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Mix It Up at Lunch Day — to be held on November 13, 2008 — is a simple call to action: take a new seat in the cafeteria. By making the move, students can cross the lines of division, meet new people and make new friends.
Make a move and organize Mix It Up at Lunch Day in your School!
Organize. Mix It Up at Lunch Day is a whole-school effort. Get students, teachers, counselors, staff, administrators and school clubs involved in planning the day. Last year, Mix It Up at Lunch Day was most successful when students and adults worked together.
- Pull together a group of students who also want to challenge the social boundaries at school and form a planning committee.
- Ask administrators to put Mix It Up at Lunch Day on the school calendar.
- Meet with the cafeteria staff to help organize the events.
- Be creative. Everyone takes a lunch period in school, even if it's not in the cafeteria. If you have an open campus, for example, encourage students to have lunch with a different group while off campus and report back on their experiences.
- Rewards and incentives work, so create a way to honor students who participate.
Planning. Set a meeting schedule and stick to it. Brainstorm ideas with the planning committee about how to make the Day work at your school. Consider these pointers:
- Use the Mix It Up Survey (PDF) to see what social boundaries exist at your school.
- Involve students outside of the planning committee to help increase awareness about the day.
- Involve teachers and administrators! Check out these great tips for working with adults.
- Conduct activities before and after the event to drive the lessons home.
Publicize. Promoting the Mix It Up at Lunch Day allows students to prepare for the Day, understand its purpose, and volunteer to help or ask questions. Download and use our free fliers, stickers, web banners and much more! Take advantage of school media — newspapers and intercom announcements, for example. Visit classrooms to explain the event. Create your own promotional materials, too.
Educate. Get students and teachers to buy-in by educating them about Mix It Up at Lunch Day. Use our free activities, and ask teachers for support.
Act. Go ahead, make the move, and do the Day! Mix up lunchroom seating on November 13, 2007. In prior years, Mix It Up at Lunch Day organizers have used these successful ideas:
- Organizers provided each student with a "Breaking News" sheet and encouraged students to sit at the tables where their topics appeared. Once seated, they found conversation starters pertaining to their news item.
- Before lunch, organizers gave each student a letter in the phrase, "Mix It Up." During lunch, students found other kids to spell out the whole phrase. Once the phrase was complete, the group sat down for lunch.
- Tried-and-true ideas used by numerous schools include mixing up the lunchroom by birth month (i.e., students with January birthdays sit together), by color codes (i.e., students with a red swatch of paper sit at the table with red balloons) or by food item (i.e., students with an apple sit at the "apple table").
- To spice things up, invite local comics, radio DJs, musicians, and other members of the community to participate, too.
- Offer incentives! Organizers often hold drawings for free movie tickets, gift certificates to student hotspots, wristbands, school t-shirts or other cool items to encourage participation in Mix It Up at Lunch Day.
Beyond the Day.
Remember for Mix It Up to be effective, it has to be treated as more than a one-day activity. Bring the planning committee back together to celebrate and evaluate how things went. The Mix It Up Planner (PDF) will help you Mix It Up beyond the Day.
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