Arbor Academy Newsletter
February 2023
A Note from Sabrina
Dear Families,
I am happy to bring back our monthly newsletter!
February can be a challenging month with colder, darker, shorter days that feel slower; however, we do not ever slow down at school!
This school year, our Arbor team has been engaging in continued learning aligned to TrueNorth's mission and vision related to inclusion and equity. We have had opportunities during our late start Wednesdays to partner with Carol Quirk from MCIE (Maryland Coalition for Inclusion & Equity). We are improving our skills in collaborative instructional planning in order positively impact our students' outcomes. It is hard but great work!
Stay warm and find fun things to do this cold month.
Best,
~Sabrina
Important Dates:
Friday February 17th
- Early Release 1:30pm- Family Engagement
Friday February 17th
- Coffee Chat: PUNS and Respite-11:30AM (In person or virtual)
Monday February 20th
- No School- President's Day
Monday March 6th
- No school- TrueNorth Institute Day
A Word from our Primary Classroom
This month the primary classroom is learning all about working together. We are talking about classroom jobs and being a part of a classroom community. We will begin to have class jobs and practice cleaning up after ourselves. Some jobs will include line leader, light helper, class gardener, time keeper, and door helper. Students will take turns and learn different "jobs". We will continue to learn about living in a community and contributing to the community.
We will also be focusing on the core word "open."
~Ms. Christina
A Word from our Intermediate Classroom
Hello Intermediate Families!
January has flown by! We have been focusing this month on group instruction. Students are beginning to take interest in interacting and socializing more with one another! We started a five senses unit and are currently learning all about our ears and what we hear! We are a very artistic bunch and love creating art projects that relate to our unit! We even made our own maracas. For community based instruction, we practiced many school expectations and did a phenomenal job following directions, using our words, and having fun at the Kohl Children’s museum.
In February, we will continue on in our five senses unit with sight and smell. We are planning to do some service learning and learn about/make Valentine cards for veterans. We will continue to maintain our mastered skills during independent work and improve our new skills during 1:1 and group instruction!
~Miss Jessica
A Word from our Jr. High Classroom
The Junior High classroom has been working hard on their academics and community skills. We will be finishing up our chapter book on the solar system. We have learned about the different planets, the moon, and the sun. This month we will continue to work on money skills and communication skills through our community instruction at Jewel and Target.
~Ms. Kai
A Communication Tip
This is a strategy that we use all of the time in our programming! We create opportunities that encourage and motivate our students to have to communicate in order to get what they desire or need. Sometimes we prompt them right away so that they can be immediately reinforced (when we know they are just learning a word or concept), and sometimes we wait for quite awhile (when we know they have the language and ability). Either way, we make a big deal of it and provide the natural reinforcement by giving or doing what they've asked for!
You can try this at home. Start by picking just one time to routinely expect your child to "use their words"- whether this is verbally or with a device. As their family members, you are the best at knowing what they want and probably do not even realize how much you give them before expecting some communication. Give it a try!
Some Resources
Parent Coffee Chat: PUNS & Respite- February 17th (In person at Arbor or join virtually)
Autism Resource Fair- FREE
Messy Day at the J- FREE/Register
RECESS TIME!
We have been very lucky with warm weather until now. We will remain indoors when the temperature is below 20 degrees; (See Child Care Weather Guide) otherwise, everyone will continue to get some fresh air and movement for our 20 minute recess time.
Please send your child with warm winter wear, so that they can have time to enjoy the outside.
Thank you!