of being “bad.”   The article discussing how to counteract rudeness in children calls kids today “ill-mannered, whiny, selfish, arrogant, rude, defiant and violent.”  The article also goes on to explain how these early actions are predictors for severe behavior issues that will come later.  In order to help change the negative behaviors in children, preschoolers at the Lyon County Elementary School learned important lessons about using their manners.  The Family and Consumer Sciences Agent spent time in the classroom teaching the basics of using please and thank you and having good table manners.  After a week of classroom instruction, a Valentines themed luncheon was thrown for preschoolers and their parents.  Tables were set with a basic table setting and more than 60 preschoolers and their parents were able to practice their table manners while being served lunch.   Funds from a partnership grant with the Caldwell, Lyon, and Crittenden Early Childhood Council were used to cover the cost of lunch, decorations, and supplies needed to put on the event.   Early success from the Valentines Manners Luncheon as reported by teachers, indicate the children are applying appropriate manners and table etiquette during breakfast and lunch at school by saying please and thank you when asked to pass food, chewing with their mouths closed, waiting for all students to sit down to eat, placing their napkins in their laps while eating, and not using negative descriptors when a food is introduced that the child does not like.  Because of the success of this program, monthly food and nutrition classes will continue with the preschool students.






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