Crossroads Monthly Newsletter
October 2026
Message from the Administration
Dear Crossroads Community,
October was an extraordinary month filled with fun activities, vibrant school spirit, and deep learning. For October, our monthly Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) theme focused on Respect—a value our students modeled beautifully throughout every event this past month.
We kicked off October by celebrating the Week of Respect with our "Opening the Doors to Respect" days. Each day, students wore different colors to highlight key aspects of respect, including kindness, unity, and peace. Later in the month, our school community honored School Violence Awareness Week. Students and staff showed their commitment to a safe, welcoming environment by participating in themed days—wearing pajamas to "put violence to bed" and rocking their favorite sports gear to "team up against violence."
Our connection to the community and commitment to safety continued with a visit from the Westfield Fire Department in honor of Fire Prevention Month. Students had the exciting opportunity to meet local firefighters, learn important safety tips, and tour the fire truck up close!
Field trips and seasonal traditions brought so much joy to our calendar as well. The entire Crossroads School took our yearly trip to Wightman Farms, where students picked out their own pumpkins, enjoyed a scenic tractor ride, and topped off the day with delicious cider and donuts.
This year, for Halloween, Crossroads School hosted our first-ever Trunk or Treat! Thanks to our incredible volunteer families, dedicated Crossroads and Commission staff, and supportive community members, the turnout was fantastic, and the kids had an absolute blast. We were also thrilled to collaborate with our district partners: students from Lamberts Mill Academy (LMA) and the Work Readiness Academy (WRA) generously volunteered their time to help make the event a huge success. Additionally, the WRA students created an imaginative "haunted house" for several of our Crossroads classes to visit—and you could truly see the care, effort, and hard work they poured into making it such a memorable experience for everyone. Inter-school collaborations like these enrich our entire district, creating meaningful connections and a true sense of unity across our schools. We wrapped up the festivities on Halloween day with students trick-or-treating around the building and painting pumpkins in our school garden.
It was truly such a wonderful month filled with learning, laughter, and community spirit. Thank you for your continued partnership and support in making Crossroads such a special place for our students!
Warmly,
Matt, Natalia, and Stacey
Student of the Month - Dara
Ms. Alexis's Classroom
It’s our second month of school, and 109 is really getting into the swing of things! The students have been working hard on developing their activities of daily living (ADL) skills in both the classroom and the apartment. They are practicing important everyday tasks such as sweeping, setting and cleaning the table, making the bed, and folding clothes. These activities provide meaningful opportunities for students to build independence, strengthen their skills, and gain confidence in their ability to complete daily tasks.
One of our goals this school year is to help students develop a better understanding of healthy eating and drinking, where our food comes from, and how we can grow and prepare some of our own food. Through these hands-on experiences, students are learning valuable life skills that promote independence, confidence, and healthy habits they can carry with them for years to come.
The students also enjoyed working on fall crafts and seasonal activities! These creative projects gave them opportunities to express themselves, explore different materials, practice fine motor skills, and celebrate the changing season. It has been wonderful to see their creativity and enthusiasm as they work on their projects and share in these fun classroom experiences.
Ms. Bridget's Classroom
October has been an incredibly busy and rewarding month in Room 220B as our middle school students dive into hands-on learning!
This month, our focus has been on developing real-world functional and vocational skills through our Community-Based Instruction (CBI) trips. So far, we’ve visited the movie theater, where students practiced valuable vocational jobs like making and serving popcorn, ushering, and working the cash register. We also visited ShopRite and Costco, where everyone did a wonderful job practicing using picture shopping lists to navigate the stores and buying groceries.
In the classroom, students have been reinforcing these community concepts through engaging, hands-on activities. We are currently practicing interactive science experiments focused on five-senses exploration and learning how to make predictions, such as exploring buoyancy through sinking or floating lessons.
Lastly, we are cooking up some fun with interactive cooking lessons, like creating our own Frankenstein treats! To tie it all together, students are building their cooking-related vocabulary through interactive bingo games, sequencing activities, and hands-on cut-and-paste worksheets.
We’ve been so proud of the progress our class has made during these outings and lessons- everyone is working hard, showing responsibility, and demonstrating great teamwork! We look forward to continuing our adventures and building even more independence as we move into the next month.
We’ve been so proud of the progress our class has made during these outings and lessons- everyone is working hard, showing responsibility, and demonstrating great teamwork! We look forward to continuing our adventures and building even more independence as we move into the next month.
It’s hard to believe it’s November already. Over the past month, students have continued adjusting to the new school year and are doing a great job. They are continuing to make progress from week to week socially, emotionally and physically. We have been focusing on building a routine, setting expectations and having fun! Stressing such things makes daily tasks much more efficient for everyone.
Students have been practicing a multitude of skills and have participated in various activities during class, such as: walking, running, balancing, relay races on foot and scooters, obstacle courses, agility courses, letter, number, picture and color matching activities. I try to incorporate certain aspects students work on in the classroom and apply them to physical education with a movement concept as well. As we continue to move forward, we will build off the above mentioned activities and slowly add new and more challenging ones that match student ability levels.
In health class, students continue to work in group settings as well as individually and practice following directions and turn taking while playing various games as well as answering questions on flash cards and a touch screen monitor. We have spent the first several weeks of class reviewing topics covered last school year to see what information has been retained and will shortly start our new lessons.
