El club del almuerzo

Next week, I am starting el club del almuerzo (a lunch club). I got the idea from the nandu listserv. (An email group all about world languages in the elementary/middle school grades. This listserv really is quite fantastic and I strongly encourage everyone to join, even if you're high school! It won't always apply to older grades, but still is very useful. Instructions for joining are here.) I’m going to announce the lunch club in class next week, and then one day a week I will dine with each grade; 3rd on Wednesdays, 4th on Thursdays, and 5th on Fridays. I want to give my students who are excelling more of a challenge. I definitely still struggle with differentiation inside the classroom (that's a whole other post) but I figure this is a way for me to work with the upper kids, since I feel they aren't as challenged during class. The goal of el club del almuerzo is to speak as much Spanish as possible during lunch. I’ve created placemats with key phrases that will help. Check out these snapshots.

A sample of a bunch of placemats.

 Useful question words. 

 Phrases/words for lunch.

 Some of the food (some they [should] already know but probably have forgotten).

 These last three pictures are of the back of the placemats. Just more useful phrases and conversation topics.

Some other ideas that people on nandu had were playing games in Spanish, listening to Spanish music, and every now and then, eating Hispanic foods. I’m very excited to try this, but also very nervous. I’m also going to have a reward system to encourage speaking in Spanish. Let's face it, I'm nervous that the kids are just going to speak English and not even try the new words. But, kids can do more than we give them credit for so hopefully they'll prove me wrong! Every now and then when I "catch" them speaking Spanish, I’ll give them a sticker that they can store on their placemat. After an undetermined amount of stickers, they’ll get a small prize like a Spanish book or pencil. Any thoughts/feedback/concerns on this idea would be greatly appreciated! I'll post next week and let you know how it goes!