Lower school students get hands-on experience on McDonald’s field trip

Kindergarten and first grade learned about “Goods and Services” during their Social Studies class last week and put their knowledge to use at a local McDonald’s owned by the Salebra family.

“Each student was able to collect money and credit cards from drive thru customers, hand food to customers and they even got special scarves to wear and keep while visiting the negative ten degree freezer,” said Kindergarten teacher, Marilyn Reynolds.

The trip was provided free of charge by Kindergarten student Max Salebra’s parents, who own several McDonald’s restaurants in the area.

There were three stations the students got to experience. The first station was where the students got to work the drive thru window to hand food and drinks to the customers. “I was a little nervous about how the customers would react,” Mrs. Reynolds said, “but they were amazing. They were all full of smiles and got a big kick out of being served by kids!”

The second station was where they got to take money and credit cards from the drive thru customers. “I was excited I got to count the money,” said Kindergarten student Weston Mariscal. “It was really fun!”

The third station, the -10° freezer, gave another unique learning opportunity to the students. In addition to goods and services, Kindergarten has been learning about the Arctic. “It’s hard to find temperatures that low in Florida! The kids got a kick out of seeing their own breath,” said Mrs. Reynolds. “I’ve never been somewhere that cold before!” Kindergarten student Olivia Love added.

After they visited the three stations, they got to order their own lunch, and while they ate Ronald McDonald himself came out to do a show. “Seeing Ronald McDonald was my favorite part,” said first grader, Leila Bakken. “I liked when he did the juggling! He was really funny.” The students even got to make their own ice cream sundaes for dessert.

“I’ve been a teacher for 16 years and I’ve been on a million field trips,” said Mrs. Reynolds. “This one was hands down the best I’ve ever gone on. It was so nice to give them hands on experience in goods and services, and the workers were so wonderful with the kids. It’s teaching them a skill they wouldn’t normally get from school, and by telling them that when they’re 14 they can come and work there, we really got them thinking about having a good work ethic early.”