Special Programs & Services

The December Special Programs & Services Newsletter contains information about Inclusive Schools Week, Preparing for Winter Break, and Family Activities.

The first week of December was home to Inclusive Schools Week. Inclusive Schools Week is an opportunity to highlight the work toward building more inclusive school communities in a more inclusive society. This year's theme was Draw Me In! As far back as the days of cave drawings, art has been a way for humans to express themselves. Many children begin to communicate through the language of art even before using words. We’ve often heard, “A picture is worth a thousand words. ”Participating in art provides a pathway to self-discovery, and sharing art opens doors to understanding and respecting different ways of thinking. The need to belong is a basic need of all students and an integral component of effective inclusive schools. To be inclusive implies a fundamental commitment to building relationships among students, families, educators, and the community to support safe and positive learning environments. Check out Inclusive Schools Week Family Resources.

Giddens Jaguars came together to make a quilt representing their unique qualities.

As winter break is quickly approaching here are a few tips from other families to help manage long school breaks:

1. Share the Plan - Create an overview of what will happen for your family during the school break. Share this with your children to help eliminate anxiety and reduce stress of upcoming events.
2. Discuss Expectations & Support Strategies - Discuss appropriate behavior and self-management strategies ahead of time with your child. Make a list of self-regulation strategies with your child to empower them and help reduce holiday meltdowns. Review the Behavior at Home family workshop presentation for ideas and inspiration.
3. Shared Activities to Connect Family - Find activities that will be fun for the whole family to participate in such as board games, print out activities, reading, or watching a movie. These are simple ways to engage the family in shared activities.
   
4. Take Along Activities and Sensory Tools - Set your children up for success by bringing a backpack of your child’s favorite activities and sensory tools when you visit family or have outings.
   
5. Give Them a Job - Help ease your child's anxiety by assigning them a job to do during family events that they can focus on. These can include: taking guest coats, filling drinks, collecting wrapping paper trash, clearing the table, etc. By allowing your child to have a "job" you give them a place to focus the extra nervous energy and help reduce anxiety.
6. Keep It Simple - Don't worry about creating a massive calendar of events and keeping up with a bunch of traditions that wear your family out. Keep it simple and do what works for your family.

Check out more tips to survive the holidays from A Heart for All Students and Taking Stress Out of Family Gatherings

Utilize visuals! Work with your child to create a school break schedule with preferred activities and breaks built in. You can create checklists of activities that you want to accomplish or utilize some first then boards. Here's a short YouTube video on how to create your own visuals at home.

Help your child prepare for holiday events with a social story. There are plenty of templates online that are customizable to fit the needs of your family. You can even make your own using a google doc! Once the story is completed, you can print them or read them with your child on their electronic devices. Here are examples of Winter and Holiday Social Stories.

Planning activities for break doesn't have to be nerve wrecking. Utilize everyday items that you have around the house:

• Have a family sing-a-long
• Play board games
• Go on an indoor or outdoor scavenger hunt
• Color a coloring page completely
  
• Cut paper snowflakes
• Make a fort to cover the living room and watch a movie inside
• Do a puzzle
• Make a magazine collage
• Stay in pajamas all day
• Bake cookies
• Make an obstacle course
• Play hide & seek
• Camp out by the Christmas tree
• Create your own sensory box

Click here for more fun activities to do over break.

Meal time is a great way to have fun and build independent living skills. Before you start cooking, think about your child's strengths and how can they help in your meal preparation. For your child this can look like gathering, counting, or sorting ingredients and utensils. Talk about what you are doing as you're doing it. For example: “Mommy is getting all the vegetables for our salad. We have cucumber, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots... Now I’m going to wash them and get them all clean." You can also utilize cooking together as an opportunity to discuss and model kitchen safety when using sharp utensils or hot appliances.

Here are some simple recipes to try as a family:

• Personal Pizza
• Championship Chow
• Pancakes and Little Sausages

Don't forget to make reading a priority over winter break! Have your family pick out a book to read together. Talk with your children about the title of the book and make predictions about what it might be about. As your family reads, discuss what is happening in the story, the characters’ feelings and make predictions about what will happen next. Have everyone take turns reading. When your child comes to an unknown word, have them look at the letters in the word, tap out each sound, and then say the sounds fast to blend the sounds and say the word.

For more family reading tips check out this month's Supporting Young Readers Monthly Newsletters:

• Kinder

• First

• Second and Third

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