This publication is for
families, districts and other community agencies to share in the joy and
education of NYSSB students.
March & April 2007
Our mission, through day
and integrated residential programming in a safe and nurturing environment, is
to provide a foundation of learning to enable each student to become a
contributing member in a diverse society, to achieve their highest level of
independence and to afford them the ability to live in a least restrictive
environment.
We will do this by
providing excellence in education and in residential programming, and by
promoting a learning environment that puts achievement and independence within
the reach of each student.
Goal #1: Students
receiving special education services will meet high educational standards.
Goal #2: Students with
disabilities will integrate with their non-disabled peers and community members
throughout their education experience.
Goal #3: Students with
disabilities will transition into living and working in as integrated a
community setting as possible.
Goal #4: NYSSB will
demonstrate good stewardship of its human, fiscal and physical resources.
Goal #5: All services for
which NYSSB is responsible will meet high standards and continuously improve.
SUPERINTENDENT’S
CORNER
By James Knowles
The most important function of education at any level is to develop the
personality of the individual and the significance of his/her life to
himself/herself and others. This is the
basic architecture of life; the rest is ornamentation and decoration of the
structure.
~Grayson Kirk
It should come as no surprise that, if we think life is for learning, we
would view the process of life itself as a classroom.
Life’s lessons come in all
shapes and sizes. Just as in school, the
most important lessons sometimes come in non-formal learning situations. For a brief moment, bring your minds back to
the first time you ever discovered something on your own. Perhaps it was when you were very young and
entailed something as simple as discovering that an object could float in
water. Perhaps it was later in life when you struggled with the multiplication
tables until that magic moment when you suddenly discovered the reason behind
it, and it all came clear. Whatever the
occasion was for you, try to think back to that time and try to remember what
you felt.
Whatever it was, there was a joy and exhilaration in that discovery. Your mind rejoiced in its new knowledge, and
something that had been incomprehensible suddenly became clear. It was the joy of learning, and, for that
moment, it brightened your life.
Brightening ones life is a power each of us has each day as we interact
with our families and our friends. Through
our ideas and insights we are able to open minds to new avenues that will lead
others to discover new knowledge and understanding. We at the NYSSB have the opportunity to open
our student’s minds. It is an
opportunity to cherish.
It has been said that man, unique among the animals, has the ability to
think. Of all the powers with which we
have been endowed, surely this is the greatest. I implore all of us to make ourselves and
others think. For if we are able to
think, who knows what knowledge we all may gain.
From Assistive Technology
By Michelle Ruble
Want to learn Braille? Try these suggested Resources:
Hadley School for the Blind http://www.hadley-school.org/Web_Site/2_a_course_catalog.asp. Lessons are completed online at your
leisure free of charge. You can e-mail your
assignments to an instructor who has been assigned to you. Register online, download the Perky Duck
software (which sets up Braille font on your computer), then complete the
lessons using your keyboard.
The new Programmed Instruction in Braille
by Ashcroft, Sanford, & Koenig (2001), is a textbook approach to learning
Braille with many practice exercises and self-tests. The answer key is provided to self-check your
work. To order a book, go to Scalar
Publishing at http://www.scalarspublishing.com/
BRL: Braille through Remote Learning http://www.brl.org/. Instruction is offered online free of charge
to be completed at your own pace.
Instructor support is not available.
Seedlings Braille Books for Children. Children who are blind and visually impaired
will receive one free book per year by registering at the Seedling’s website. The project is in loving memory of Anna
Kirstina Bonde, the daughter of Seedlings Director's. Hundreds of Braille books are being made in
her name. It is a way to share Anna's
joy of reading and loving spirit with children around the world. To learn more about receiving Braille books
for your child go to: http://www.seedlings.org/bkangel.php
The PROM is on!!!!!
Come join us for this year’s prom. It is going to be a 50’s Sock Hop Event on Monday, June 4. Poodle skirts, saddle shoes and greased hair
are not needed, but are encouraged. We
will have a DJ, snacks and dancing from 6:30PM to 8:30PM. We hope to have it in our newly air conditioned
gym, but in the event that our gym is not finished it will be in the Recreation
Room in Lower Knight Hall instead (still air conditioned though)! So please keep your fingers crossed and mark
the day on your calendar. We hope to see
you all there!
What’s
Happening in the Classrooms?
Unit 1
Jamie Hermance, Kathy Babcock,
Tricia Severino
March was a month filled with Mad
Science, Snowman Soup, Easter Bunnies and Birthday Parties! We did many strange and educational science
experiments during the month of March. We learned about the water cycle and
where snow comes from, through cotton balls and a watering can. We also learned that the texture of a star
fish can be compared with the texture of bird seed. By gluing bird seed onto a star fish template,
students learned about the size, texture and shape of a star fish. We enjoyed getting down and dirty with no bake
cookies! We stirred the batter with our
hands, discussed how it felt and why we didn’t have to bake the cookies. There
isn’t anything more fun than science that is both messy and educational! Every other week, we travel to a classroom at John Kennedy
School in Batavia so the students can become friends,
learn how to interact and get out into the community. During one of our visits we made Snowman Soup
as a farewell to winter. This recipe
combines hot chocolate, Hershey Kisses, marshmallows and Andes
mints. All of this gets put into a cup,
stirred and enjoyed. All of the students
enjoyed making the Snowman Soup and enjoyed drinking it even more!
Easter
is quickly on its way and to welcome it, we made many art projects, cooked some
spring time recipes and sang many songs! We had fun with a mini Easter egg hunt and
making Easter baskets. March also
brought a few birthdays. We celebrated
Dr. Seuss’s birthday with books and books on tape. We talked about rhyming and some of our favorite
Dr. Seuss books. March was also the poet
Robert Frost’s birthday. We celebrated
this with poetry readings and a walk outside, since many of Frost’s poems are
about nature and being outside. March
was a very busy month for Unit 1, but also a very educational and fun month as
well!
In April, Unit 1 welcomed the
spring season with: cooking, art, math, and many other things. We discussed how plants will be starting to
grow and many of those plants are things we eat. We discussed how our fruits and vegetables
come from plants and decided to make salsa because we make it with many fresh
vegetables, and the letter of the month was “s”. The students enjoyed preparing the salsa and
tasting its many ingredients.
Leonardo Da Vinci was born in
April and to commemorate his birth, we did a variety of tactile art projects
like “Graffiti Art”, “Field of Flowers” and “Arbor Day Trees”. The students enjoyed learning about the life
of Da Vinci and also enjoyed his many works of art. “Graffiti Art” was a fun project because
students painted with glue on black paper and then sprinkled sand on the glue. All of the beautiful and bright colors looked
especially bold on the black paper.
“Field of Flowers” was a student favorite. Students crumbled up tissue paper and glued it
on construction paper to look like 3D flowers. There was so much creativity in this project! When we took our field trip to the John Kennedy
School, we completed
“Arbor Day Trees” with the class that we visited. We learned about Arbor Day and then made
either fruit or pine trees. We did this
with crayons, pom poms, cotton balls, and many other tactile objects.
During the month of April, many
flowers have sprouted on the lawn of NYSSB. The students went outside and explored the
daffodils and hyacinths. We counted how
many flowers there were, what color they were, what they smelled like, and why
they are important to us. We hope May
will bring us beautiful weather so that we may go outside and further explore
our environment!
Unit 2
Anne Bird, Diane Bassett, Mary
Beth Demmer, Grace West
March has been a super
month in Unit 2! Our letter of the month
was “S” and our first week’s word was “snow”.
That week happened to be one of our coldest. As it was too cold to go out in the snow, we
brought the snow inside! We had buckets
of snow, it was a great sensory experience.
We put on mittens and made snowballs (and threw some!) and worked a
science lesson in with the effects of warm air on snow. All too soon, we were left with buckets of
water!
We also practiced our “s” sounds
during themes of St. Patrick’s Day and Spring.
We discussed the faraway country of Ireland and the things that make it
unique – we made our own Irish names and practiced Irish accents, made some
pictures to commemorate the day, and played a game of “Pass the
Leprechaun”. Everyone was happy to
celebrate the first day of Spring. We
talked about the many changes that occur in this season. We are currently at work on making our own
books about the season of Spring. Finally,
we celebrated 50 years of “The Cat in the Hat” by Dr. Seuss. We read several of his stories and made our
own “Cat”-in-the-Hat pictures. It was a
great opportunity to talk about rhyming words.
Happy Spring!
April was a very short
month with Spring Break! We continued
with our Spring theme by talking about spring weather. We used the wind as our theme within various
curriculum areas. During ELA we worked
on making books with rhyming words to go along with the story “The Wind
Blew”. For Math, we practiced blowing
like the wind and counted how many seconds we could blow without stopping. For Science, we used a fan to make some wind
and tested various items to determine what would blow in the wind (heavy vs. light). We also talked about rain and the rain cycle.
We used a spray bottle to make it “rain”
in the classroom. We tried out an
umbrella to see how it could keep us dry when we go outside in the rain. To celebrate “Earth Day” we took a walk
outside and planted some seeds. We also
looked for trash to pick up. Everyone
made a picture of our planet Earth and we thought of ways that we could be
“earth’s friend” – putting litter in the trash, recycling and just being a good
friend to others to make our Earth a happier place to live!
Unit 3
In March, the letter "S" has kept
us busy. "Soup", “star"
and "snow" are a few of the words we talked about. The kids worked hard on craft projects,
listened to stories, participated in gross motor activities and with the nice
weather beginning we have been able to take a couple outdoor walks to watch
Spring arrive. We have also begun
preparations for our big event we have scheduled for April 18th. We are working with the kids and staff in Unit
1 to make it a huge success. There will
be more details in next month’s newsletter.
It was a sad ending to our month. One of our classmates, Michael, will be
leaving to go to a new group home in his home school district. We had a farewell gathering for all the
school/dorm to stop by and wish Mike well on his new adventure. The kids enjoyed cake and punch and were able
to sign a big poster that Mike can take with him. We share in our well wishes to another friend
Christopher that was also part of this celebration. Both of these guys have been at this school
for a long time and many have had the pleasure to work with them. Michael and Christopher are special young men
that will be sadly missed, but we wish them all the very best as they head out
on their new journey.
April was the shortest month ever!! We hope that everyone enjoyed time with family
and friends during the first two weeks off for Spring Break. Our unit was paired up with our friends in
Unit 1 with the responsibility of planning the Big Event. The letter of the month has been "S"
and we had a wonderful presentation from the Rochester
Museum and Science Center.
Tim and Calvin came in to talk to us
about the "Sound and Science of Music". They brought in several interesting objects
that created different sounds, vibrations, or wind. The best part was that everything was
hands-on!! A trombone made from PVC
pipes, a drum with a hole in the middle (created a huge puff of air), rub the
rim of a glass filled with varied levels of water, tuning forks, and a speaker
for a stereo made out of a metal tub are just a few of the amazing things our
kids got to experience. These guys made
our afternoon a terrific sensory experience that all could touch, feel, and
actively participate in if they chose to. There was also an opportunity to make a Spring
Shaker craft. We folded a paper plate
and filled it with split peas or rice, stapled around the edges and decorated
with Spring shapes (flowers, animals, etc.) for our own homemade musical
instrument. The kids also got to have
some Spring snacks; Springtime Surprise punch, pretzel sticks and chips with
salsa. We also offered alternatives for
those that needed a softer snack. It was
a great day and a good time was had by all. We're looking forward to what May has in store
for us!!!
Unit 4
Unit 5
In March, we were excited to
experience the start of spring! We like
having the window open and being able to experience the fresh warm air. At the beginning of the month when March came
in like a lion, we made snow flakes. Then
we made stars to go along with the word of the week. We also made a springtime craft, a cute little
bunny cup to hold treats. In social
studies we located other countries that border the USA
on a globe and on the computer we were able to learn about water pollution and Yellowstone National Park.
April was a short month. Last week the word of the week was Sun and we
had a little bit of sun outside and made sunny spring pictures. For History and Literature we have purchased
the “Jamestown’s American Portraits” series and
have started reading Sweet America,
An Immigrant’s Story. We also use
the computer to listen to different web sources that read the information to
the students.
Unit 6
Unit 6 completed the study of the Erie Canal. Our
unit began by reading a Serial Story in the Batavia News Paper over an 8 week
period and ended by participating in a project with students constructing a
model of the locks. In Social Studies,
students have been learning about the Revolutionary War and constructing
timelines. Our own Kayla completed book
1 in her reading series and Justin received a 100 on his Social Studies quiz
from his public school placement. Justin
used modern technology and took the test on line from NYSSB while his fellow
students took the test in class at the public school. He then sent his answers to the public school
teacher.
In Girl Scout News, (Troop 2158) Kayla,
Nicole and Hyelee worked on a baby sitting badge with their troop and also
completed the candy sale. (Troop 2236) Stephanie
and her aunt attended the Girl Scout birthday party in Batavia.
They learned how to Belly Dance and Stephanie received a Henna Tattoo. And finally for March, Justin had two poems published in the Magic
Dragon Magazine, a magazine dedicated to children's art and literature.
In April, students in Unit 6 were all excited
to share their stories about Spring Break.
Unit 6 welcomed a new student, Travis.
Travis is a joy to have in class.
Jamie and Justin are happy now that there are 3 boys and 3 girls in Unit
6. April is poetry month and the
students are busy working on a form of poetry called "Acrostics". Next
month we will share our poems.
Unit 7
JoMarie McMullen, Rachael
Ciociola, Ray Follett
In March, the students in Unit 7 celebrated
the letter "S". They began by
identifying the Braille dots for the letter (dots 2, 3, 4) and the print
letter. The students located the letter
in different words and had to tell if the letter appeared at the beginning,
middle, or end of the word. They also
made an extensive list of "S" words.
This was done after listening to a story about snow.
We incorporated math into the word of the
week "star". The students felt
a star and located all the angles in the star.
They counted the 5 points and measured the distance between the
points. We also made stars and labeled
them with outstanding student performances of the day. We placed the stars on a poster for everyone
to see.
Soup was another word of the week. The students listened to the story
"Stone Soup" and discussed what happened in the story. Afterwards, they decided to make their own
stone soup. We went to the local grocery
store to buy vegetables to make soup.
The students picked out the vegetables they wanted in the soup, they
helped to cut the vegetables and they mixed all the ingredients. This was a nice way to work on cooking and
measuring skills. The soup was
delicious! We also did a combined Social
Studies and Science unit on maple syrup.
The students learned all about maple trees and how maple syrup is
made. They learned how pioneers used
maple syrup and how they learned to process it.
We discussed freezing and evaporation in the process of making maple
syrup. We took a field trip to a maple
tree farm and saw/felt first hand how maple syrup is made. We were able to taste pure maple syrup and
maple products such as cream and mustard.
April was a very short month at school. The students in Unit 7 continued to work on
the letter "S" for language arts.
They located and identified the location of the sound as beginning, middle
or end of the word. They worked on their
spelling words as well. Sequencing was
the activity for math. The students
worked on their daily sequence of activities for each day. They also sequenced items/objects from
largest to smallest and sequenced numbers and patterns.
For Social Studies, we began a unit on the
Revolutionary War. The students learned
who fought in the war, why the war began, and where it took place. They are also learning to locate and identify
the 13 colonies on the textured map. They are doing a nice job with new vocabulary
as well. Science class has been about
plants and seeds. With the new season
Spring being here, we are discussing plants, living things, how plants grow and
why we need them. The students felt
raised line pictures of seeds, roots, stems, leaves and petals. They will also plant seeds, take care of them
and hopefully, feel them grow.
Our community outing was to K-Mart. We went looking for all the "S"
items we could find. The students found
sleepwear, styling items, socks, sweaters, screwdrivers, etc. The most popular was snacks. Each student was allowed to purchase a snack
to eat at the snack bar.
Unit 8
In March, our class went
to lunch at Tully’s to practice proper community living skills such as safe
O&M in the community and ordering healthy and nutritious food in a
restaurant. Everyone learned something
new this day, such as proper conversation voice to be used in the community.
We also studied
proper nutrition. Students learned about
the six nutrients found in foods they eat everyday. Everyone was able to name each of the six
nutrients; carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, protein, fats and water. At the end of the unit, each student was able
to provide an example as to where they would find these essential substances
that help their bodies grow during their adolescent years. The students visited BOCES Cosmetology Class
here in Batavia
earlier this month. Once a month the
students go there for haircut or manicures.
This helps both the classes practice different skills needed for work
and community living and allows both groups socialization time.
The class finished
reading “Bridge to Terabithia” this month and to commemorate this wonderful
book, they were able to see the movie in the theater. Throughout the past few months the class was
able to discover what true friendship is through the two main characters, Jess
and Leslie. After the movie we were able
to compare and contrast the movie with the book. We decided that the movie was a nice
compliment to the book. Everyone enjoyed
this coming of age story.
Prior to our Spring
Break, our class helped prepare a breakfast brunch with Unit 6. It was hopefully a nice end to a long
winter. We all cannot wait for the
wonderful spring weather!!!!
In April, Unit 8
kept busy in the short time we had together.
In science class we created a model that shows different cloud
formations; Cumulus, Sirius, and Stratus; and we explained that fog is a cloud
formation that remains close to the ground.
We also did an experiment that explored the wonders of the water
cycle. Each student was able to create
their own water cycle. It was a great
hands-on-experiment that everyone got so much out of. In science class we have now moved on to studying
the weather. After this long cold winter
we will have a lot to talk about.
We are beginning a
new book, “How to Eat Fried Worms”. This
funny titled story will be a great book that should take us until the end of
the school year to complete. The class
also practiced their cooking skills this month.
The students cooked Chicken Parmesan with Spaghetti. Everyone did a great job with their part on
the cooking assignment. We examined the
differences in measuring cups. Our class
is also very excited to announce that we are growing butterflies. We hope to have them ready for release
sometime in May. We also spent a lot of
time this month working on our social skills as we welcomed our new friend
Amarilis to our classroom.
Unit 9
Dan Dolph, Bryan Bradt, Lana
Wolcott
What a quick month March was. In science, we have been learning about the
many different signs of spring and what each of us looks forward to most about
this time of the year. We explored and
discovered different smells that certain things have, such as; lemons, pine,
mint, etc. In math, we continue to work
with calculators to solve math problems. Some students are working on division facts. To celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day we read a
book and prepared an Irish feast. The
class also enjoyed having David’s mother visit for a day. To end the month we celebrated David’s
birthday by preparing one of his favorite meals! We would like to wish everyone a safe and
enjoyable break!
In April, to help everyone get back into the
swing of things after the long break, we discussed some of our spring break
experiences and activities we did with everyone. We touched base on a lot of things we were
working on prior to break such as; math (+,-, x, /), Braille and Braille
contractions, sentence structure, using descriptive words, and counting
alike/different coins to one dollar.
We finished the short month out by touring a
group workshop that one of our students will be attending next year upon
graduation. The students learned how
important following directions are, the need to use a lot of fine motor skills,
and the ability to focus their attention to a specific task in order to be a
team player and complete a product. After
the tour a thank you letter was Brailled and mailed to our tour guide thanking
her for all the useful information and her time.
Unit 10
March was a good month for Unit 10. The words of the week for the month were:
snow, star and soup. Snow was a
meaningful word because we had a fairly good amount of it in the early part of
March. Star was meaningful for staff
because some of our nights were clear and the stars were visible. For our students in class who participated in
the Alternate Assessment, "star" was meaningful because they had to
learn to identify it as a 3-dimensional object among other 3-D representations
of the "earth", the "moon" and the "sun". "Soup" was a meaningful concept for
everyone in that you have to eat it in order to get the concept. Staff found out that soup lovers around the
world consume more than 10 billion bowls of soup each year, "Mm....Mm...Good!"
Unit 10 had a cooking project for a St.
Patrick's Day meal. We made Shepherd's
Pie, a hearty, baked combination of potatoes, mixed vegetables, ground beef and
cheese. Our students chose the meal and
helped prepare it. As we always say in
Unit 10, "no one left the table hungry". We look forward to Spring Recess and a well
deserved break. See you next month when
we will see what the April showers bring!
April was a short month for Unit 10. We are back to school after a nice spring
break. We attended the "Big
Event" that was put on by Units 1 and 3. Our students attended their presentation in Lower
Knight Hall, put on by the Strong
Museum. It involved the concept of sound. The presenters made sounds on tuning forks,
aluminum rods and big wooden boxes. They allowed the students to participate in
making those same sounds on their equipment. Our students found out that sounds can be
produced by objects that vibrate. We
were all involved in this presentation and it got the attention of everyone! We observed the "Word of the Week"
each of the two weeks we were here in April. The words were "sleep" and "sun".
We watched the movie "Sleeping
Beauty" to get an appreciation of the concept of sleep. The word "Sun" was appropriate for
the week of April 23rd. One day that
week we had bright sun and temperatures approaching 80 degrees. That kind of environment qualifies as tropical
weather in western New York!
Our students had a chance to feel what
real sun feels like. Hopefully, we will
have more weather like this.
We also participated in cooking a classroom
meal. The menu included chicken pot pie
that was made with fresh ingredients. And
of course we made chicken pot pie at the request of this month’s birthday girl,
Angela! Well, that is about all for this
month. We look forward to the next month
of May. Read our news and find out what
things we experienced and learned about.
Unit 11
Unit 11 stayed busy in March. We celebrated
the wearing of the green by making lucky shamrocks, listening to Irish music
and celebrating ALL THINGS IRISH. We're
continuing to improve our cooperative work skills by helping each other with
different jobs. We worked on our ADL
skills during our group lunch (everyone helped prepare the meal) and we helped
each other keep our classroom neat. We
have also been using the computer to listen to stories and increase our
communication skills. Tamel has become quite an artist and enjoys making
different designs and pictures. Most
importantly we are working on our social skills by treating everyone with
respect and making "GOOD CHOICES".
In April, Unit 11 got ready for spring by
talking in Science about the changes in the weather and everyone is looking forward
to putting our winter coats away. We
listed our favorite things to do outside. We remembered the winter storm that damaged so
many trees and read articles in the newspaper about new trees being planted for
Arbor Day. We talked about the
importance of trees and the students made their own family trees and counted
the numbers of leaves they would need to have for all of their family members
to be included. This helped us to
practice our math, social studies and art skills. On April 25, 1928, the first seeing eye dog
was used and we talked about our favorite kind of dog and how they could be
trained to help us do things. Then we named
the kind of animal that helped Paul Revere make his famous ride on April 18,
1775. Do you know what it was?? We also continue to work on our cooperative
work skills, increasing our communication (learning new manual signs &
making sure we don't forget the ones we already know). We played our spatial relations games and used
in, out, over, under and behind.
UPCOMING PROGRAM THEMES:
March & April share the
letter “S” Snow, Star, Soup, Sleep and Sun
May is “T” Telephone, Transportation,
Top and Tree
June
is “U” & “V” Uniform, Umbrella, Van and Vegetables
July is “W” & “X” Wagon,
Whale and Xylophone
August is “Y” & “Z” Yard,
Yes and Zoo
News from the Art Room
By Jacquelyn Rease
In March we learned about Chinese
artwork and the influence of Chinese artwork in some modern day objects. The students learned a little about the
traditions of Chinese New Year and also listened to a traditional
Chinese-American folk tale. They also
learned about the influence ancient Chinese culture had on some of our modern
day dishes. The porcelain of China was our
inspiration to make Chinese Teapots out of clay. The teapots are now on display in the
wheelchair entrance of Severne Hall.
Some of the classes also learned about kites and their role in Chinese
culture. The students are now working on
creating their own decorative kite designs.
The students of the yearbook committee are currently working hard at
getting the yearbook ready for publication.
Alicia, Chris, Kyle, Cody, Kayla and Nicole have all taken an active
role in helping to design pages for the yearbook, and are including photographs
taken by many of their classmates.
Congratulations to Tanisha H. for being chosen as artist of the month
for March.
In April, some of the students learned about Faberge Eggs
and made their own out of paper maché.
Each egg was decorated with metallic paint so that it resembled a
Faberge Egg. Other classes are still working
on finishing up their Chinese teapots or Kites.
And most recently some of the students are learning about more Chinese
artwork and have started a new project.
This project is to learn about the art of creating a seal or chop in China. The students are carving their own seal out
of model magic and will use them to stamp designs on paper. They are also listening to more Chinese
folktales to learn more about the arts in ancient China. The students of the yearbook have finished
work on the yearbook and it turned out great.
Our main yearbook photographers and page designers were Tamel, Angela,
Sharyann, Alex, Chris, Alicia, Kayla, Nicole, Cody, Kyle and Brittney. But many of the other students also had the
opportunity to take photos at events around school. Congratulations to everyone for all their
hard work. Also congratu