Step-Up News: 
November 23rd, 2019

Bring on the Holiday Season!

Reminders

Education is not the learning of facts,
        but the training of the mind to think. 

~ Albert Einstein

As we arrive at the conclusion of another fulfilling Semester, both Clients and Educators have learned a lot in stimulating our learning experiences together. By introducing a variety of teachable adventures through a mindful, cognitive approach, new ‘facts’ become the base for a lot of excitement toward realizing there is always so much more to learn!

Each day Clients add to the colour and vibrancy of each lesson, filling the room with lots of conversations, avid participation one step-at-a-time, a few dance moves and lots of smiles! They say that time moves fast when you’re having fun! We are always amazed at how fast the Semester goes but never surprised with all the fun going on! Such a hard-working atmosphere of mindful learning lends itself to an inner will to always want to learn more!

Einstein also said, “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know!”

One of our Clients at Prep to Step-Up has his own beautiful quote to explain his love of wanting to learn more.
     

“Unless there is something I don’t know, I won’t know it!”

~Sam~

Our heartfelt best wishes for a Holiday filled with soothing scents, warm-filled wonders, lots of laughter and mindful moments!  We’ll be working hard over the next few weeks planning lots of learning adventures for the Winter Semester!  Be safe!  See you then!

~~ Doreen McCall ~~

Words to Look Up:  Cognitive, Vibrancy, Avid
Spell the Word;  Say the Word;  Define the Word

Rotation  Reports

Literacy: 
Nothing is Impossible!

Clients continued to follow the path of Mindfulness with reading and writing and a concentrated effort on Remembrance Day this month.  Practicing the reading of Flanders Fields for 2 wks (before regular curriculum) got them well prepared for the Final Reading.  While the history of the poem was new for some it was a refresher for others and they all spoke with pride before heading over to the Cenotaph as a group.

Regular curriculum had them remembering about Finding Nemo's adventure which taught everyone many things:  the importance of  "Trust"; "Love Trumps Fear" and "Don't Judge a Book by its Cover".  A lot to read and write about leading up to the final message from Olaf from Frozen who reminded us that "Nothing is Impossible".  The themes of this semester are part of our core and we will revisit them often.

The library continues to be the "water cooler" at Prep and thank you for suggestions on books you would like to see brought home for reading.  Input is valued at Prep and we will try to ensure there are many options for our curious clients who enjoy reading about real life and escaping with friends like Amelia Bedelia.

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Math:

Math Mindfulness!

Bringing up the end of our amazing Semester of mindfulness, we concluded with The Store and started on iPad exploration through basic reminders; holding the iPad properly, treating it with respect, and sharing with our peers. We also explored basic usage of our iPads, going through popular and useful apps, exploring searches on the internet, how to use the Home button, and so forth.

We are concluding with a final preparation week for our last Store of the semester and recounting our amazing journey through the many amazing doors we were able to open in the Math universe. The Clients are very excited for The Store and bringing one of our best Semesters yet to a close!  We can't wait for what the Winter Semester will bring either!

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Science:
Our Glow Continues with Energy

It's hard to believe that we are coming to the end of yet another semester, but what a great semester it's been! In science, we have just finished up our curriculum focusing on 'energy'. Throughout the course of the semester, we progressed from learning background knowledge of energy including definitions and categorizing types of energy, to then applying this knowledge to various real-life scenarios.

We have learned about electrical circuits and switches; something we utilize everyday. We have also learned more about fireflies, the beautiful light-producing insects. As we began discussing 'Finding Nemo', we investigated the bioluminescent animals who live in the deep dark depths of the ocean.

A highlight from this semester has definitely been our glow stick experiments and dissections. We have learned about making observations, chemical reactions, and cause-and-effect through some hands-on and sensory stimulating activities. What we can conclude is that there is energy all around us and so many exciting things we can learn from it!

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Art:

Poppies, Mosaics and Stones! Oh My!
 

Prep to Step-Up pays tribute to our Veterans annually by creating a unique ‘poppy’ wreathe.  This year the Clients crafted the poppies from red paper napkins which were hot-glued onto a wreathe form.

On the Thursday closest to Remembrance Day, we visit the Milton Cenotaph together to pay our respects completed by a moment of silence.  As always it was a touching and meaningful, mindful week!

Our last sub-theme was Finding Nemo.  Using templates Clients drew circles and transformed them into Nemo and Dory.  The second project was a free-form, multicoloured mosaic resulting in gorgeous vibrant artwork that will brighten any dreary winter’s day!

This past week we started making our Holiday decorations.  Clients love to add personality to their home celebrations over the holiday season!

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Skills-at-Will: 
Just Keep Swimming!

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Our Fall semester has come to a fast end! We had a great time in Skills-at-Will learning about ourselves. We ended the semester by discussing the Power of Pursuit. Clients learned about perseverance and what it looks and sounds like in their lives, never giving up and how using positive self-talk can help us much more than speaking negatively about ourselves and to others.  

Lastly, we embraced and celebrated all of the things that we are good at and can use in our lives to move forward and to “just keep swimming”. This rotation was filled with mindfulness activities that helped the clients recognize how amazing they truly are. We hope that the clients will use these techniques moving forward. We are looking forward to what our winter semester will bring!