Who is staying for lunch TODAY?

Friends have been coming into school looking at the a couple of schedules during the day so that they know what is happening. This provides them with a sense of security. In looking and reading the list of friends staying for lunch, Sam made an interesting observation, Mia was the only girl staying yesterday, so he moved Mia's name to the side. Usually names are moved to the side when a friend on the list is absent, but Mia was not absent. So the question was how could we change the board?? We decided to add a column for GIRL, BOY, and ABSENT. Then another interesting thing happened, boys and girls said there was still something wrong. There were people 'missing from the absent' column. THOSE friends missing from lunch, are absent from lunch.
Usually this is a teacher responsibility to set up the board, but we felt that providing the children the opportunity to set up the board is a great responsible task and one they seemed eager to embrace. This will become an additional classroom responsibility/job to set up the board. It will take a lot of work to read the list for those friends staying on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and identifying the corresponding column. WOW.. What a responsibility!!!  All these responsibilites increase confidence and enhance literacy, and are meaningful to their everyday experiences.
Thank you friends for a great idea...