Happy Birthday Tradarius!

Since Tradarius' birthday was the same day as our trip to Merryvelle Assisted Living and Mandarian Palace Chinese Restaurant, we celebrated his birthday there!

Tradarius recieved a special gift from Eric. He recieved a home-made card, made especially by Eric, that had $1.00 (in quarters) taped to it! The purpose of the quarters was to repay Tradarius for a bottled Sprite! Eric "accidently" drunk Tradarius' Sprite last year!! This was such a cute, thoughtful gift!

Tradarius recieved a basketball shaped piggy bank from his friends in Ms. Malcom's class. It even had money in it!!! Mr. John, Ms. Stowe's husband, retired some of his special drumsticks and gave them to Tradarius for his birthday. Mr. John is an awesome drum player. He has played in several bands as well as in all of our Christmas performances. The drumsticks were signed by Mr. John himself!
Mr. John also stopped by the restaurant to wish Tradarius a happy birthday!

Happy 12th birthday Tradarius!! We enjoyed spending this very special time with you!

Mandarian Palace Chinese Restaurant

After most trips to Merryvelle Assisted Living, we leave it up to the students to choose where we will go to eat lunch. Since we had just recently finished learning about the Chinese New Year, it was decided that we would eat lunch at a local Chinese Restaurant. So, we loaded our big yellow bus and headed to the Mandarian Palace Chinese Restaurant.

Of course, we had to get the buffet!! Lexi was so happy to see that the buffet had french fries and macaroni & cheese (her favorite).

Tyrisha just enjoyed visitng the buffet!

I had to share this picture of Izaiah. I thought that it was too cute!! This was his response when I asked him if he was full!

We really had a good time at the Chinese Restaurant! Mandarian Palace, with it's buffet full of every kind of food, was definately a class favorite. I'm sure that they had to refill the entire buffet after we left!! We ate so much!

Valentine's at Merryvelle Assisted Living

On January 29th we visited Merryvelle Assited Living to pass out early Valentine's cards.

We try to visit Merryvelle once a month to pass out small crafts or trinkets to the residents there! Below, Tradarius leaves a Valentine's card on the door of one of the residents. Tradarius takes great pride in this small act of kindness!

Izaiah, Lexi, and Ms. Stowe pass out Valentine's cards to other residents!

Eric is just as content sitting in the comfortable chairs that are located in the sitting areas of each pod. I think he has tested EVERY couch/ chair in the building! :-)

After passing out Valentine's cards to all of the residents, we took time to visit with Granddaddy (Ms. Malcom's grandfather) and his friend, Ms. Nell. They were very happy to see us!

Lexi took out time to take Granddaddy for a "stroll". He loves spending time with all of our students and would let them push him around for hours!

Our other friends at Merryvelle, Grandpa Joe and Ms. Poole, also love our monthly visits! Grandpa Joe loves for us to come into his room and listen to music on his computer. We sing along. Ms. Poole is always the first to see us enter the front door. She hugs every single student as if they were her own grandchildren!

Our trips to Merryvelle are great experiences for everyone involved. It is a great way for our students to give back to the community and their visits are greatly appreciated by the residents there!

Friends from Newton High School!

Last month, in January, we had a great visit from members of the Newton High School Key Club. They came into our classroom and performed a play, complete with awesome animal puppets, about how to protect our brains. The play mainly focused on the importance of wearing seat belts and helmets!

Izaiah absolutely LOVED the giraffe puppet! I didn't think that he was going to let them leave when the play was over!!

We wanted to send a big THANK YOU to our new friends from Newton High School! We loved your visit and look forward to seeing you again real soon!