A School Counselor Lunch Bunch Linky Party

I was so excited to see this linky party on Tabitha’s blog, Scrapbook of a School Counselor. Lunch bunch is one of my favorite things about my school counseling program. You can check out my lunch bunch posts by clicking HERE.

For me, lunch bunch is a time to connect with students in an informal setting. It is an opportunity to focus on a variety of needs within my school’s population that I may not otherwise have the chance to address during my classroom counseling lessons. It also allows me to get more small groups in during the school year that will not take away from instruction time. I usually have between 4-6 students per lunch bunch.

I usually find activities that do not involve writing or coloring. This usually includes a book, discussion cards, or a discussion cube. Some activities with laminated cards work well during lunch bunch also. Some lunch bunches are just a time to get to know students. During these types of groups, we mainly just chat and learn about some of the things we may have in common with each other.

Over the past few years, I have created a schedule which includes each grade level (K-5) in my school. On a good year, I’m usually able to see children from each grade level between 7-9 times which is up to 54 groups. To do this, I create a schedule which allows me to see two grade levels per week. I send the form found in this blog post to each grade level the week before their assigned date. The teachers are able to select the students they feel need the topic OR they tell me a need within their grade level they would like addressed.

This year, I am having lunch bunch groups with all of the new first through fifth graders in our school. This will probably take me until the end of September to accomplish, but I am enjoying meeting them all. Once I’m able to get through those groups, I will begin to plan out the rest of the year. I may tweak my Lunch Bunch program some this year and see how things go.

I use my lunch bunch time as a way to reward good behavior as well. In our school, students are expected to S.O.A.R. S is for Show respect, O is for Order and Safety, A is for Awesome attitude, and R is for responsibility. On occasion, I ask teachers to send their “SOARing” students for a mini celebration of sorts. Their accomplishment is a big deal and I make sure they know it. I usually invite an administrator to stop by and give pats on the back as well.

If you would like to participate, here are the instructions:

-Create a blog post titled “A School Counselor Lunch Bunch Linky Party”

-Place the Linky Party logo (above) in your post.

-Answer the questions (above). You are free to copy and past Tabitha’s headers as I did if you’d like.

-Submit your blog post link by visiting Tabitha’s blog post which is linked above . Be sure to link to the actual post, not your homepage.

Thanks, Tabitha, for creating a great linky party! It’s so great to learn and get new ideas from each other!

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