Mar./Apr. 2019

For the last two months our class has been focused on staying warm! Unfortunately, the weather has community programming on ice for the time being. Inside we have been hard at work in the kitchen, making some delicious food from different cultures. In December we put together a Hanukkah feast fit with matzo ball soup, latkes and braiding Challah bread. We made an Indian meal of daal using the Instant Pot and grilled our own Naan bread. Last week we made our own tortillas for quesadillas. Working with bread is a great sensory and motor activity for the students, as it provides opportunities for mixing, kneading, rolling into balls, and smashing things flat. This month’s cold spell has inhibited us from being outside, allowing cabin fever to set in and prompting us all to practice some self-regulation skills. Next time you read a newsletter, let’s hope we’ve crept over 0 Celsius!

Dec. 2018

This was a great few months in the STA classroom. Students have been getting out of the building, walking to Safeway to go shopping and to the mall for a snack and a walk around. We have been cooking a variety of different things in the kitchen from naan bread to banana trifle to latkes and matzo ball soup to recognize the Hanukkah holiday this week. Students have been trying their hands at various vocational tasks such as alphabetizing books in the Learning Commons, emptying the recycling bins and cleaning up around the classroom. For Halloween we made spooky sensory bins that felt like eyeballs, brains and other gross body parts. After the winter break we plan to further explore our community with trips to the local library on the bus and improve our independence by attempting to master more vocational tasks.