CLOCKS Moved FORWARD!
SPRING Has SPRUNG!
SCHOOL is BACK in SESSION!
Students and Teachers arrived back to school refreshed and, albeit a little tired, glad to see their classmates and settle back into their school routines. Some students and staff ventured on small road trips and others boarded planes and ships to faraway tropical places. All of us seemed to have shopped, visited, napped, stayed up late and slept in later, spent invaluable time with our family and friends and enjoyed some time away from school.
While we were away, our clocks moved forward with daylight savings and Winter season changed to Spring! This was a natural time for our class to place our focus on the latter part of the acronym of B.A.S.E.S. for the remainder of the school year.
For those not familiar with what a B.A.S.E.S classroom represents, teachers plan our curriculum to include the following components:
BUILDING ACADEMIC SOCIAL AND EMPLOYMENT SKILLS (B.A.S.E.S)
Since the beginning of the school year, a major area of attention has been placed on the Academic area of our program. Students have duotangs of work for Spelling, Reading, Writing, Math, Science, Socials, International postcards and Mapping Skills and even Francais! We have an established routine in our classroom and all students have put forth tremendous effort as they work diligently to complete their work. They have a large amount of work to ‘show off’ in their PRIDE FOLDERS!
It is now time to turn our attention to the Social and Employment Skills area of our program. Before Spring Break, we began what we call Social Circles. It has become a Crowd Pleaser in our class. Students cheer aloud when they see it on our daily calendar. Truth be told, I believe it was Mr. Neufeld and Mr. Stroh who started that. Everybody LOVES Social Circles. Even Mr. Hayes was prompted and then happily joined in one day! We have several envelopes of various different categories, including vacation, friends, family, relationships and sports. Each envelope is filled with questions. Students take turns choosing an envelope category, picking a question and sharing their answers. We have certainly learned more about one another. It’s a fabulous reason to gather together, enjoy some treats and improve our social and listening skills!
We introduced Breakfast Club these past few weeks. Once a week, students plan, shop and then prepare breakfast. We have enjoyed yogurt and granola, bagels and fruit and this week, we made cinnamon French toast with strawberries! All kinds of skills are being honed, including nutrition, food preparation, table etiquette and manners and the importance of BREAKFAST!
Finally, we began what will be a long but critical journey of self discovery and future planning with Make a Future and Getting to Know Yourself booklets. There is a vast array of learning outcomes with both these booklets which cover required skills that will help direct a path of future employment for all our students.
We STRIVE to cover All BASES in B.A.S.E.S at Sullivan!
Upcoming Events:
*MAGNIFICENT ME!
*YOGA and FITNESS
*LUNCHEON and BAKING in APRIL!
Shiv and Ellen capture the FUN and the HAPPINESS that we Share in our BASES classroom! RECYCLING!
We BUZZ and then BUZZ some more!Written by: Sue Fuller
