Providing students with extracurricular activities during virtual learning is a promising practice for supporting students’ growth and learning. It also enhances students’ connection and sense of belonging.

In this activity, staff create opportunities for students to participate in extracurricular clubs virtually – this can involve academic clubs, social/hobby groups, leadership, community service, and diversity and cultural clubs. To implement this activity:

• Determine the participation days for this club (e.g., Monday, Wednesday and Friday – what suits your needs).
• Determine the amount of time that the club will run for, including time during the day, and the number of weeks.  (e.g., lunchtime club).
• Determine which students to engage in this club (e.g., grade levels).
• Determine how you will advertise your club (e.g., through school social media, pop into online classrooms, school email).
• Set up a registration method for your students (e.g., Google Forms).
• Determine what platform you will use to host your club (e.g., Google Chat, Skype, Slack, Zoom, Microsoft Teams).
• Work with your students to determine individual group interests to create activities based on student needs.
• If students are creating flyers, logos and posters for your club, you may want to look at tools such as CANVA, FIGMA and PicMonkey.

Note: As students are working virtually, it is also important to allow them some sidebar conversations upon entering the club so that they can get caught up on the latest happenings (students would typically socialize in this manner if in person).