current-happenings

Valentine's Week and New Teachers!

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 16:53:13 +0100

On Wednesday this week we made valentine cards with Beth and her son Jack, who came to Next Step to help us with a valentine's craft. Beth and Jack brought us all the supplies we needed to make beautiful valentine's cards.

Jack is helping Patrick with his card.

Jimmy is making a card for the Center for Grieving Children, and Josh is making a card for his Mom.

Yvonne, Sophie, and Emily really loved this activity! They even skipped their afternoon break down back to make more cards!

Showing off the very nice cards we made, with help from Jack and Beth! Thank you so much for doing this activity with us!

We had a big week at Next Step. Our new teachers Sarah and Ann Marie are both here, and this is Jennifer's last week at Next Step. This was also a big week for Sophie, Emily and Jimmy because they had interviews for the STRIVE U program! All three said they felt good about their interviews and we wish them good luck!

Kristine's Last Week

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 20:40:22 +0100

Last Wednesday was Kristine's last day with us at Next Step. She is moving on to work at her art studio full time. On Wednesday we went to Panera Bread to have coffee with Kristine. We talked about our favorite memories with Kristine and the things we will miss about her. It was nice to sit and enjoy each other's company.

Here are Emily, Kristine, Nate, Jimmy, Josh, Patrick, and Sophie enjoying coffee time at Panera! Jennifer was also there and took our picture.

Kristine was a good foosball player and was competitive when she wanted to be! Sophie and Emily always played foosball with Kristine and all three of them became great players because of all the practice!

Here are the foosball champions at work!

We have been working on a card for Kristine and will send it to her soon. We miss Kristine already but are happy for her to be working at her art studio full time.

Last week we also went to Dunkin Donuts on Thursday, and Nate had his favorite drink, hot cocoa!

The Next Steppers have been very interested in dancing lately! We have been doing the Cha Cha Slide, the Cotton Eye Joe, the Chicken Dance, and some Zumba songs for fun during group time and breaks. Here are a bunch of Next Steppers last Friday dancing with the X Box.

This week our new part time teacher Sarah is starting and we got to meet her today. We are looking forward to a great week!

The Secret Project- Rory's Baby Book!

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 14:22:36 +0100

A few weeks ago, Josh had an idea to make a baby book for Rory’s baby, who is due to arrive in late Spring. The group considered many different kinds of books, and finally decided to make an alphabet book to help the baby learn her ABC’s.

We made a list of all the letters of the alphabet and brainstormed different pictures we could draw for each letter. Each participant then picked a letter and chose what animal or object to draw for that letter. Here are some examples of the beautiful artwork!

Josh's E for Elephant!

Jackie's H for Horses!

Patrick's O for Owl!

Emily's T for Tiger!

On Monday this week, Rory was able to come by so we could give her the book, along with a card that Sophie made. Everyone signed the card with well wishes for Rory and the baby.

Rory said the book was beautiful and that every page was a work of art. She even talked about scanning some pages and using some of the artwork from the book to decorate the walls of the nursery!

The Next Steppers said it felt good to see Rory again and everyone hopes to meet the baby girl someday in the future.

Snow Day

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 18:01:26 +0100

Jimmy and Patrick and Josh and Yvonne and John Paul are here today.

Our other friends couldn't be here because of the snowy weather.

I took pictures of the snow on the trees.

I mostly grew up in Texas. I Feel Snowy.

I think the Snow is pretty.

Maybe today I'll shovel the snow with my parents.

Jimmy Makowiecki

Money work, meal prep, and a mystery project!

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 17:54:31 +0100

Hello from the Next Steppers! We hope everyone is looking forward to a sunny weekend! This week at Next Step we have continued our work with math and money, with a focus on making correct change. We talked together about how this is a very helpful skill for everyday life, even when making our own purchases at the store. Using the smartboard, we were able to calculate the correct change owed to the customer, and drag coins to make up the correct amount.

Evan uses the caculator to find the correct change for the customer.

Our new member Drew did a great job with this activity!

We also spent a lot of time this week working on our top secret project. I can reveal that it is an art project, that one of our members came up with the idea, and that every student is contributing to create one amazing finished project! We can't wait to share more with you when the secret is finally revealed!

We always find time for games, and many Next Steppers are taking the initiative to start games on their own with their peers, even without prompting from Kristine or Jennifer! It's great to see that the group members enjoy spending time with each other and having fun.

We tried a brand new recipe this week, Gluten-Free Chicken Hobo. The group decided to find one recipe we could all enjoy that would work for our gluten-free and non-gluten-free eaters. The Next Steppers were able to make individual foil packets and customize their own mix of chicken and vegetables, and they turned out great!

Yvonne and Emily chopping vegetables for our Chicken Hobo lunch.

Emily and Sophie dancing the "Cha Cha Slide."

Holiday catch-up and plans for the New Year

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:56:01 +0100

Happy New Year! We have a few holiday updates to share, and we are also looking forward to the good things coming in 2013!

On Tuesday Dec. 18 we said goodbye to Britney, who has volunteered with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays for almost a year! We took Britney to Panera Bread for some thank-you treats. Britney just graduated from college and we really enjoyed getting to know her. We wish her all the best!

On Thursday, Dec. 20 the group competed a final craft project before the Christmas break- check out these creative snowmen!

This is a picture of our soda can cupcakes to celebrate Sophie's birthday! Everyone was able to decorate their own cupcake (gluten free and yummy!) and we even had some leftover cupcakes to share with our friends at Camp STRIVE.

After the holidays and the snowstorms, we are happy to get back in the hang of things this week. Josh came up with an idea for an exciting project, and for now it is top secret! The students will be working on the project for the next few weeks, and we will give an update when the project is complete.

Busy couple of weeks...

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 21:35:54 +0100

It has been a few weeks since we officially checked in so a quick recap of the past couple of weeks. It has been a little choppy with the holidays but we have celebrated Sophie's birthday, the big 20, tried cupcakes made from cake mix and a can of soda, worked a lot on fractions with our wonderful interactive Smart Board, had our Social Video opening and survived two very cold winter storms. After the new year we will be getting back into the swing of things. This group loves math and so we are working a lot on fractions, shopping, money and other daily monentary skills that are proving very helpful.

We are working always on our social skills and working together as a team and are becoming quite a close group, everyone supporting each other as we learn and grow. Have a wonderful New Year everyone - see you in 2013

Jimmy Taking your picture with my Red Claws Hat on.

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 21:29:08 +0100

I had fun at the Red Claws Game

Jimmy Makowiecki

The Red Claws Game

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 21:24:34 +0100

The whole group was at the Red Claws Game. We had lots of fun at the game. Jimmy Makowiecki

Kayla and Graeme at the Red Claws - friends of ours from Camp!

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 21:12:44 +0100