Monday as the storm rolled in, Nextsteppers discussed the importance of voting and what sorts of issues come into play with an election (healthcare, economy, education, etc).  We used our smartboard to get updates on Hurricane Sandy and spent the rest of the morning learning about preparing for emergencies.  The afternoon was a little relaxed as people were getting picked up at different times as the weather got worse.  We reviewed our emergency prep info by creating our own crossword about it and also worked on our social skills video (which we are very excited about debuting!).  
  Tuesday was much milder weather than we had expected so everything went normally here at Nextstep.  We went over some additional information about elections and Bill came in with sample ballots that we reviewed and practiced on.  We visited the websites of the prominent Presidential Candidates to try to get a better idea of who they each are.  In the afternoon, Britany, our volunteer, took a walk with Jim and Patrick to Dunkin Donuts and returned to do some work in the room.  Meanwhile, Rory, Jackie and Evan took a trip to the library.  We did some more work on our video when we met back up as a group.  
Wednesday morning we started in on our newest topic: personal hygiene.  We spent the morning going through an interactive presentation about what hygiene means and why it's important.  At 11, we joined Day-hab for a Halloween celebration (did I mention we had a werewolf, a cat, a construction worker, and Katniss from Hunger Games with us Wednesday?)  After lunch we wanted to get some fresh air so we took a trip over to the walking path through the Scarborough Marsh.  We stopped at Tim Hortons for a hot drink on the way home.  When we got back, half the group worked on an art project, while the other half worked on the social skills video.  
This morning (Thursday) after some group game time, we braved the cold for some hot drinks and came back to have a relaxing art-filled morning creating oil pastel/watercolor resists of autumn scenes.  Bill also took some time to chat with Nextsteppers about personal ideas for projects they might want to pursue, and taking more initiative of their learning.  In the afternoon, Patrick and Nate hung with Bill while Rory caught the Tu/Thu crew up on all the hygiene information.  We had an awesome discussion in which everyone was engaged and then took a quiz together after to test our knowledge.  After some hard work, we walked up to the mall to relax and have some fun looking around.  
Tomorrow is our trip to the Fire Station we've been looking forward to (courtesy of Nate's family-thank you!!)  The fire-fighters are going to show us around and cook and serve us a Chili lunch.  We'll probably wrap up loose ends from the week as well as watching a Friday afternoon movie.  Stay tuned for more pictures!!
Nate, Patrick and Bill help clean up the parking lot!