Lunchtime Clubs: Let's Get Started

What's a Lunchtime Club?

My first exposure to a lunchtime club was during my internship. Once a week, my supervisor would gather the Mod/Severe students together in the gym and general education students would come to eat their lunch, play games, and just hang out with the special education students. This club was an official Circle of Friends Club, as my internship district as a whole was heavily on-board with the concept and was dedicated to ensuring that all their SLPs were also leaders of an inclusion club. I was really impressed with the benefits my students received by participating in the club - there were so many opportunities for appropriate language interactions with their peers! So many opportunities to practice turn taking, functional communication, perspective taking, AAC use and more! And the best part, my students couldn't wait for Circle of Friends - it was the highlight of their week in many cases.

So when I started my CFY, I knew I had to recreate the club at my new school. My new district was not very interested in shelling out the money needed to be an official Circle of Friends district, but I was not discouraged by this. Having worked with the club during my internship, I felt very comfortable with the idea of starting my own club without support from a national organization. And thus, my own informal Circle of Friends Club was born! In this blog post, I'll discuss what different lunchtime clubs can look like in addition to tips and ideas I've gained along the way as I have grown and developed my own club.

 

 Circle of Friends

When I think of a lunchtime club, my first thought is the Circle of Friends inclusionary model. It works like this: general education students and Mod/Severe students come together to play games, listen to music, eat their lunch, and engage in totally appropriate and real peer relationships. There are weekly lunchtime meetings, and ideally several other group outings will be organized throughout the year (e.g. pizza party, bowling night, sit together at a football games, etc.)

So how did I get a club started at my high school?

1) I followed the school policy for creating a club. We're official, we have a bookkeeping account - we even made it into the yearbook! The number one step is definitely setting up your club according to school policy.

2) Target specific groups of general education students to get involved in the beginning. Hopefully a lunchtime club will not be a hard sell for your Mod/Severe program, but finding the right general education students to start it off may be tricky. Here are some things I have done:
     - Hosted a table at the "club fair" to educate students about what we do
     - Presented the club to classes where the students are expected to complete community service hours (talk to their teacher beforehand to make sure your club will count as service!)
     - Ran an advertisement on our school's daily video announcements
     - Delivered personal invitations to select students, e.g. siblings of Mod/Severe students, honor roll students, and students recommended to me by teachers
     - Found a general education teacher who really loved the idea! We partnered together so that his students received extra credit for attending meetings and were given an assignment to write an essay about the things they learned while participating in the club.

Once the campus becomes aware of the club and what you do, you'll start to see other teachers, staff, and students come out of the woodwork and show interest in supporting what your club does.

3) Seek out funding opportunities! I have been able to use Medi-Cal money to purchase new games and buy snacks for my club. I started a fundraiser on pearup.com in order to raise money to buy club t-shirts. I have solicited donations from family and friends who are able to write off the donation on their taxes; this is a benefit of being an official club with a bookkeeping account as I can get official donation receipts for those who donate.

4) Make your meetings fun! I have a whole slew of games, the favorites being: Connect Four, Checkers, Kerplunk, Jenga, Pop the Pig, Don't Break the Ice, Candyland, and Uno. Think of simple games that are still appropriate for teenagers. I always have music videos playing on my SMARTBoard and the students get to take turns requesting songs. We have some very talented students who love to dance, rap, and sing for us on a regular basis! Everyone gets really into it! I sometimes also bring in other activities for the students to do, such as simple crafts (coloring, making a card for Mother's Day, beading, etc.) or bubbles to use outside in warmer weather. Not all the students enjoy board games, so it's important to provide a few different options for them to engage with their peers.

Here we are in the yearbook!

Lunch Bunch

Although I have not personally run a "Lunch Bunch," it's a term I've heard used in several contexts specifically to target pragmatics and social thinking skills in a relaxed, lunchtime setting. Social Thinking/ASD students on the SLP's caseload are invited to spend lunch once a week with the SLP in a small group to focus on conversation and perspective taking skills. Unlike the Circle of Friends model, "lunch bunch" is not an official school club and might even operate as your service minutes for higher-functioning ASD students. It's by invite only in order to keep the group manageable and so that the SLP can actually address IEP goals within the lunch group. You may choose to invite other students to your group to serve as peer models, or you may find it advantageous to keep it to just students on your caseload.

What About You?

Do you have a lunchtime club that you run for any of your students? Are you involved in any other clubs on campus? One of my favorite parts of working with adolescents is the ability to get involved in campus organizations to help get your students involved! I have pushed some of my more shy fluency and artic students to get involved in other clubs on campus and they've had a great time! Next year, my Circle of Friends Club intends to take a much more active presence during events on campus - I can't wait to get the whole school involved in our mission of inclusion! Let me know in the comments if you've had success with lunchtime clubs!

As always, it doesn't have to be fancy, just keep it fun and functional!

• Jillian, the No-Frills SLP