Make a Smilebox photobook

September 21, 2009

Great News!!! The camera has been returned thanks to Mr. Murphy, one of our principals. The young man that took the camera out of my office made a confession and returned it. While I am still a bit shocked that someone would stoop so low as to steal from this type of class, I guess nothing surprises me anymore.

We will be taking pictures of classroom activities this week and hope to have some great items to upload.

Week of September 14, 2009

This is a difficult post for me to make. I actually look forward to my Sunday evening posting. I reflect on the fun things that the class has done and try to plan fun learning opportunities for the upcoming week. I love editing the pictures and reliving the excitement of my students. Things are very different tonight. There are no pictures to upload as my personal camera was taken out of my office and I cannot view or share the pictures with you.
Needless to say, the pictures on the memory card are priceless. I have pictures of your children as well as my child's sixteenth birthday memories. We had such a fun visit on
Wednesday to the dental office of Dr. Evans. His staff was just awesome with the students. If anyone had fears of the dental office they no longer do. We took so many great pictures to share with you and now that cannot be done. Our class was selected to be filmed as a commercial for the Excellence in Education Grant. We even took pictures of the photographer that came to make the video of us . It will be awhile before I can replace the camera. As soon as I can purchase another camera we will be up and running again. I only wish I could replace the priceless pictures.

Week of September 7, 2009

This was a busy week in the CBC. Tuesday morning we began our day making and serving breakfast. This was an awesome chance to work with some very functional reading words. The class loved flashing cards as they asked for various food items. We celebrated Sara's birthday with cupcakes and singing in the afternoon. We were able to do a lesson on hygiene and the importance of flossing. This was much needed since everyone had chocolate smiles after the cupcakes! The cupcakes offered a big change from our study on nutrition and healthy foods:) Art focused on the concept of healthy foods as we got a chance to paint with various vegetables. I must admit the fun of it all was watching the students as they shucked corn to paint with! Later in the week we worked with the vocation work boxes and began timing the tasks. During this time students practice working at speed on task and staying focused. We did a group reading lesson this week to commemorate the 9-11 events. Math wise we have begun working within our groups on fractions. The class is having fun learning how we can divide items to form fractions. Of course the highlight of the week was Thursday when we got to go to Horn Lake to compete in Special Olympics. Everyone did well in their events and had a blast. We are proud of all of the athletes, and especially Keeshun. We knew Keeshun was fast but wow! He placed second out of the entire participants for soccer dribble! Way to go!!!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We have an out based learning event scheduled for Wednesday of next week. The class has been invited to the office of Dr. Evans to view a dental office and go over the various instruments used. This outing will conclude the dental part of our hygiene unit.

The week of August 31st

This was a fun week here in the Community Based Class. We are working hard in our hygiene unit. We have focused on dental care. Thanks to all of the parents that reinforced what we do here at school by going over our lesson with your young adult and sending in the date of their next dental appointment. We practiced correct brushing using the circle motion with those that have sent in a toothbrush to keep here at school. Mrs. Simmons shared with us that Wal-mart has a neat toothbrush called the "Firefly" that lights up to remind a student to keep brushing. These are so neat and very inexpensive. In Daily Living we are working on tying shoes with those that need to master that skill. We are also working on learning the proper way to vacuum a room. (Put these skills to use and let you young adult help you with the house work.) Science was fun this week as we did a lab experiment and learned about molecules and diffusion. The class loved watching the red food coloring (molecules) move thru hot water and then thru cold water. The school held class officer elections this week. We decided to explain the election process and then have our own class ballot and vote casting within our community. We are proud to announce that Sara Briggs has been elected to the office of Class President. After our social skills lessons on self awareness, each of the students were able to get up before the class and state something that they can do successfully that would make them worthy of the title class President. Sara won on the ticket of organized and trying her hardest. She stated that she wants us to do more Math and less Reading this year. (Remember the President represents the people not the IEP objectives. HA HA

Here is a neat website that we discovered this week in class. (Computer is such a fun time of our day.) www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/gamesforkids.htm

Reminder: Special Olympics is Thursday. Everyone is very excited about getting to go to this event.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The End of the Animal Care Unit

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hi!!!

This week we were fortunate enough to begin computer class. Everyone was very excited about going to D-Hall to learn computer skills. Each student has been assigned a typing skills website and a reading website to visit while we are in the lab.

This week's social skills classes have focused on proper introduction procedures. The students enjoyed playing a game where they got to vote whether a mock introduction was polite or rude. The behavioralist, Mrs. Lovitt, was present for one of these sessions and was very impressed.

Also, this week we began studying current events. We discussed everything from newspaper layout to an extensive vocabulary enrichment. (Cash for Clunkers, Michael Jackson, Ted Kennedy, and current health trends were just a few we discussed.)

The highlight of the week was the conclusion of our animal care unit. In Art, we made turtles and practiced various folding techniques. The students loved displaying their turtles in the hall. (By the way, our class pets, Ninja and Yertle, are doing just fine:) We had a special visitor this week, as well. Marshall my daughter's pet lab came to visit the class on Friday. We practiced proper introductions to guests and Marshall got to show off his amazing tricks. Each student also had a chance to get up before the group and give a brief talk about their pet. Probably the most exciting thing for each student was when they got a chance to give Marshall a treat.

This week we also began our spelling units. At this point, the students are all in separate spelling units. As you can imagine, testing took quite some time.

Remember that Special Olympics is September 10, which is a week from Thursday. If you have not returned your student's permission slip, please do so!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We are off to another exciting school year at OBHS. Our two new students: Dylan and Sara have settled in nicely and are very happy with our group. This week we have been learning school and classroom rules. Students are learning that when you bring Communication Folder, Calendar, and signed papers you may be the spot check person and get a treat. This week we have also done some testing to help in the formulation of reading and math groups. We began a basic Health Unit on Animals. Friday, August 14, we were honored to have Marco, one of the Drug Dogs come to our class. We learned that we have dogs as pets, but that there are also working dogs. The students were amazed at how talented Marco was. While studying the pet unit, class members were excited about our new class pets, Ninja and Yertle (2 red-eared slider turtles). We are also excited about the upcoming event of Special Olympics. This event will take place September 10th. Be on the lookout for release forms to be sent home in the near future. Students are excited about our token economy. They are "paid" for returning signed folders and completing any assignments. At the end of the week, the students are allowed to go to our class store and purchase items with the money they have earned. You can help your young adult earn money by signing and returning their folder daily.