I mentioned on Instagram a little bit ago that I have a pretty consistent routine in the way I run “lunch bunches” for my students at my school.  I think this started my internship year, and I’ve actually never done it any other way.  I see students all throughout the week, but I save my lunch slots for students who have peer interaction and conversation goals.  I use lunch bunches for my IEP students and 1-2 other peers.

You can target so many skills in lunch bunches including:

• initiating greetings
• eye contact
• asking a friend to play
• problem-solving
• initiating conversation
• staying on topic
• asking questions and making comments
• taking turns
• expected behaviors in play
• compromising
• and more!

I use the same general structure for all my lunches, but vary it a little bit depending on level and student need.  Here is what I do.

Almost all of my students have some sort of visual like this.

1. Invite a friend:  At the start of every school year, the social worker and I sent out a letter to all parents asking for their participation as a peer in social groups.  We did more of an “opt out” letter at my first school, so figure out what works for you.  This is so helpful because you have it for all classes for whatever students you need.  Inviting a friend is such an important part of the lunch bunch because it hits on an objective that so many of my kids have, and a skill that’s essential on the playground-asking another child to play.

The first few weeks of school, while we are waiting for the parent permission slips to come back, I meet with the student and practice how to ask peers to come, practice good conversation skills, and brainstorm games that they can play.

Then, when their lunch bunch day comes, they stop into my office.  We look at their list of peers and do a quick practice again of asking them.  Then we head to ask them.  The words usually sound something like “Do you want to come eat lunch and play a game with me?”  If my student has a 1:1 para, they sometimes do this in the classroom.  If a peer says no, we work through it and problem solve together.  Then we head to my room!

2.  Conversation/Topic Talk/Friend File: I really try to make my lunch bunches flow like typical meals.  Our lunches are 30 minutes long, so for the first half, we do conversation.  I do this 3 ways.  In K, or when students don’t know much about their peer, we do a friend file.  (You can find a copy of the one I use most on my TPT page). Essentially, we ask questions to learn more about a peer and make a connection.

Once kids have done this, and know about their peers (usually we do friend files at least a year), we move on to topic talk.  I try to make these things kids would actually talk with each other about-What did you do this weekend?  What are you doing after school?  What do you want to play at recess?  I write these down for my kiddos.  Students ask their friend and then share themselves.  We practice whole body listening, asking questions, and making comments during this time.

After students have mastered asking these questions and making comments, we do less structured “topic talk”.  This can be totally unplanned, but I find that most of my students prefer some structure, so I have a few conversation card decks that we use.  Students and their peer take turns picking a card and asking each other.

3.  Play!:  Finally, we play!  Again, I have specific goals for my students on this, and it’s usually targeting asking a friend to play.   Again, younger groups start off very structured-we pick two games ahead of time and they ask “Do you want to play Candyland or Count Your Chickens?”  For some older students, we pick 4-5 games they know how to play at the start of the year, and then they can pick 2 to ask their friend with.  For my oldest students, they can just choose whatever I have in my room.  For all groups though, we practice asking “Do you want to play ___ or ____?”, etc. and then problem-solving if an issue comes up.  If need be, we will review expected behaviors for play, and then we play!

At the end, we say goodbye with a “good game”, “thanks for coming”, etc.

And that’s it!  I truly love this structure, and I think it really works.  I’ve found that it not only helps my kiddos to learn great conversation and play skills but also helps facilitate friendship and play outside of the group.