Pizza!

We had our end of the year pizza party today.  We invited parents, grandparents, siblings, etc. to join us for a pizza lunch.  We had quite a crowd in our lunch room.  It was fun to see the kids with their families.  Everyone was so well behaved and really enjoyed the pizza.

End of the Year

Alas we are just about at the end of another school year.  This will be my last at my current school.  In September, I will be at another school in the same school district.  I will also still be in the same program, but a lot closer to home (a 15 minute commute rather than 45 minutes to an hour each way).  I  have been in my current position for just over 6 years.  We have come a long way with the kids and the other staff at the school.  When I started, the other kids and some of the staff would cringe when the saw us coming - now they stand up proud and say HI.  When I started here we only attended some assemblies and only had bit parts - now we attend all of them and we also take our turn to share in the hosting.  This past year we went on two whole school field trips - to a sporting event and to a musical play.  It's been fun becoming more and more a part of the whole school community rather than just the strange kids at the end of the hall.  I look forward to working with a new group of kids and staff at my new school across town.

POOP!

It's been an interesting week for poop in our classroom.  Yesterday we cleared out the local pool.  One of my students who has only had 3 bowel movements at school in almost 5 years.  Yesterday he had one in the pool.  Fortunately for us, we were only about 10 minutes from getting out.  The pool staff, however, still had to close the pool and give it a good cleaning.  All of the students handled the rather abrupt and very much unexpected transition quite smoothly.  We had to give extra directions, but they went along with very little fuss.  Yeah!!!
This year I have only one student in pullups.  Today he had a BM in the toilet.  We give out great cheers for him and he beamed.  This is the first one he's had at school (except for one when his mother popped in).  He has also started peeing in the toilet.  At the beginning of the year, we did not think he would get even this far.
Hopefully the poop will all be in the toilet for the rest of the school year!

Following Directions mid-tantrum

One of my students became very upset today because the headphones on the computer weren't working properly (the volume had been turned down).  He only just decided yesterday that they were OK to use.  When I tried to fix them (by wearing them and then adjusting the volume) he started crying and hitting his head.  Despite all of the noise and apparent upset, he was still able to follow verbal directions.  I was able to get him to follow me to a quiet space, take a tissue, put the tissue in the garbage can and then return to the classroom (though it didn't all happen that fast).  It wasn't that long ago that this same student wouldn't even follow these simple directions when he was calm - now he can follow them when he is mad!

Field Trip to the Zoo

We went to the Zoo today.  It was great to see how well so many of them transferred hard earned life skills, play skills and listening skills into a new environment.  After lunch, they all helped to clean up and one went to look for the trash can with no prompting.  In the afternoon, they had a great time playing on the complex play structure at the Zoo.  They had to negotiate the physical intricacies of the structure as well as having to move about with lots of other kids.

Writing and the non-verbal child

One of my students has started to use writing as a primary means of communication.  He is also working on using his voice, but his use of writing is developing much faster.  We first noticed the potential of his  literacy skills a few months ago watching him use the computer.  He was copying words from favorite games from memory.  We now have small whiteboards all around our school spaces so that he can make requests.  Today he started to show his understanding in other ways by drawing pictures of animals and then labelling them.  Until today he had shown us no particular understanding or interest in animals.

Paragraphs

One student started writing paragraphs this past month.  We had been working with pencil and paper and it was so hard for him because his fine motor skills aren't so strong.  He would barely get a single sentence written and it was barely legible.  Once we started having him type them on his iPad, he started to really take off.  He still tries to drop off the structural words when he types (even though he verbalizes them), but with support he types full sentences - three at a time that connect based on picture cards.  I then type out some extra sentences for him on the same theme to help him expand his writing beyond description.  It's been fun watching this new communication skill.