With our half day on Friday, we decided to make it a fun "sensory friendly" party day. The kids all started their day as usual and around 9:30 came in for a visit from Santa! One by one each child had the option to stand next to or sit with Santa. It was important to me to give them the option of the level of touch they were comfortable with not only from a sensory standpoint, but also because we are constantly training our kids to comply, but this can lead to a child being used to being told what to do and how to behave so much so that they can be taken advantage of. As you are talking about appropriate and inappropriate touch please make sure you are giving your child the option NOT to touch, hug, kiss. It should be up to them so they are learning they are in control of their bodies. Mom and dad are different. We know you want to teach how to hug and how to give affection. With other adults we should teach, model, and expect that we all ask permission to touch, hug, or give kisses. This will be covered again in our circles program content in the future. Back to Santa, he said he had a wonderful time and "loved every minute". The kids received a present from him at the end and we took some pictures we will post. After the visit Mrs. Buehner ran the craft station, a cup of cocoa, and Mrs. Swagman ran our treat station. Snowmen sugar cookies with super fun blue frosting was provided by Mrs. Kydd. They were a hit and decorating was fun to watch. In sensory, the kids were able to choose activities they wanted to do or needed to do to release some excitement! After about an hour we wrapped it up and watched "Ice Age". Some of the kids chose to go back to class, but many stayed to hang out as a group. After a little bit of the movie we had lunch either in their classes or in our room and then we packed up and went home. Teachers stayed to work on report cards. Thank you again to our volunteers who helped out!
The term officially ended on Dec. 2 but there were some assessments we gave the kids to collect current data on skills. The district math test has been or will be given to all students this month. We have also been progress monitoring their reading by conferring and giving running record assessments to monitor fluency, accuracy, and comprehenion. Since school has been called off tomorrow, I hope you all had a nice weekend and stayed safe if you had to travel today (tomorrow too).