Using visuals for the lunch menu was a relatively new idea for me. It was only about 10 years ago that I started creating lunch menu visuals out of necessity. I was helping a first-grade teacher come up with ideas for how she could support an ESL student in her classroom who didn’t speak any English. We quickly printed out some visuals of different foods to show him and help him make his lunch choices each day.
From there, we started to see how helpful the visuals were for all of the students in the classroom. I began using them in my own classroom with my Superbrains, and I just kept improving the visuals and adding more each year until the collection became pretty comprehensive.
I noticed that the lunch menu visuals supported students in so many ways, including behavior, independence, and communication.
Cafeterias can be loud, fast-paced, and stressful environments for students (and staff). One thing we can do to support students is prepare them ahead of time by showing them what food options they have each day. Knowing ahead of time what the food will be gives them time to think about it and relax if they are not happy with the choices before entering the lunchroom and having a potential meltdown.
Also, because the lunch line needs to move quickly, students have to decide quickly what they would like to have. Many Superbrains struggle with making quick decisions, and that pressure can cause frustration. So again, preparing them beforehand can help prevent that meltdown or anxiety.
A further note here: for some of my Superbrains who struggled with emotional regulation, food sometimes became a way to exert control. I found that using visuals could help take some of that power struggle out of the situation, since you can’t really argue with a visual. The choice was right there in front of them, rather than becoming a back-and-forth between the student and the staff member. The visual gave them a sense of control and independence while taking some of the power struggle out of the interaction.
Growth in independence skills was another unexpected benefit of using a visual lunch menu. Students who were not reading yet could see what was for lunch each day without having to keep asking someone to help them.
But digging a little deeper into this, I had students who couldn't read the menu and didn't even try. They would simply sit back and wait to see what lunch they got. Once they had a visual tool that helped them understand the choices, something changed. They began looking at the lunch menu each day and figuring it out for themselves.
It may seem like a small thing, but those little opportunities to figure things out on their own are important steps toward independence. The visual wasn't just helping them understand the lunch menu; it was building confidence because they could successfully figure something out on their own.
Communication is probably the most obvious benefit. Students who struggle with language input and/or hearing can easily see what the choices are each day without relying on the oral words. We have so many students struggling with language input and we might not even know it. And students who struggle with language output or speech can easily point to what they would like each day.
Using visuals is all about making things in the classroom easier for you and the students. It should not be just one more thing to do. You can easily create visuals now that will support your students for years to come.
Here are a few more tips that I discovered along the way:
Hang the visual in an easy-to-see spot.
Make sure you can clearly tell what the food item is. (And don’t use the same picture to represent two different food items- that is too confusing for the students)
Definitely laminate the food items so they last a long time.
I could often find old index card boxes and tabs to create categories at secondhand shops. The visual food pieces fit perfectly in an old index card box.
Keep the categories simple, i.e. drinks, vegetables, etc.
Get students involved! I was always able to find someone to help with sorting and finding the food items needed. It could be a student’s job, classroom volunteers, paraprofessionals, or class parents.
I had one parent who would take the items home weekly and sort them out for me so they were all ready to go the next week. We had a tab labeled for each day of the week in the index box, and she would get everything ready for me.
