It's been a wonderful and busy two weeks! We had an incredible turn out of blue shirts for the BLUE OUT. The school was filled with the shirts promoting autism awareness. I know I for one was filled with a sense of pride. One of our students was asked to help during community time by explaining what it was like to have autism. It was a nice speech and again a huge source of pride for Lakewood.
If you pay a dollar on the last two Fridays of this month, students can wear their Autism Awareness shirts and the money will be collected to buy Autism Awareness books for the library.
Last Thursday, we had a performance from the 4th graders. They did such a nice job! The kids in the audience enjoyed it. They were dancing and clapping along. The second graders also went on a field trip to Milford High School for a play performance of Frog and Toad! Very fun.
For groups we reviewed after break some of the social skill concepts we have covered. We did a word search and talked about some of what the terms mean. Last week and this week I assessed where each child is knowing their personal information. K-1 was asked to give their first and last name as well as their address and at least one trusted phone number for a parent. While many had this information memorized, some did not. Please work on this information for your child. In case of an emergency, they may also need to know your first names as well. We practiced writing full names, addresses, and a phone number in their new social notebooks we started. By the end of the year, you will have this to review this summer and review the vocab. The second graders were asked to name their middle names as well and we talked about who we share that information with and why you'd need it. All kids read the book, "Where I Live", which has a scenario about children getting lost in a zoo. The kids are asked to give their personal info to find their parents again (cartoon/fictional book). We started the Circles program and began talking about how we are the beginning, the purple circle. We are the keeper of our own personal information and decide who to trust and share it with. These circles cover not only who to trust and with what but also levels of affection and touch. We feel it is so important for our kids to NOT be taken advantage of that we cover it every single year. And, there is new information out from Michelle Garcia Winner (the writer of Think Social! curriculum) saying the the learning of social skills may be slow but is deeper. For more information, she has a blog, email newsletter and facebook page to follow. She wrote the book we read, "Social Detective". Check her out! The Circles Program is not her work, but does go hand in hand with learning things factually, black and white first, before learning the trickier nuances of social interactions.
Whitney Rockafellow, joined us this week as the originally planned long term sub for Mrs. Reece. Whitney will help us finish up our year. She was recently a student teacher in the Muir CI program so she is familiar with our district and students with special needs.
Thanks to all the Dads who showed up for Donuts with Dads! It was a great turn out! Otherwise, should be a typical week! :)
Have a great rest of your weekend!
If you pay a dollar on the last two Fridays of this month, students can wear their Autism Awareness shirts and the money will be collected to buy Autism Awareness books for the library.
Last Thursday, we had a performance from the 4th graders. They did such a nice job! The kids in the audience enjoyed it. They were dancing and clapping along. The second graders also went on a field trip to Milford High School for a play performance of Frog and Toad! Very fun.
For groups we reviewed after break some of the social skill concepts we have covered. We did a word search and talked about some of what the terms mean. Last week and this week I assessed where each child is knowing their personal information. K-1 was asked to give their first and last name as well as their address and at least one trusted phone number for a parent. While many had this information memorized, some did not. Please work on this information for your child. In case of an emergency, they may also need to know your first names as well. We practiced writing full names, addresses, and a phone number in their new social notebooks we started. By the end of the year, you will have this to review this summer and review the vocab. The second graders were asked to name their middle names as well and we talked about who we share that information with and why you'd need it. All kids read the book, "Where I Live", which has a scenario about children getting lost in a zoo. The kids are asked to give their personal info to find their parents again (cartoon/fictional book). We started the Circles program and began talking about how we are the beginning, the purple circle. We are the keeper of our own personal information and decide who to trust and share it with. These circles cover not only who to trust and with what but also levels of affection and touch. We feel it is so important for our kids to NOT be taken advantage of that we cover it every single year. And, there is new information out from Michelle Garcia Winner (the writer of Think Social! curriculum) saying the the learning of social skills may be slow but is deeper. For more information, she has a blog, email newsletter and facebook page to follow. She wrote the book we read, "Social Detective". Check her out! The Circles Program is not her work, but does go hand in hand with learning things factually, black and white first, before learning the trickier nuances of social interactions.
Whitney Rockafellow, joined us this week as the originally planned long term sub for Mrs. Reece. Whitney will help us finish up our year. She was recently a student teacher in the Muir CI program so she is familiar with our district and students with special needs.
Thanks to all the Dads who showed up for Donuts with Dads! It was a great turn out! Otherwise, should be a typical week! :)
Have a great rest of your weekend!