Christmas is the Time for Giving!

As our gift to those people at our school that are so good to our class all year, we decided to sign, seal, and deliver holiday cards to all of them! This project served the dual purpose of teaching the vocational/ job skills that are required to send cards and letters!

First, every student was required to sign their name to over 40 holiday cards! There are a lot of people at our school that are good to our class all year so it was very good practice!

Then, each student was required to stuff the cards into the envelopes!

Next, we had to lick and seal every envelope! This was a very interesting task! Some of our students had obviously never done this before! But, before long, they were professionals!! :-)

Lastly, we delivered our holiday cards to all of the people that we made them for! These cards were definately made (and sealed) with love!!

Our New Therapy Dog: Mona

We have a new therapy dog in addition to Bear and Sugar. Her name is Mona and she is a Welsh Corgi mix! We thoroughly enjoyed Mona's company in our classroom last week.

Below, Mona visits with Tyrisha during Language Arts!

Mona was so sweet and gentle. She even came equiped with a backpack that had a book in it!! Can you guess what book?? It was a book about Clifford, the big red dog!

Tradarius has come a long way in his love for dogs! Before this program, he would not come close to a dog. Now, he loves when our therapy dogs visit. He draws pictures of dogs as "extra homework" (that he assigns himself ) :-) and checks out a book about dogs from the library every week! In addition to the benefit of unconditional love by the dogs, we are also learning about dog (pet) care and safety.

I cannot stress how awesome this program has been for our class and for the dogs as well. It is hard to believe that Mona was in the pound/ animal shelter just six weeks ago. I guess this has worked out in everyone's favor! We look forward to our next visit with Mona!

The Holiday Season is Right Around the Corner!

In preparation for the upcoming holiday season, we made various ornaments that would be given to our parents for Christmas! Ms. Ford (the most crafty one in the group) came up with all of the ideas and organized all of the supplies so that we could make our ornaments!

Below, Ms. Ford is instructing the class on how to make our "elf" ornaments! In addition to the fun of making the ornaments, each student also learned how to follow instructions, work together, and show patience!

Tyrisha and Ms. Malcom pose with the "elf" ornaments that they made!

After the ornaments were made, the class posed for a picture with their creations! Every ornament that we made for our parents was a lot of fun to make. Thanks a lot Ms. Ford!