We're baaaaaaaaack!

Spring has sprung, and we are back at school for the final stretch! We've had a surprisingly good morning today; everyone seemed to be easing back into our routine without any eventful behavior knock wood for the rest of the day!. We started our morning off by answering some emails, including one from our new pen pal in Wyoming. We also worked on the calendar that we distribute to staff and parents to let them know what's going on in our world each month. 

 Our monthly calendar provides my class with a fun opportunity to apply the calendar and time telling skills that we practice every day during our morning meeting. We identify upcoming community-based instruction trips, cooking activities, holidays and special events. The kids find the different dates/days of the week, and they are responsible for finding pictures to correspond with each activity. 

This calendar activity helps our group apply knowledge of our classroom schedule and present/future activities. It is also a nice conversation starter for parents to use at home when chatting with their child about his or her school activities.

The best part of the calendar activity is passing it out to our school staff. Over the past few years, staff members have come to expect a monthly calendar from our class. I'm proud to say that this year, I see our calendars on the office walls of each of our administrators and administrative assistants. It's exciting for me! my kids to see whenever they're up in the office. It lends to a great sense of community for my group, and the kids love taking turns sharing their hard work! 

I have to mention too that distributing our calendars addresses much more than our ongoing PR campaign just passing out papers. It is a chance for our kids to generalize the communication skills they learn during speech therapy in the classroom. It's also a great opportunity for adults in our building to get to know our kids and learn communication strategies they can use with other kids/adults with disabilities. And, it's just a plain old good time for everyone involved!