A Minneapolis principal went to Sweden. She returned with plans for the lunchroom.

Look around the lunchroom at Lake Harriet Lower Elementary School in Minneapolis and you’ll notice more than just kids enjoying their grilled cheese and tomato soup.

It is noisy, to be sure, these are kindergartners through second-graders, after all, and between classes they will chat up a storm.

But there are parents seated at tables, sometimes grandparents, too, adults there to visit and to keep students in line, and if any kids yell across tables, they can slide a divider into the aisle to put a stop to it.

It’s all about bringing calm and order to what can be a stressful space, and the inspiration came from Sweden.

For 20 years, Minneapolis Public Schools has participated in an exchange program with educators in Uppsala, Sweden, taking turns twice a year to host one another in their respective cities and schools.

Angie Ness, principal of Lake Harriet Lower Elementary, is co-leader of the program with Daren Johnson, and has traveled to Uppsala since 2018.

Participants learn about their host city’s culture and academics. In Uppsala, for example, all kids speak Swedish at the start and then begin to learn English in the third grade, Ness said. There, too, teachers track data in efforts to boost achievement, but the learning gaps being studied involve only gender, not races, she added.

Seven to nine schools are visited each year, and it was during stops to the lunchrooms that Ness recalled thinking: “Why does this feel so different to me?”

First, there were the aesthetics. Curtains and drapes. A pretend plant or placemat in the center of the table. Even a live plant along a wall. This was more like a dining room or a house, she thought. Then, there were the adults in the room: elementary teachers who sat and ate with their students.

When the kids got up, they cleared their own spaces.

This year, Ness set out to replicate the vibe, though she knew there were limits to the cosmetic touches and teacher availability.

The Lake Harriet PTA signed off on a grant for the dividers, and parents and community members — many of them already active volunteers — became “Dragon Diners,” named after the school mascot.

Last Friday, Will Sternberg, a once-a-month visitor, sat with his daughter Perry, catching up on the first-grader’s morning activities. At the table with them were six of her classmates.

“This is my youngest of three so I’m used to talking to kids,” said Sternberg, who also coaches T-ball. “But at lunchtime, you just let them drive the conversation pretty much.”

Kids will raise their hand to go to the bathroom or get water, and it’s up to him to give them the OK. (Each of the Dragon Diners has been screened by the school.) And if there’s rowdy behavior, he will say to them as he did last week: “Hey, hey, hey, let’s cool it a little bit.”

Sternberg is used to the noise: “They’re first-graders,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of energy, which is to be expected.”

Ness said it is common to see as many 20 parents sitting with the kindergartners helping them with their yogurt and their cheese sticks.

A story about the Dragon Diner program was featured this year on the website of the Minnesota Elementary School Principals’ Association. Ness hosted visitors from schools interested in the approach. She does not know if any plan to launch their own program.

This summer, she is planning to fashion a fake tree out of a pillar in the center of the room. There will be bark and sound-dampening ceiling tiles with decorative clouds and leaves. Kids will help her design the branches, she said.

Assisting in the endeavor is Julie Gerth, the school’s secretary and administrative boss — the latter a term also borrowed from Sweden, Ness said. Gerth sits across the hall from the lunchroom.

And Sternberg? He plans to be back to see Perry close out her tenure at the K-2 campus.

“I was just thinking on the way in: ‘Yeah, I’ve just got one more year after this,’” he said. “It’s just a nice way to volunteer.”