REGIONAL DAY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Hope everyone had a wonderful summer! The staff is so excited to share their classroom news. There have been so many celebrations and festivities! What a great way to kick off the new school year. We are all thrilled to be back.

We want to share some exciting news from our staff members!

Cheryl Wennberg is celebrating her son-in-law Jose Arguello's graduation from "Officer Training Camp" Military school and is now a 2nd Lieutenant in the Airforce Reserves. - CONGRATS

Mrs. Anna Iwaszkowska would like to share the wonderful news that her daughter Emilia Anna went on vacation to Florence and got engaged to her girlfriend Alicia! Mrs. Anna is so happy for them. CONGRATS

Let's welcome our new staff to Regional Day School.

There is excitement in the air as the leaves turn from green to vivid yellows, oranges and reds. Part of the excitement is seeing familiar faces and friends, as well as the return of field trips, shopping trips to Shop Rite and community based instruction. Several of our classes were thrilled to have the opportunity to visit the Field of Dreams in Toms River! If your family has not signed up for a membership, it is highly recommended! For more information about membership visit https://rwjbhfieldofdreams.com/member-registration/.

Students are engaged in learning each and every day! Our teachers continue to use specialized programs including i-Ready, Reading A to Z, Touch Math, Handwriting Without Tears as well as a variety of interactive technologies and web-based resources. Morning Meetings with the Promethean Board, Booklet and Scholastic News are favorites amongst the students. This year our STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) programming will be expanding. Stay tuned for more details! Our holiday traditions will continue and we are especially excited for the return of a live visit from Holiday Express next month!

RDS is a vibrant school with highly-skilled professionals and engaging programs for students ages three through twenty-one. Continue to check our school website www.manchestertwp.org/rds, and virtual backpack, as well as our Facebook page for information and activities. Our Parent Support Group continues to meet virtually, once a month. The new school year was kicked off with several engaging presenters! The link to the meetings will be posted on our school website. Please join us for informative information.

There are so many reasons to be extra thankful this holiday season! Each day I continue to count my blessings for the incredible students, staff, families, and community members we are fortunate to work with every single day. On behalf of the entire school community, thank you for your continued support of our students and programs.

Warmest wishes for a very happy Thanksgiving and holiday season.

Hello all! The Speech Department would like to first congratulate Ms. Regina on the birth of her beautiful, healthy baby boy this past August. While she is on maternity leave, we have the wonderful Ms. Camilla Pietras working with us.

With the holidays coming, we would like to share some great ways to encourage language development using themed books.

Winter book: Sneezy the Snowman, by Maureen Wright

• Practice the repetitive words: “brrr” and “ahh-choo”

• Guess what will happen to Sneezy when he tries to warm up

• Label the clothing items the kids put on Sneezy

• Make a snowman craft that looks like Sneezy

Christmas book: Little Blue Truck’s Christmas, by Alice Schertle

• Practice the car and animal sounds

• Count how many trees are left after animal is given one

• Talk about how to be a good friend during Christmastime

• Practice saying or signing thank you when someone gives your child a present

We hope you have a great holiday season!

• Ms. Camilla, Ms. Haley, Ms. Lauren

The OT Department is happy to welcome our students back to a fresh new school year! This year is off to a great start and our students are busy working on seasonal projects to make our OT room festive with an Autumn window display.

Some of our groups have been cooking treats related to the season, such as “Welcome Back to School” graham crackers, grave yard cups of dirt and pumpkin-iced graham crackers.

We have been setting up Fall-themed sensory-motor obstacle courses for students to find hidden objects in Halloween sensory bins that they helped to create

We always strive to get our students involved in all aspects of therapy from set-up to clean up while making it fun.

As always, we are happy to be back to school. We know this year will be a great one!

Ms. Alex, Ms. Megan & Ms. Leslie

Happy Fall to All!! We are thrilled to welcome all our students back as well as meet some new ones. Our PT students are hard at work focusing on improving their flexibility, strength, balance, motor planning and coordination, and developmental gross motor skills. We are also keeping an eye on our students' assistive equipment needs such as braces, adaptive seating, mobility needs and standing program. We work together with Mr. Wayne Lawall from Harry Lawall Orthotics and Prosthetics from braces and splints and Ms. Gila Miodownik from National Seating and Mobility for wheelchairs and other adaptive equipment that our students need at school and at home.

Just a reminder that there is a distinct difference between school based physical therapy and community based physical therapy. The following link to a fact sheet of the Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy explains the difference between both.

https://pediatricapta.org/includes/fact-sheets/pdfs/15%20PT%20for%20Educational%20Benefit.pdf

The main focus of the school based physical therapist is the following:

1.Assist a student to achieve educational goals developed by the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team.

2. Promote access to academic curriculum and participation in other school activities.

3. Improve access to the school environment.

4. Address post-secondary transition goals.

By now I’m sure most of you have heard about the Field Of Dreams in Toms River. This amazing park caters to our children with special needs. Membership is free…you would just need to register your child by filling out the form online. They have tons of activities each month. You can see a list of upcoming activities here:

https://rwjbhfieldofdreams.com/events/category/community-events/list/

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to us via telephone, email or in person!

Ms. Joyce and Ms. Kerry

Hello RDS Students, Parents and Guardians:

At Regional Day School, Adaptive Physical Education classes allow children to achieve and develop physically through a wide variety of activities. Skills are taught in a simple to complex format that is based upon the students’ developmental levels. This allows each and every student the opportunity to be successful. My focus is on personal goals as well as developing positive attitudes towards physical activity. I want your child to learn how to live a physically active and healthy lifestyle for a lifetime.

In the months of September, October and November, we were very active. The students worked on their overhand and underhand throwing skills, as well as bingo fitness and throwing games. In the classes, we played several team building games, while working on cooperating with each other, offensive and defensive strategies, and overhand throwing. In health classes we discussed basic emergency situations such as fire safety and how important it is to know your home phone number and address.

Healthy Hearts!!!

Did you know that your heart is the most important muscle in your body? November is Jump Rope/ Hoops for Heart Month at RDS. Students participated on November 23rd in Physical Education class, in a variety of activities designed to build their cardio-respiratory endurance and keep their hearts healthy. Students also had the opportunity to raise funds for the American Heart Association. This was our 18th year we have participated in our annual Jump Rope/ Hoops for Heart Event.

P.E. Class

Each 35 minute class is organized as follows:

INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY (2-3 minutes) Prepares the body for activity.

FITNESS DEVELOPMENT (7-8 minutes) Develops health related fitness through muscular strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular endurance.

LESSON FOCUS (10-12 minutes) The main topic that the students will be learning and participating in, that incorporates basic movements and skills.

GAME/CLOSING ACTIVITY (5-7 minutes) Applies the skills learned in the lesson and to HAVE FUN!!

Excused from P.E.

If it is necessary for your child to be excused from activity, please send a note from home or a doctor. Injured students that require a cast will not be eligible to participate in class.

Expectations!

Ms. Traci Classroom Rules

Have Fun!

Be Safe!

Be Respectful!

Be Accountable!

REMINDER The weather is very unpredictable and it's boot and coat season, so please be sure your child has a pair of appropriate gym shoes to keep here at school. Often you may find your child has grown quite a bit since the beginning of the year. You may need to ask your child if their gym shoes still fit! Please have your child dress according to the weather. There may be some weeks that we will be going outside for class

Keep In Touch

Please contact me at any time by email or phone. My door is always open. I will be in touch through periodic newsletters to keep you informed of upcoming events.

Thank you again for your support.

Ms.Traci Fuller

tfuller@mtschool.org

732-928-1500

Please keep your eyes open for upcoming events that will be taking place this year!

MANCHESTER HIGH SCHOOL

CHALLENGER LEAGUE

Manchester Township High School Challenger League Sports includes Soccer, Flag Football, Basketball, and Baseball. We host challenger athletic games on Sunday mornings from 10am – 11am throughout the local Ocean County High Schools. Each season has a total of 9 games. These games are designed to encourage social and recreational opportunities for students that have special and unique needs. All accommodations are met based on the needs of the athlete. Uniforms are provided for all players. Challenger begins at 6th grade through 21yrs old, until the student graduates.

I’m proud to say the league has been participating together for 15 years. I am excited for each Challenger Sports League Season and I am looking forward to working with you and coaching your child. My goal for the season is for each athlete to have fun and the opportunity for socialization with friends and peers through athletic participation.

At the end of every spring season the team has an awards luncheon sponsored by POAC/ Elks at Southern Regional High School.

If you are interested in your child playing or have any questions please contact me at 732-928-1500 or through email at tfuller@mtschools.org. I am looking forward to sharing this wonderful experience with you and your child.

Traci Fuller Manchester Challenger League Coach

This year is off to a great start with the woodshop being open for business and we are back to making saw dust again. Some students have already mastered using the scroll saw and are currently using the scroll saw to cut out their first project. They we able to cut out 3 different size pumpkins and fastening them together for a fall project. I am letting the students pick out their own designs, fasten it to a piece of plywood and cut the pattern out. Some students are still in need of help and I am continuing hand over hand instruction. The students are extremely happy to be back in the shop! We are still introducing new power tools but, even more importantly we are having safety meetings and discussing and learning even more ways to be safer in the shop.

For the students that are not using power tools we are currently working on small assembly projects and STEM based activities. Thankfully Regional Day School received a grant to purchase STEM based learning supplies. I have been implementing my lessons and using these STEM based activities with the students. I have been also teaching "Lefty Lucy" and "righty tighty" with the students using a small plastic jeep that has plastic screws and nuts. The younger students have been disassembling the jeep and putting it back together.

Skip

Let's congratulate our Student Council members

Cody K.- President

Jacob H. - Vice President

Aden K. - Treasurer

Travis J. - Sergeant in Arms

Amaiya B. - A Pod Representative

Tommy C. & Myrtle R. - B Pod Representatives

Juan S.C. - C Pod Representative

In picture from left to right: Jacob, Travis, Tommy, Juan, Cody and Aden. Missing: Amaiya

We are all so excited to be back in full swing in art. Our students have been busy using numerous new materials to create a variety of fall projects including decorations for our upcoming Halloween Dance. Acrylic paints, liquid watercolors, chalks, collage, glitter and stamping are just some of the materials we have been using. Keep an eye out for some of these projects to be coming home soon. Others will be kept for the RDS Art Show at the Manchester Township Public Library coming this March for Youth Arts Month. We are thrilled to be able to participate in this show again after 3 years. More information will be coming out when it gets closer.

We will also be participating in the American Legion safety poster contest due in January. We love to participate in this contest because they always recognize our school with a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prize. They then send our winners on to the county level where we have done quite well in the last couple of years.

Before you know it the holiday season will be upon us and we will be super busy preparing for Holiday Express and our annual tree lighting. Please don't forget to check out the art gallery of student work on the RDS home page. Simply click Departments and then ART in the drop down. You will see the art galleries listed by year for you to enjoy. I update the gallery regularly so please check it from time to time to see what's new.

To see what our artist have been working on, please visit the art gallery on our website at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1297GzcS3PXqyq2s4Hax1aRoI0z9odX45

Sincerely,

Miss Paula

The students have been working very hard since we started school in September. We took some time getting to know each other. We were able to share a lot of things that are important to us. I truly enjoyed learning many facts about all of them.

We began the year by reading The Outsiders. They all enjoyed becoming familiar with all of the characters and how the novel unfolded. We completed an in class project of their choice after reading the book. We also got to enjoy watching the movie and comparing it to the book.

The students began creating slogans and speeches for the Student Council. They were very creative and proud of their efforts in making posters to display around the school. We were excited to hear the results of the student council candidates and can't wait to see the exciting things the Student Council do for the students at Regional Day School.

Our trip to Johnson’s Farm was awesome. We had a great time picking pumpkins and getting a chance to pet the farm animals. It was really a lot of fun. Thank you to everyone who supported our fundraising so we could go on this trip.

A2 really enjoyed the school’s Halloween parade and party this year. It is always so much fun to see everyone dressed up and having a great time celebrating with each other.

We are looking forward to the Holiday activities throughout the school in the upcoming months.

Ms. Carolyn

It’s another great school year here at RDS and the students of A-3 have hit the ground running. The students have enjoyed learning about current events, both locally and worldwide. We have been learning about money, savings, inflation, taxes and other aspects of financial literacy and how it relates back to current economic trends. We have been focusing on developing our functional academic skills and have integrated the skills we have learned in the classroom into real world applications. We took different units of measurement and learned how to use them for cooking purposes. By making fruit smoothies and cupcakes, not only have we learned how to measure and follow recipes, we have learned about kitchen safety and workplace readiness.

The students also continue to work on mathematical computations and reading comprehension skills daily. We really enjoyed learning about fire safety and exploring the fire truck. It's been an amazing start to the year and I am very proud of all their accomplishments.

Mr. Rosetti

The students in A-4 have had an amazing start to the school year! Everyone is settling into their new routine and adjusting nicely. The students have been learning different strategies to use when adding and subtracting, number patterns and adding two digit numbers. We are currently reading Charlotte's Web and are looking forward to watching the movie to compare the two. In Science, we learned all about apples and even got to taste test and vote on our favorite! In Social Studies, we have learned all about communities and community helpers.

For the month of October the students were given a pumpkin to decorate based on their favorite character from a book. They were so creative and they all did an awesome job! Our class had the opportunity to go on a field trip to Johnson’s Farm. They went on a hayride, got the chance to feed farm animals and were all able to bring home a pumpkin. We ended the month by having our Halloween parade and dance. All of the students looked great in their costumes. We are so excited to learn so many more new things this school year!

Miss Kim, Miss Nikki, Mr. Keith and Miss Erin

We are so excited to have another fun school year in B-1! This fall, we welcomed a new classmates! We have been engaging in social studies lessons on how to make new friends in school, and how to be respectful to our classmates and peers.

Our class has been so excited to re-introduce field trips to our program! So far, we have gone sunflower picking at Holland Ridge Farms, and explored the Field of Dreams playground in Toms River! We are looking forward to attending trips with our classmates throughout the school year!

Some academic favorites from our class have been items from the B-Pod STEM cart! Students have been engaging in a variety of STEM related science lessons.

We will continue to explore cause and effect relationships, constructing and building items, as well as developing a relationship with science, technology, and the world around us.

Miss. Angela

B2’s Digest

What's going on in B2?

Welcome back to school! It’s been an exciting couple of months already! Students have been experimenting with our BRAND NEW STEM Cart!! On this cart, students are working on a variety of problem-solving skills and utilizing updated equipment to learn about science and engineering.

B2 has also been working very hard on ADL and Culinary Arts skills. Recently, several students worked with Mr. D to prepare breakfast for the entire class. They followed step-by-step instructions and practiced safe and healthy food preparation practices (washing hands, wearing gloves, etc.) while working hard on this delicious breakfast. They even got to share this with their peers in BPod and it was a success!

There have also been a lot of Current Events to discuss recently and students are actively involved in digesting the information. The students in B2 were interested in Hurricanes and Hurricane Relief. This also lead to a learning exercise about how hurricanes happen.

We were excited to congratulate Myrtle as part of the Student Council. Myrtle, She can conquer any “Hurtle”

TOP STORIES

B2 Takes on Field of Dreams

October 21, 2022

On October 21st, B2 students and their friends tried out the Toms River Field of Dreams. Students were able to participate in so many adaptive activities, including playground equipment, a trampoline, mini golf, and much more. Parents should definitely look into the requirements for taking their children and donate to help provide more adaptive equipment.

READ MORE ON OUR WEBSITE

https://www.manchestertwp.org/rds

It has been a busy Autumn for the students in B-3. We’ve all enjoyed many Fall activities in September and October. B-3 has been hard at work improving our existing skills and learning new ones. After recalling information about school rules, using good manners, different ways of showing kindness and respect, and celebrating Constitution Day, we’ve jumped into hands-on activities to observe and explore signs of Autumn all around us.

Some of the topics of our lessons and activities are related to harvest. Students learned about the anatomy of an apple and they compared tastes of the green, yellow and red apples.They also learned about photosynthesis and they extracted chlorophyll to answer the question: “Why do Leaves Change the Color in Autumn?”

We continue to work on academics, practice kindness, and improve pre-vocational skills. B-3 students are hosting B-Pod snacks every Friday afternoon.They prepare snack menus, collect data about preferred snacks from B-Pod classes and put snacks into reusable containers.

All of the B-Pod students practice good manners, socialize and enjoy Friday afternoon with their favorite snacks. Recently we all had a lot of fun at Field of Dreams- we hope to go there again soon!

Ms. Anna

I am so excited to join the Regional Day family! In B-4, the students have been working hard and having a lot of fun!

We had our first show and tell! Students enjoy talking about their interests and their lives. Show and tell is a great opportunity for them to do this and also helps them to work on their communication and listening skills. The boys each brought in something that they wanted to share with this class. Each student got a chance to share about why their item was so special to them while the rest of the class asked questions, listened carefully, and waited their turn patiently.

We have been working on our social skills and manners which is extremely important. We have been making a note to acknowledge everyone who comes into the room, saying please and thank you, using full sentences when talking to teachers and each other, and other things of that nature.

We love to utilize the STEM supplies. Our favorite was when we built a marble run together which required a lot of strategizing, working together, and problem solving.

Miss Ellie

We are having so much fun learning in C-1! Our students love learning through hands-on experiences that connect to what we are studying. The beginning of the school year has started out strong with consistent routines, a multisensory classroom environment and lots of love. We are having fun with apple STEM experiments, cutting apples and making homemade applesauce. We love exploring sensory bins that are filled with shapes, letters and fine motor materials. We are also showing lots of progress with our language skills through the use of verbal language, AAC talkers and Picture Exchange Communication. We look forward to learning more and having fun in Preschool.

Love,

Miss Allison and the Preschool Staff

The seasons are changing,

That much is clear,

Leaf colors are vibrant,

And C-2’s learning this year!

We learned about differences,

Kindness, sharing and friends,

We help one another,

“Passing forward” - no ends.

We explored many things,

And the life cycle shows,

Sunflowers, pumpkins and gourds,

From seeds they all grow!

There’s much learning in play,

A favorite thing in the Fall -

We visited Field of Dreams Playground,

A place so special for all!

We welcomed some guests-

Firefighters, Veterans and such -

They all were amazing,

Giving of themselves, oh so much!

Now as it gets cooler,

We must continue our quest,

Finding good in all others,

And always doing our best.

So let’s all be thankful,

For friends, and family so dear,

Continue to share goodness

With others this year!

Ms. Dawn

C-3 is having a great school year! We welcomed new friends to our class this year. We are so happy our C-3 family is growing. We are enjoying all things fall and are excited for the holidays! We want to wish everyone a happy and healthy new year!

Ms. Michelle

The first few months of this school year have flown by and our preschoolers have enjoyed all the hands-on and fun lessons that were incorporated in our “all about me” theme, and our investigations of apples, pumpkins, and community helpers. The students enjoyed touring the Ridgeway fire trucks, our weekly music therapy sessions, participating in the Halloween Parade, and dressing up for all the fun spirit days. The students and staff loved going on their first field trip in two years to Field of Dreams. The smiles on the student’s faces are memories we will cherish forever.

Thank you to all the parents for attending our Back to School Night. It was a huge success this year and your support is greatly appreciated.

This Thanksgiving we are so thankful for our students and their families, and wish them a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving!

The C4 Staff

Ms. Maria, Ms. Nancy, Ms. Jess, Ms. Melissa, and Ms. Dina