The project got its roots when we sat down to make a T-chart of issues we had identified on one side, and our professional interests and goals on the other side. Some common issues that were identified included:
students seeking attention
behavioural issues or disrespect
the inability for students to make and maintain healthy friendships
doodling and distractions during lessons
lack of executive functioning (impulse control, task initiation, accountability)
From this, we determined that a club that provided a healthy outlet for students to play, make art, and create friendships with students from other parts of the school that they might not regularly see would be an asset to the school community. Research has shown that play helps to increase executive functioning and decrease behaviour problems, and we grasped at this opportunity as a really beneficial way to make relationships with our vulnerable students. We determined we would document our journey of preparation, implementation, and data and results of this project, among other research, so that other schools and teachers could use this project in their own classrooms. Thus, we first created our proposal. Once we had our proposal, we created a budget for the project and determined that sponsorships from local businesses would be the perfect way to involve the community. We went to local businesses with a sponsorship letter to see if they would be willing to support our project in return for advertising from the school. Now that we had found a focus for our project, we needed to identify students. Between the two of us, we taught all four grade 5 sections and so we each put forth names of 4 students from each section that would either benefit from additional attention from adults and peer friendships or who needed executive functioning assistance. Once we identified those students, we approached them to see if they were interested and sent a permission letter home with parents. Our final step in our preparation was to create and fill out a survey to identify a baseline for students. This survey would be filled out by classroom teachers at the beginning and end to determine whether the project has helped students to become more regulated and improved their learning in the classroom.