Some children in school will have great social skills, while other students may need guidance in this area. Setting up a lunch bunch program where a student can improve social skills is an option to help the socially struggling child. Lunch bunches are great for students with a mental health disorder, autism or social anxiety. These are the students who have the most difficulty forming meaningful friendships.
Children who need social skills training can be taught some basic conversation skills as well as how to initiate play through a series of creative lunch bunch social skills activities. During the lunch bunch meetings, the child can choose one or more friends to join in and help her become more comfortable in a social setting and ultimately develop positive self-esteem.
Lunch Bunch Social Skills – Getting to Know Each Other
When the lunch bunch is new to a child with a social disability, the adult leader of the program can assign a kind, mature friend to join in, or instruct the child to choose one friend. The two students can begin the lunch bunch by learning about each other – names, ages, families and common interests. Simple, adult-led conversations will help the two children get to know each other.
As the child becomes comfortable with two-way conversation, the lunch bunch can be expanded to include three or four friends. Once a nice group of children are participating, a great getting to know you social skills game to play is fact hunter. Have the kids write down one thing about themselves on a scrap of paper. Instruct them to fold or crumple the paper, toss it on the floor, and then have each child pick one up.
After reading their facts, the children can then attempt to find the owner of the paper by going around and asking questions until the match is found. This game is a great way to break the ice and get the conversation going. Explain the way the game works in simple terms before getting started, so that students know how to play.
Lunch Bunch Social Skills Activities
Once the initial getting to know you meeting is over, the socially struggling student might begin to withdraw if she is not included. To prevent this, be sure that she is always brought back into the conversations. Design games that will require her to talk, ask questions and share information about herself. Here are a few more lunch bunch social skills activities to try:
- Telephone – Have the student come up with a short phrase and whisper it to the student to her right. The student to the right then whispers what she heard to the next student. The phrase will eventually get back to the child to the left of the initiator, who then says the phrase aloud. Is it the same?
- Skill Building – Bring in a bucket of building blocks such as Legos. Ask each child in the lunch bunch to pick out a certain number of pieces and have them each take turns adding a piece to a structure until they are all used. Then have the kids talk about what they built. What does it look like?
- Create a Story – Each student is given a lined piece of paper and told to start a story on it by writing down one sentence. Pass the papers to the right. Then the students read the sentence and add another sentence to the story. Continue until there are a set number of sentences and then have the students add a final sentence to the stories. Each student gets her original story back and then reads it aloud to the group.
School-aged children who struggle socially can participate in lunch bunch social skills activities with peers in order to build their self-confidence and make important friendships that can extend into the regular classroom. Playing social skills games in a safe, comfortable lunch bunch setting will encourage kids who are shy or socially anxious to improve their social interaction with others.
Karen Plumley - Karen Plumley is a writer specializing in parenting and education. She works for Parenting NH and the Hippo, NH's most widely read ...
