Mrs. Joy's Fabulous Third Graders: January 2015

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Friday, January 23, 2015

Ability Awareness Day

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Mr. Jim Schibig, a retired principal, spoke with us today about people's different abilities. He told the kids, "Nobody is good at everything, but everybody is good at something!" He also told the kids to respect everyone, and appreciate the differences!

Maura Donahue works at a program called TASK - Team Activities for Kids. This program takes sports and activities that kids play ever day, and helps kids with special needs play them too. Through sports, children with special needs are able to build self-esteem, develop teamwork skills, as well social skills. Miss Maura explained to the kids that we put people first - meaning we say, "Sue has Autism," not "Sue is Autistic" because they are ALWAYS people first!!!

Dr. Bradley, an Orthopedic, talked with us today about how he works with amputees and people with deformed bones and arms/legs. He brought in some prosthetics for the kids to try on. He also showed us his "robot" leg!

Molly Hunter, from PS Kids, is an occupational therapist who talked with us about she helps kids with writing, speech, calming down techniques, paying attention techniques, as well as the different kids she works with.

Michael demonstrated using a "talker" to communicate with Miss Molly because he couldn't talk.

This is a weighted blanket that is used as a calming technique.

This is a weighted vest that is also used for calming.

The kids had to read the color the word is written in, not the words. This showed them how it is for kids who have a learning disability - they might just need extra practice to get it!

This is another example of how some kids see words when they try to read.

100th Day of School

Mrs. Joy and Miss Hilmes, as well as the other third grade teachers were out "sick"!!! The Pfeffer sisters came to sub today! It's sooo exciting because today is the 100th Day of School, and it's the Pfeffer sisters 100th Birthday!!!! Check out the pics below from our 100th Day celebration - pancakes and 101 Dalmations!!!