D is for Down Syndrome,
This is a genetic condition caused by
the presence of an extra 21st chromo-
some and is the most common chromo-
somal condition.
In our program we have six students
who have Down Syndrome.
More boys are born with Down Syndrome
than girls but we have more girls with this
than boys in our classrooms.
Some of the characteristics of Down
Syndrome are:
Upward slanted eyes
Large protruding tongue
Sight and hearing issues
Single skin crease in the
palm of the hand
Issues with their weight
As with our others kids we work with them
toward their
goals by providing Speech, Occupational
and Physical Therapies, interaction with
their peers and academic work times.
~~~~~~
E is for Educational Experiments
Fun for kids of ALL ages.
Our first one here is GAK
8 oz. bottle of glue
Warm water
Food coloring
Borax
Empty the glue into a bowl, mix with one
bottle of warm water.
Add two drops of food coloring
1/2 cup more of warm water mixed with 1
tsp of Borax--mix well.
Slowly add a little of the Borax mixture to
the glue mixture, keep adding the Borax to
the glue until you get a "slime" consistency.
When finished with the GAK, put in a baggie
and store for another day.
***BEST DONE OUTSIDE!!!
See what happens when you take a 2 ltr
bottle of Diet Coke and add Mentos to
the bottle..
Open the pop bottle, roll seven candies
into a paper tube the size of the bottle
opening,place finger over one end of the
tube and position over the bottle, remove
finger--this should allow the candies to
fall into the bottle. As the last one falls in
YOU NEED TO RUN but look back
as you are moving to see what happens.
One more thing that is EXTRAORDINARY
(at least to me)
This is my 1000th post!!!!!
That is a lot of chatting and talking for sure.
I will do another post on this exciting event
after this Challenge is finished.
Thanks for hanging in there with me for this
post!!!!
~Keep on Dreaming~
C is for Communication.
How do you/we communicate?
Are you good at it?
Most of us communicate by
speaking but there are other
ways.
Gestures
Body language
Facial expressions
Paper/pencil
and of course modern day tech-
nology.
At school the majority of our
students are non-verbal. But we
also have students who have
emerging language skills.
ie: They have some language but
not always understandable to an
unfamiliar ear. It is our job to find
a way to make it understandable.
Our students use a variety of methods
to communicate with us. Pictures,
gestures, sign language and several
have communication devices, these
have several grids with pictures
to choose from. So if they want a snack
they will go to the snack page choose
what they want and ask using a sentence
via the device.
Those of our students that have verbal
skills are encouraged to use their voices
to make requests and we work with them
daily on broadening their skills.
I realize that i have toughed on this lightly
but I am trying to keep these as short as I
can and still provide information also
If you missed A or B scroll backwards.
~Keep on Dreaming~
The World Series Champs--The
Kansas City Royals open the
baseball season TONIGHT!!
We are so excited here in Kansas City!
The boys in blue will meet the team they
beat in the World Series. The New York
Mets.
Looking forward to baseball season and
seeing our boys!!
Let's Go Royals!!!!
~Keep on Dreaming~
B is for books.
If you were to ask anyone that knows
me real well. "Does Melinda like
books?"
You would get a resounding YES.
Where children are concerned I think
they are essential for exposure to the
written word, they improve listening, comprehension and retention skills.
My Mom instilled in me a love for
books, and I thank her for that daily.
She read to me from an early age,
took me to the library all the time
and when book orders came home
from school, there was always an
order going back to school
for me.
For the very young, picture board
books are great, they usually have
large colorful pictures that are of
actual people, places, animals etc.
For preschoolers, picture books
with more details are great for them
or books with very little text for story
time. Less is more for them.
Pre K to Kindergarten, depending
on the child books with more text,
kids are reading earlier these days.
1-6 grades, this would depend on
their likes and dislikes as to what
kind of book or story might interest
them.
7th grade and beyond, I think the
same can be said as above.
For children with special needs
story time is not an easy part of
their day, usually their is sitting,
listening and concentration needed
and some just don't tolerate that, so
books and stories are introduced
slowly and briefly with a build up to
sitting longer and learning
to stay with the group .
Please introduce books to all children
in your family, donate books where you
can, some kids don't have books in their
homes.
Find time to read to a wee one and enjoy!
~Keep on Dreaming~
