Don't Tip the Waiter

A food-themed game of balance.

Tip the Waiter is a game of balance and spilled food. The restaurant is crowded and your waiter, Pierre, is trying to do too many things at once. Food is piled high on his tray until he can't carry one more and plates starts sliding off. If it was your turn when he dropped the food, tip the waiter $1. 

Pierre is made up of three pieces of hard plastic and must be snapped together before play. The round part from the bottom is weighted so that Pierre will sway back and forth as food is added. After assembling Pierre, balance his tray on the top by putting the small tab on the bottom of the tray into the small hole in his hand. The tray measures 5" in diameter and has a lip around the edge to help keep food from sliding off.

The plates consist of two different disc sizes, are made from heavy card material, and each pictures food on one side and a picture of an empty plate and the words Don't Tip the Waiter on the other side. Each size plate has four different types of food, three duplicates of each. The large plates are 2.5" in diameter and include spaghetti and meatballs, fried chicken and macaroni, a fish dinner and a breakfast plate with bacon and eggs. The small plates measure 1.5" in diameter and include tossed salad, corn on the cob, donuts and ice cream. Funny, a waiter named Pierre and no pizza (Italian for pie). It would have been the perfect shape for a round plate. 

Are you ready to eat? Then let's play!

Object: 
Be the player with the most money left when someone else runs out of money.

Set up:
Assemble the waiter and put him on a flat surface where everyone can reach him. Give everyone $3. Place all the food discs nearby. This is the draw pile.

Play:
Players take turns. On your turn, take any one of the plates of food and place it on the waiter's tray. Your turn ends and the next person plays. Play until some or all of the plates slide off Pierre's tray. The person who was playing when this happens places one of his dollar bills near the waiter and takes any fallen plates and puts them back in the draw pile. Play until someone runs out of money. The player with the most money left at this point is the winner. Or, if there are more than two players, keep playing until there is only one player left with money.

Try this:

• Play with the game before starting. Show how the waiter will tip and how to add a plate that helps equalize the weight distribution and bring him back into a more upright position. Talk about how the small plates will weigh less and will tip him less than the larger plates.
• Use a die to determine which plate is added, a chance to practice cupping the hand. Even numbers can represent large plates and odd numbers represent small plates.
• Play alone and balance as many plates as you can before something falls. How many did you get? Now play again and try to balance one more. Can you balance them all?
• During set up, sort and stack the plates of like food. Take a stack of the mixed discs, hold them in your non-dominant hand and push one at a time off the top with your thumb. Take it with the dominant hand and place it on the correct pile.
• Play a game of memory match. Turn the plates all face-down on the table. Taking turns, each player will turn three plates face-up, looking for a match. Remove the set of three once the match is made. Play with only one size plates at a time or use them all for a longer game. Alternate plate size sets, saying a large set must be found and then a small set must be found, to include more pictures and more to remember.
• Clean up by stacking the discs and placing them into the box by the handfuls. Pick up one disc from the flat surface and stack it on top of another disc. Pick up that stack of discs and place it on top of another plate. Pick up that stack and place it on top of another plate and so on until you can't hold any more.
• Make a sequence by lining up plates of two, three or four different kinds of food on the table. Ask the player to make as many lines of the same sequence as they can. Or make one long line using the same sequence.
• Tell the player a sequence of three different foods, verbally, and see if they can remember and make the sequence. Or line up a sequence on the table and show it to them to study. Stress looking to remember, not just glancing at it. Practice naming the food out loud several times to help in remembering. Then place the box in front of it so they can's see it while they replicate it. Remove the box and let them check and see if they are correct. There are 24 plates of food, so you can make a pretty long sequence if you want, adding one more item to the line each time. Try chunking them with a pause in between as you verbally rehearse.
• Talk about the process of tipping a waiter in a real restaurant and what it means.
• Line up the food in the order that you would like to eat it, favorite foods at the front of the line. Talk about your favorite foods that are not pictured on the plates or what foods you like to order at a restaurant. Follow by other food related activities if you are working on that.
• Use Play-doh and make matching plates of food after playing the game. 
• Collect a couple of take-out menus beforehand and then talk about the process of reading a menu and ordering after playing.

In the box: Plastic waiter with tray, 12 dollar bills, 12 large plates of food, 12 small plates of food

If you are interested in purchasing this game or just want more information, click on the image below.