Wow! What a fantastic term we have had.

The growth in our students over the past 10 weeks has been wonderful to witness. Next term we have some exciting events planned and I encourage you to check the Term 2 Calendar which you will receive next term in Week 1 as well as keep a close eye on our Facebook page where we post events and reminders. Each week we put many photographs of students working and engaging in their learning, and announce school events via our Facebook page.  Stay as up to date as possible by keeping an eye out for our posts. Tag your family and friends and remember, we welcome positive messages and encouragement on our Facebook posts.

Staffing Farewells:

We have a few farewells this term:

Sue Curtis, one of our longest serving teachers who has worked with us since January 2015, has decided to retire. We wish Sue all the best in her retirement and thank her for her dedication and commitment to our school.

Wayne Pollard, our current School’s Officer Grounds and Facilities is retiring and we wish him all the best. Wayne has worked for us since January, 2021 and has been a fabulous support for all of our staff, and a tireless worker across our school grounds.

Jodi Milsop, one of our experienced Teacher Aides who has worked with us since early 2020, has also decided to retire. We wish Jodi a lovely retirement!

Staffing News:

It is with great pleasure that I announce Phil Whatt has won the permanent Deputy Principal role here at Gympie Special school. Phil has been working with us since Semester 2 last year and is a wonderful asset to our leadership team. We are pleased he has now won the job permanently.

We also welcome Ray Bailey to our school, commencing next term as our new Schools Officer Grounds and Facilities. Ray visited our school this week to meet with Wayne for a handover and meet the staff.

Next term we welcome back Miss Anne-Maree, one of our experienced Teacher aides, who will be taking on our ESP role for our students in Out-of-home care.

I hope to be able to announce the permanent Head of Department Curriculum position early next term.

I am taking 2 weeks leave at the start of next term to walk the Great Ocean Road with friends. Whilst I am on leave, Phil Whatt will be Acting Principal, Kate Cloete will be Acting Deputy Principal and Monique Cheesman will be Acting Head of Department Curriculum.

Sending you all my best wishes for a safe and relaxing Easter Break – I’ll see you back at school in Week 3 next term.

Sarah  

So here we are closing out term 1 for our 2024 school year…

It has been fantastic to observe the growth and development of all our students this term whether it be their first year of school or returning to classroom routine. As a whole school team, we have focussed on AIP priorities through professional development, understanding the importance of staff and student wellbeing, as well as created whole school processes to promote student and staff growth and capability.

Over term 1, our class students self-nominated themselves if they had an interest in becoming a student council representative (and let me tell you, there was loooots of interest). Once the nominees had been identified, each class voted for their student council representative. This is a great leadership step in a student’s schooling having the confidence to make decisions for their school and peers such as PBL Rewards Day activities.

I would like to congratulate the following Student Council Representatives for 2024.

We are currently preparing our ANZAC Day Parade for 11:45 on the 24^th April 2024, as a veteran myself this day means a lot to me as I know it does for our families to reflect. It would be great if you were able to join us at this time to pay our respects and remember the sacrifices made for how we live today. We will follow this up by joining the community March on 25^th April 2024, meeting at Smithfield Street, Gympie at 9am. Please look out for information flyers in communication books and on our FB page.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone for their congratulations in being appointed permanent Deputy Principal at Gympie Special School. I truly love coming to work everyday and am looking forward to ensuring the school keeps growing and improving, whilst ensuring student focus.

Happy Easter,

Phil

What a term it has been in EY1! This term has just flown by, I cannot believe it is already April. A lot has been happening in our classroom; horse riding every Wednesday, learning all about letters and numbers, reading a lot of books, dancing along to our favourite songs in class and learning about taking turns and sharing.

Rose has had a lot of fun learning all about her colours and numbers. She has enjoyed our counting videos and activities.

Jake has had a lot of fun learning all about our feelings and listening to our Zones of Regulations song by Mooseclumps. He has enjoyed interacting with the Zones of Regulations wall in our classroom and identifying different emotions.

Isabelle has had a lot of fun singing and dancing along to our movement songs in PE. She has enjoyed trying her best to follow the actions and especially likes to dance like a dinosaur.

Marky has had a lot of fun learning about his letters and colours. He has enjoyed singing along to our alphabet song and identifying colours when watching our colours videos.

Jace has had a lot of fun dancing along to our Zones of Regulation song and our movement songs in PE. He has enjoyed showing his angry face and dancing like an angry dinosaur.

Our students have engaged with a variety of literature this term including picture books, print and digital stories, and animations, simple chapter books and texts for enjoyment. Texts include unusual happenings and images that extend meaning and include the oral narrative traditions and literature of First Nations Australians and classic or contemporary literature, including: There was an Old Bloke Who Swallowed a Chook, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut by Dr Seuss and Magic Boomerang. Students explored sequences of events and how characters and events are portrayed through language. Our students retell events and consider their audience when creating an innovation on a story. We have looked at text structure, such as: orientation (beginning), complication (problem) and resolution (ending). Also, we have explored the text features of nouns, verbs and adverbs. It has been really pleasing to see the progress and learning taking place in our students’ reading and spelling. We are proud of our students’ enthusiasm in completing number and patterning activities and their growing independence in working on set tasks. We have been working hard at our fitness too, so that we can compete in our school cross country next term.

Wishing you all a safe, happy and healthy Easter in the meantime,

Libby, Jas and S3 students.

The end of Term 1 has come up very quickly!! We have had so many exciting adventures this term. We all can’t wait to see what Term 2 brings. Work experience placements will begin in Term 2. We will still be accessing Compass and Arlies Shed each Tuesday, this gives the students exposure to community access in Gympie. The students were treated like VIPS last week at the Sunshine Coast Airport, we spent lots of time on the tarmac watching planes depart and land and the processes that follow this. The students told us it was “The best day ever”!  We wish all of our families a fabulous break and a wonderful Easter.

The second half of this term has absolutely flown by! The students have been highly engaged in their electives with a range of hands-on activities and projects all while using their critical and creative thinking skills. The end of year Drama production ‘Picnic in Shrek’s Swamp’ is coming together nicely as the script has been finalised and the Drama group have been rehearsing and discussing costumes and stage positioning. The students’ confidence has grown immensely and they are developing a strong understanding of what it means to become an actress/actor. Our Drama vocabulary sure is extensive now! The Sports students have improved their fundamental movement skills out of sight. Each week, the students attempt new things and put in a solid effort towards sporting drills and group games. Some strategic thinking is also starting to occur.

Protective Behaviours has been successful with active participation of discussing potential unsafe scenarios and identifying levels of risk, emotions and feelings, body clues and of course strategies to help us in these situations. The students have done a fantastic job at reflecting on their learning and recalling what topics we have learnt during every week of Term 1. We are looking forward to PBL Rewards Day and Easter!

Crafting Success

Students have been busy preparing for our upcoming Mothers Day stall on Friday the 10^th May. They have been pricing items for sale and creating price lists and advertising. We have also been very creative making products for our market stall. Date to be advised. This includes, weaving, tie dying shirts and continuing to grow our succulents. We are very excited as our creations look amazing. 

Stop / Go Animation

Our Stop / Go students continue to impress with their short, animated movies they are making. The topics and characters they use to develop their stories are well thought out and link perfectly with the choice of backdrop and props.

It is wonderful to see problem solving skills being used to overcome filming and production issues as they arise, and students discussing options rather than asking for teacher help.       

Here we are at the end of Term 1…golly, time does fly when you are working hard and having fun.

Students in P2 have enjoyed our weekly Shared Reading story books. They have been answering, who, what, when, why and where questions, sometimes they had to think hard, they were also able to relate stories to their personal life experiences. Their phonic skills are also developing well and some students are able to use some learnt words when creating sentences.

P2 students are becoming super duper clever when working with numbers in so many different ways. We just started with ‘patterns’ and some manage to create AB and AABB patterns, some students need a bit more help at present.

We are trying to apply our PBL rule of the week in class, this week’s was, I am a learner when I do my best and give it a go. Students were applying this rule more than once this week which made us very proud of them.

We have introduced Zones of Regulation in our class and it is lovely to see how the students are stating in which zone they are, how they are feeling. Also that they are able to explain why they have put themselves in a specific zone.

Unfortunately, we are saying goodbye to Miss Jodi at end of Term 1 as she has decided to retire. We wish her all the best. Miss Andrea will be on class 5 days a week.

We wish you all a wonderful and safe Easter break.

Carina, Jodi, Andrea

As our communication team wraps up the end of the term, we thought it would be nice to show some photos of our students using AAC throughout the day. We hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday and we will keep you updated next term with our AAC news!

The Communication Team 

Dear Parents and Carers,

As we close the chapter on a productive Term 1, I am thrilled to share some of the incredible milestones we've achieved together as a learning community. Our term was packed with enriching activities, fostering a vibrant and inclusive environment for our students.

Cultural Enrichment through Gubbi Gubbi Language Workshops

A highlight of this term was the opportunity for our students to immerse themselves in the local indigenous culture through Gubbi Gubbi language workshops. Aunty Christine, a respected Gubbi Gubbi Elder, generously shared her knowledge and wisdom, offering our students a unique and invaluable learning experience.

Exploring the World of Transport

Our senior secondary students embarked on an explorative journey into the world of transport, culminating in a much-anticipated visit to the Sunshine Coast airport. This excursion provided them with a firsthand look at the complexities and wonders of air travel.

Making a Splash with Swimming Lessons

The swimming lessons at the Gympie Aquatic Centre were a resounding success. Our students not only improved their swimming skills but also learned crucial safety behaviours in and around water. These lessons are an essential part of our commitment to student wellbeing and safety, ensuring that all our students feel confident and secure in aquatic environments.

Promoting Literacy Development

Across all year levels, we've seen significant strides in structured synthetic phonics instruction, thanks to our dedicated focus on promoting these foundational skills. This structured approach has not only boosted the confidence of young readers but also fostered a more inclusive learning environment where all students, regardless of their initial reading level, have experienced significant progress. The positive outcomes of SSP instruction are evident in the enthusiastic participation of students in reading activities.  The progress made by our students is a testament to their hard work and the innovative teaching strategies employed by our staff.

Thank You

The accomplishments of this term could not have been possible without the unwavering support and dedication of our teachers, students, parents, and staff. Your commitment to excellence, your willingness to engage in new experiences, and your constant support of our learning community have been the driving forces behind our successful term.

As we head into the holidays, I want to express my gratitude to everyone who played a part in making this term a memorable and enriching experience. Enjoy a well-deserved break, and I look forward to seeing you all back next term, ready to embark on new learning adventures together.

Kind regards

Kate

Term 1 was been a cracking start to the new school year, filled with plenty of learning, relationship building and fun extra-curriculars. We now have the amazing Amie who we have welcomed into our class as our Monday-Friday Teacher Aide.

In English, students have been creating some imaginative stories with a focus on characters, setting, plot and structure. They are using language features to describe their characters and setting to engage an audience and make their stories more interesting. Silly stories with rhyme are a class favourite to predict, read and retell.

In Maths, students have been working on their number knowledge. They worked together in creating a number line from 0-120. Students have been representing numbers using MAB blocks, tally marks, drawings, arrays and using physical movements in our Maths bootcamp. They have been determining if numbers are odd or even, where these numbers can be seen in everyday life and using strategies to work out addition and subtraction equations.

We have done some amazing work around our Zones of Regulation and our PBL weekly focus’. Students have been spending time filling their own and others buckets by using kind communication with one another. They have also been exploring a growth mindset and positive self-talk to ensure they are trying their best and are able to overcome challenges.

We have spent this week creating some amazing gift items for our Mother’s Day stall. Unfortunately, swimming has to an end as it has been a weekly highlight and students have demonstrated tremendous gains. The PBL rewards party is well deserved in the S1 classroom as we celebrate the positive behaviour choices students have made for the term.

We wish students and their families a safe and restful Easter break.

Jami, Amie, Thomas, Mason, Azalia-Hart, Ryan, Eli & Locklan.

Hi everyone,

Our students have finally finished their first term of prep! They have all done amazingly well settling into school and the classroom routines. They are all learning to be safe, respectful learners. Our days normally start with table tasks including experimenting with writing, practicing their name and a simple number/counting activity. We then do our morning session using the interactive whiteboard to say “Good morning”, discuss how we are feeling that day and learn the day of the week and what we are doing that day. During this session we learnt to sit and wait for our turn, listen and follow directions and respond to questions. All of our students love the consistent and predictable routine and the visual schedule helps to keep them on track and know what it happening now and next. In term two we will continue to focus on routines and expectations and increasing our communication to ask for a turn, an item or activity we will do this using visual, speech and AAC (augmentative alternative communication systems).

We were very fortunate this term to be able to invite our parents into our classroom for a visit. Parents were able to look at all the wonderful work their child has been doing all term and see photos of them participating in learning activities. It was also a great opportunity to talk to parents about their child and see the parents interacting with their child with a variety of play based activities.

Early Years 2 hope that everyone has a happy and safe holiday and we’ll see you all in Term 2.

Kind regards,

Miss Cassie, Miss Kelsey and Miss Leanne

EY3

Wow, week 10 already. Time flies by when you are having fun. Over the term EY3 has participated in many fun and engaging experiences and learning opportunities.

In English we have been focusing on writing and letter formation. We have used a range of alternate pencils tor write with including ipad, keyboard, alphabet chart and Velcro letters. This carries across into our daily writing, signing in of our names and book of the week activities and predictable chart sentences.

In maths we have worked on participating in counting songs, reading numerals, making quantities and counting quantities

In HPE we have joined with EY1 to participate in dross motor movement, dancing and group circle games with EY2.

Each student has a highlight of the week; an activity that they look forward to and count down the days to.

Jack and Mason has enjoyed horse riding each Wednesday, where they pretend to be cowboys in the wild west. Jack’s favourite horse has been Liberty and Mason’s has been Black Jack.

Jaidyn has enjoyed bike riding during SMART moves. He takes delight in speeding around the track and doing “doughnuts”

Indi enjoys painting during book of the week activities, where she makes a comment about the book using PODD or physical objects then paints. She shows great delight in demonstrating her creative side with swirls of colours and lines.

Last Friday we welcomed parents into the class for a visit. They participated in book of the week reading of No Way Yirrikipay, a story about a hungry crocodile on the hunt for his dinner. Students and parents used PODD and PROLO to identify the animals within the story. Students had fun yelling out the repeated verse in the verse “NO WAY YIRRIKIPAY YOU’RE NOT EATING ME TODAY”

All in all it has been a wonderful term, and I hope that everyone has a safe and relaxing easter holiday and return back after the holidays refreshed and ready to go.

From Miss Erin, Miss Jane and Miss Karen

Chappy News

 Choir starts on a High Note

The school choir has been rehearsing on Thursdays, with an average of 20 Secondary and Senior students in attendance. We’ve had lots of fun learning the words and AUSLAN of ‘Give me a Home among the Gum Trees,’ playing games, learning how to stand as a choir, and enjoying the sound of a choir being accompanied by piano. My thanks to Mrs Monique Lucas, our accompanist. It was really special to have Miss Nicky as an impromptu audience member on her last day, and I think everyone was excited to be able to share our music-making with her.

Budget-Friendly Food

This year I’m continuing investigating how families can cut costs, particularly in the kitchen. In addition to helping balance the budget, healthy food and eating together as a family helps wellbeing. Here’s a recipe from taste.com.au that you could try:

Easy Beef Stroganoff Pasta Bake

Serves: 4

Preparation Time: 5 mins                                    Cooking Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

300g dried pasta spirals

1 tbsp plain flour

500g beef stir-fry strips

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 brown onion, halved, thinly sliced

150g cup mushrooms, sliced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tsp sweet paprika, plus extra for serving

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 beef stock cube, crumbled

1 1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

65ml sour cream, plus extra to serve

55g (½ cup) shredded cheese

Method

1. Cook pasta in a large saucepan of salted boiling water following packet directions or until al dente. Drain, reserving 250ml (1 cup) pasta water.
2. Meanwhile, toss flour and beef in a bowl. Season with salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper.
3. Heat 2 tsp oil in a large, deep frying pan over high heat. Add beef and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes or until browned. Transfer to a plate.
4. Reduce heat to medium-high. Heat remaining oil in the same pan. Cook onion and mushrooms, stirring, for 3-4 minutes or until soft.
5. Add garlic and paprika. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until aromatic.
6. Add tomato paste and stir to combine.
7. Add stock cube, Worcestershire sauce, and reserved pasta water, then bring to a simmer.
8. Add beef, sour cream, and pasta, then stir until just heated through. Season. Transfer to a greased 2-litre baking dish.
9. Preheat an oven grill to high. Sprinkle pasta mixture with cheese and grill for 2-3 minutes or until cheese is golden and bubbling.
10. Serve pasta bake dolloped with extra sour cream and sprinkled with extra paprika and freshly ground black pepper.

 
Notes

1. Save time during the week by cooking the pasta 2 days ahead and storing in an airtight container in the fridge.
2. You can freeze this dish for up to 3 months. Leave to cool fully at room temperature before transferring to an airtight container and freezing.
3. Add some extra nutrition by serving this dish with cooked vegetables or salad.

Easter and School Holiday Activities

 Finally, here are some local events that you might enjoy:

 Thursday 28 March 6pm - Movie Under the Stars at Weeroona

Watch the Easter movie Hop and be visited by the Easter bunny at Weeroona Association (16 Red Hill Road, Gympie). For details, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/393134260181306/

Sunday 31 March 8am - Easter Sunday in the Park

Join Gympie Wesleyan Methodist Church in Nelson Reserve (main stage) for a special Easter Sunday service followed by a free pancake breakfast and Easter egg hunt at 9am. For details, visit https://gympie.wesleyan.org.au/

Sunday 31 March 10am - Easter Express

Take a special trip on the Mary Valley Rattler. For details, visit https://www.maryvalleyrattler.com.au/

Tuesday 9 April 10am and 1pm - Alphabet of Awesome

Join professors Lexi Con and Noel Edge for a thrilling voyage through the alphabet. This exciting show is being held at the Pavillion (Gympie Showgrounds, 77 Exhibition Road, Southside) for children aged 15 to 12 years and families. For details, visit https://www.gympie.qld.gov.au/events/event/801/alphabet-of-awesome-science  

Sunday 14 April 2pm - Live and Local Gympie Region Presents Youth Week Event

Spend time outdoors with friends and family while enjoying free live entertainment. For details, visit https://www.gympie.qld.gov.au/events/event/815/live-and-local-gympie-region-presents-youth-week-event

Throughout the Holidays - Gympie Art Gallery

Kids aged 7 to 12 years can explore different art techniques as they make their own art works. For details, visit https://www.gympie.qld.gov.au/events/event/814/autumn-holiday-program

Throughout the Holidays - Gympie Regional Libraries

All library branches have kids’ activities available. For details, visit https://library.gympie.qld.gov.au/

My role is to support the wellbeing of staff, students, parents, and others in our school community. If you ever need to have a chat or help with something, please contact me. I’m at school on Tuesday (8.30am-11.35am) and Thursday (9.30am-2.35pm), and can also be contacted via email – rsdri0@eq.edu.au.

Hope you enjoy your break,

Chappy Rachel

What and excellent start to the school year! With Cann Taylor on leave, Mr. Kenrick has happily taken over the class for the remaining weeks of Term 1. Mr. Kenrick has enjoyed getting to know the students and working with Cann.

Our English classes have focused on improving our reading and writing skills. Students have participated in shared reading activities and have been focusing on revisiting one class text multiple times throughout the week. They have also been making weekly visits to the library. Students have been using their classroom and outside environment to influence their learning and question and understand the world around them.

In Math, students have been working on learning on simple strategies to solve everyday problems. They have been representing numbers in a variety of forms including MAB blocks, arrays, and tally marks. The students have also been using technology to demonstrate their knowledge and understand how it can be used in the real world.  

This week has seen students engaging in end of term activities and craft activities to create items to be sold in the Mother’s Day stand. Some of the activities have included creating seed bombs, working with clay, creating coasters, and card making. The students have also been engaged in a variety of end of term activities to better prepare for and understanding the Easter holiday.

Best wishes for the Easter break!

P3 Newsletter

P3 has worked very hard this term. We have achieved some excellent results, with several students already meeting their Semester’s goals and others well on their way to achieving their goals. Last week we welcomed Heath to our class, he has settled in beautifully and is working well with everyone in the room.

In English we are enjoying reading our books each week and retelling the story, along with our favourite event from the story and whether we like the book or not and why.

In Maths we have been busy doing lots of counting and asking questions, recording data and making pictographs to display the data. We know the most popular colour, fruit and pet in our classroom.

Enjoy your Easter break, rest up, stay safe and have fun. We look forward to seeing you after the holidays. First week back we have our Cross Country on the Thursday. Don’t forget to practice some running.

Hello to our P4 parents and carers,

Well, we are near the completion of Term 1. The term has gone way too fast for me. My favourite task to do is our book of the week. This week we are reading, ‘Do not open this book.’ It is such a fun book to explore using a range of resources. We are including our Zones of regulation as the author tells us how they are feeling.

Our students are becoming Mathematicians as they navigate a range of tasks to demonstrate their learning. We will focus on data as well as number in Term 2. Data collection will be lots of fun.

Have a lovely break,

P4 students, Darren, Andrea, Jas and Deb.

We have been having great fun learning in EY4. In math we have been watching and acting out counting songs including 1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive and 5 current buns. We then made fish and current bun art as well as painting the numerals 1-5.

In English we have listened to the books ‘No way Yirrikipayi’ and ‘Echidna and the shade tree’ and then made beautiful crocodile and echidna art.

On Friday we could hardly contain our excitement as we waited for the afternoon when our mums and grandma came to visit us in our classroom. To help us wait we watched the photo montage that would play during the visit and talked about all the fun things we had taken part in so far this year.  We enjoyed showing all the adults how clever we are and how much work we do.

Trista and Codie would like to thank the parents and grandparent for visiting us and look forward to seeing you many more times throughout this school year. We hope you have a great school holiday and look forward to term 2.

Who can believe that Easter is already knocking on the door! It has been a very busy term in P1 and some of our students are already making great inroads towards meeting our semester learning goals.

In English we are having a great time exploring different texts. Making masks for different characters and acting out the stories has become a favoured learning activity. We are also getting very good at discussing our favourite part of the book and drawing fantastic pictures to show why we liked it.

We have had some fun exploring patterns in Mathematics along with our usual number work. We made some fantastic necklaces finishing a pattern our teachers started. We also made some great pattern snakes. We are also starting to look at data and made some picture tables as we start to explore data.

Movement times are also a favourite and interactive dance/exercise videos are also one the things we like best to move with. Jumping lava balls, dodging giant tigers and moving under the sea are now a regular part of our class life.

Term 1 has flown by so fast; we have been very busy reading and looking at text structure, and the parts of a retell. We have focussed on our spelling and everyone is gaining more and more knowledge each day.

Maths has been very interactive and the class have engaged so well using the Interactive Whiteboard, completing number lines and addition equations.  We have been exploring place value and partitioning of numbers with manipulatives.

Swimming has finished for the year and we all enjoyed it a lot, what a great way to spend a Friday.

 Until next time.

 Miss Karen, Miss Michelle, Charlie, Declan, Jed, Peter, Tommy and Tyson.

Time flies when you’re having fun and we can’t believe it’s the end of term 1 already.  For maths some students in S4 have been deepening their understanding of place value, going up to the thousands.  Other students in the class have been practicing numbers up to 20, and starting to explore the idea of place value – a very difficult concept to grasp!  The class have practicing the cross country course, and going for walks or runs around our playground and the high school oval, sometimes with other classes in Secondary.  For HPE we’ve had some great discussions about gender stereotypes, emotions and how to be good friends.  In English, the class are really enjoying participating in PLD - the literacy program in place at Gympie Special School.  Our routine is pretty much set in, with still a few tweeks to make happen.  Lastly, the Secondary classes have been making gifts for the Mother’s Day stall next term, rotating around to the other classes in their sector.  It’s been great for their flexibility and something different to end the term.  We hope you have a great Easter break.  Bernadette, Chrissie & Andy!

Digital Technology - Week 10

This has been a very productive term as the students learn about programming.  Most students have already progressed past basic programming.  We use the Blu-Bots to teach students the fundamentals of programming.  They learn that at the most basic level, programming is all about following and/or creating a sequence of instructions to complete a task.  This is a skill that is transferable and will be highly useful in many aspects of student’s lives beyond school both now and in the future.  Once these basic skills are demonstrated they then move onto applying these skills to programming their own animations and/or games using a program called Scratch Junior.  While on this learning journey student’s also get to further develop their communication, social skills and emotional regulation as they interact and work with staff and peers.