End of the Year

We've had a great time over the last week with all of our fun activities!  "Young Athletes" was a big success and the boys did great completing all of their PE stations!  We also participated in Field Day with kindergarten and they did amazing even with the heat, water stations were definitely our favorite :).  We had Water Day on Friday and they loved playing in the sprinklers and mini-pools with our older Challenges friends!  Today we had our end of the year picnic across the street and the boys ate lunch and then enjoyed playing on the playground.  Tomorrow we will have a popcorn treat and on Wednesday our pizza party!  Please send in your money for our pizza party tomorrow.  Wednesday is also a 2 hour early dismissal. 

Thanks to everyone for a great year this group of boys have been an absolute joy to teach! 

Young Athletes

We had a GREAT time at the fire station on Friday!  The boys got a tour of the firefighter's living quarters, a demonstration of how to put on their uniforms, they were able to sit in a fire truck, and they each got a turn using the hose :)!  A big thank you to the Carroll Manor Firefighters who made our trip so much fun!

We're excited for our "Young Athletes" celebration for tomorrow!  All parents that are attending please arrive around 1:50 in the main office, we will begin around 2:00.  I will email if there is a change/cancellation due to rain.  Check out our amazing shirts Ms. Erin beautifully designed :), thanks Ms. Erin!!!!

Thank you!

Thank you so much to Miss Molly Sieger for her donation of books, toys, and games to all of our students in Challenges!!  The kids will love all of their new toys and working on play skills is so important!  Thank you!!!

 

 

We are having fun getting ready for our visit to the fire station!  The boys have loved trying on Miss Lindsay's uniform - pictures to come soon.  Please dress your child for our walk over to the station tomorrow.  Thanks!

Baby Animals

Although we're bummed that "Light It Up Blue" is cancelled due to the wet roof and ground we still had a wonderfully fun day in Challenges 1!  We had three guest stars to end our "Baby Animals" unit.  We had 2 baby goats named Onyx and Opal come visit.  Thank you so much to Mrs. Sewell for bringing in these sweet baby goats the boys loved them!  We also had a puppy named Zoe and the boys loved her as well, she got to go on a walk around the room, do some tricks, and eat some treats.  Thank you to Mrs. Betsy and Ms. Kathryn for bringing in Zoe!

Posters!

Our beautiful Autism Awareness posters are hanging in the front hall and each day the kids are able to admire the pictures and we hear things like "Hey that's the boy from the picture!".  We can't thank Mrs. Lacey Petersen enough for donating her time and talent to make these posters possible, please check out her website at http://www.photosbylacey.com/ .  Check out our superstars :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Autism Awareness Month!

Once again a BIG thank you to Mrs. Gemmill and Mrs. Staines for these fabulous bulletin boards!  The kids are excited about the new designs and it's getting them ready for our Autism Awareness Week!  Our Autism Awareness Posters will be ready soon, please check back for pictures.  Have a great day!

Autism Awareness!

First of all Happy Autism Awareness Month!!  I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and was able to enjoy the beautiful weather!  I wanted to take the opportunity to thank Chrissy Gemmill for organizing an Art Auction to benefit our program.  Chrissy we are all so appreciative of your support for Challenges!  If you have the time stop by "The Muse" in downtown Frederick to see the beautiful auction display.

Our 3rd Annual "CMES Autism Awareness Week" will be held Monday April 28th - Friday May 2nd.  We are planning to showcase our students skills through videos during our school's morning announcements.  We will have "Autism Awarenss" posters displayed throughout the school.  The general education students will attend assemblies to help them learn more about interacting with their friends who have autism.  The general education students will also be invited to participate in a writing contest where they can write about helping their friends who have Autism.  You will all be invited to our "Light It Up Blue Night" on Thursday May 1st, so mark your calendars!  Also if you're in school please check out the cafeteria bulletin boards that are featuring Autism Awareness information, a big thank you to Katie Staines and Chrissy Gemmill for designing these bulletin boards!  More information about our Autism Awareness Week will be sent home after break! 

The boys have enjoyed our Spring unit, especially planting and caring for their sunflowers!  This week and after break we'll be learning about baby animals that are born in the springtime.  Thanks for checking in...we're looking forward to a great couple of days before break!

Units

I've done some rearranging with our units because of our crazy snow days!  We will continue with our Dr. Seuss Unit this week and celebrate his birthday with some crafts and a treat on Friday.  These are the books we have read:

        
        

Even if you don't have a copy of the book you can get on Youtube and find most of these stories read aloud.  It would be a great way to review the books we've read in class!

We will begin our Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear?  unit next Monday!

We had a great time as always horseback riding last week.  Thanks to Ms. Nichols for all of these pictures!

 

 

 

 

We are meeting as a Challenges team this week and after that I will have more information about our upcoming "Autism Awareness" week!  Please check back soon and be sure to send in any fun snow day pictures :)!