Thursday, April 28, 2011

Firefighter Mine

We started our first day back from Spring Break by sharing our adventures with the class. Some of us went south to Disney World. Others went north and actually saw snow! (Winter Break?)

But none of these adventures matched today’s: A visit from four firefighters and their fire truck from Fire Station 6! I cannot begin to describe the joy on the faces of my friends as they listened to the siren, sat behind the wheel, or stood in firefighters’ boots.







Thursday, April 14, 2011

Eggs, Chicks and Bunnies

We’ve all heard of Easter eggs, chocolate bunnies and peeps chicks this time of year – but have you ever heard of birds’ nests you can eat, or even birds’ nests you can spray-paint? Yes, we do it all at the Frankie Lemmon School!

We started off the day by reading about Easter Bugs…




















Then Miss Paula led us as we “Wiped Out” with musical bells and shaker eggs. As Miss White and Miss Forbis looked on, we played so hard that even one of the eggs began to dance!

















It was on to the birds’ nests! Miss Forbis had already made “nests” by mixing melted peanut butter chips & butter with chow mein noodles. Then my friends topped them with jellybean eggs and (marshmallow) peeps chicks. Occupational therapist Vicki Demaster decided this was too much fun to miss, so she joined us at the table. Our final stop was the great outdoors where we took turns making an even different type of nest – this time by spray-painting coffee filters with food coloring. (Sorry, birds, we’ll paint you the next time!)















It was a day of fun stuff – a day filled with joy! And next week is Spring Break, also a time of joy. It ends (and begins) with Easter, definitely – for many – a time of Joy!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

See what I'm sayin'?

Quick, Can you name the five senses? I’ll give you a hint: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell.

That was easy. What would life be without them?… That’s a little harder.

Let’s say you are visually impaired. You may have trouble matching your clothes, walking down the street, or making your breakfast. The good news: You can still use your ears, nose, hands and memory to get around. You can still play “Beep Baseball” and many other sports.

What if you can’t hear…never have, never will. It would be a world with no music, no birds singing sweetly, no mother’s soft voice. The good news: You can still read lips or communicate with sign language. In fact, you can do most anything—Beethoven was deaf.


Suppose you have no sense of touch; you can’t feel a hug or your mother’s touch. You burn your skin because you can’t feel pain. The good news: you may have an enhanced sense of sight, hearing, taste and smell.

You have no sense of taste because you have a cold, an injury or maybe even a side effect from medication. The bad news: you can’t enjoy Mom’s homemade chocolate chip cookies. The good news: you may lose weight!

With no sense of smell you can’t enjoy flowers or tell when there’s a gas leak. The bad news: You can’t smell a skunk! The good news: You can’t smell a skunk!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Pirates Ahead


Oh, the perils we face at school!


Today, we hoisted the flag and set sail in Miss White’s brand-new S.S. Frankie Lemmon in search of the fabled lost treasure chest. But wouldn’t you know it?—we ran into pirates! They, too, were searching for the lost treasure chest.














“R,” roared the captain,
“R’s not enough. We need other letters to help make us tough.”
“Let’s sail far away to find ABC’s. Bring me back D’s, E’s, F’s, and some G’s.”
“R,” cried the crew. “R, we agree! Let’s look for an A and a B and a C!”



They were scary looking…and some of us thought it might be a good time to abandon ship. But Miss Forbis said, “Wait! The pirate captain is angry because he thinks the crew has robbed his “Z”. If we can sing them a lullaby they’ll fall asleep. Zillions of “Z”s will zoom all over their heads and they’ll sail away happy.”

Just then Miss Paula came along and saw our plight. With no further ado, she taught us the lullaby: “I can sing…la la la la la”. It worked! The pirates fell asleep and we sailed away. Not only that, but we each found our own lost treasure chest.
See it all here: