Written by: Tammy Peterson - Lincoln Elementary Principal
Lincoln Elementary has an annual tradition during the Thanksgiving season, the Manners Luncheon, the children put on their Sunday best and are treated to a fine dining experience…candlelit tables with placemats and music playing, all to teach the children formal table manners.
"It's an opportunity for us to teach our students proper etiquette or manners when eating at a formal dinner, like the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays," Tammy Peterson, principal at Lincoln Elementary, said. Students are welcome to dress up in their finest clothing, the boys often in ties and suit jackets, the girls in dresses and they are pretty proud of how they look.
In past years we have involved the families to help serve the students, wearing black and white to represent the waiters and waitresses. This year we had to do things a little differently, due to covid, we were not able to have any volunteers so our amazing staff stepped in to serve pumpkin pie to each student and replace placemats and silverware for each new group. Students were still given the whole atmosphere, with the music and candlelight and enjoyed the experience.
Mrs.Smith explained how her third-grade class felt about this year's unique manners luncheon, "When I announced that we were still doing manners lunch this year, but it might look a little different, students were still very excited that we were keeping this tradition. In the classroom we talked about table manners and polite table conversations to have when eating a nice meal. The boys in my classroom practiced pushing in chairs for the girls."
Any time we can teach our children anything in school that they can use later in life, those life skills, those people skills ... are so important!