Food Critic Notebook

What you need: 

• spiral notebook 
• pen or pencil

What to do: 

1. Discuss the role of restaurant critics with your child. What kinds of things do they consider when they write a restaurant review? Do they just discuss the food, or are there other things they might describe as well?
2. Make a list of the kinds of things that a reader might want to learn from a restaurant review. Possibilities include: the restaurant name, location, atmosphere, service, type of food and quality, price range, and rating. 
3. Invite your child to start a food critic notebook of her own. Every time you visit a restaurant, encourage her to write a review. What does she think her friends would want to know about a restaurant? Is it the same as what her friends' parents might want to know?
4. Set aside a section in the notebook for reviewing dishes cooked at home. Your child can record her own thoughts plus the opinions of other family members. Her review could also include nutritional information, preparation time, cost, and recommendations for other foods to serve with the dish. The notebook can even help serve as a guide for meal planning in the future.

Learning benefits: 

• provides practice with descriptive writing 
• develops organizational skills