Louis Braille School

Welcome

Welcome to this first edition of the Louis Braille School’s Classroom Notes. The monthly publication will be archived on our website blog under the category “Classroom Notes” for your future reference.

Each month, we would like to share with you instructional milestones which our special students are achieving through our holistic approach to education.

In addition to highlighting student achievements, we will be including upcoming school events and fundraising activities, as well as individual profiles of teachers and administrative staff.

We hope you will find our articles to be inspiring and
informative.

Apple Picking Time

This month we’ve been talking about the seasons and what we do during different times of the year.

Since fall is apple picking time, the students have been participating in educational and fun-filled activities involving apples:

Learning about Johnny Appleseed
Singing songs about apples
Creating apple art
Planting apple seeds
Making delicious, mouth-watering applesauce in our microwave oven

Before making the applesauce, we did some research.
First, we tasted 3 different types of apples (red, yellow, green) and made a tactile bar graph to show which we liked the best. We kept the seeds from the apples and counted them to see which apples had the most and the least seeds. One of the apples had only one seed. We planted the seeds in little pots and put them on our windowsill.

Next we visited a grocery store to purchase applesauce ingredients. Each student chose two apples and weighed them on the scale.

We are including the quick and easy recipe for those of you who like applesauce.

Microwave Applesauce
6-8 medium apples, peeled, cored, and cut up
1/4 cup water or apple cider
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar (optional)
1/4 cup brown sugar (optional)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

In a 1½ quart covered glass casserole, combine all ingredients. If making unsweetened applesauce, omit the sugars.

Microwave on high for 4 to 6 minutes, or until apples are tender. Add a little more water if needed.

For chunky applesauce, mash apples with a fork or potato masher. For a smoother texture, put cooled mixture through a blender or food processor.

Student Highlights

One of our students has learned to zip his jacket by himself. It is sometimes difficult to get two hands and ten fingers to work together. Since the weather is getting colder, accomplishing this goal seems quite appropriate.

Another student is mastering the concept of “grouping” in math. Grouping is being able to arrange items in different clusters yielding the same answer. For example, there are three ways to make 3: 1+1+1, 2+1, and 1+2. Our young student understands the groupings for numbers all the way up to 8.

A student enjoyed a breakthrough at the computer in learning to control the screen by using the mouse. Educational software programs with bright colors and appealing pictures give rewarding results.

Fall Crafts

Apple Art Prints
Cut an apple into different shapes. Using the apple pieces like stamps, dip an edge into paint and then press the painted side onto a piece of paper. Paints in shades of apple red and apple green make especially appealing apple art prints.

Leaf Art
Cut a leaf shape from construction paper. Brush glue all over the leaf shape. Crinkle dry leaves and scatter the pieces over the glue.

Fall Leaf Stained Glass
Take a walk outside to collect 4 or 5 fall leaves.

Scrape pieces of crayons with an ice cream stick to make shavings.

Arrange fall leaves on a 12 inch piece of waxed paper. Put the crayon shavings in the spaces between the leaves. Lay a second piece of waxed paper on top of the arrangement. Hold the two pieces of waxed paper together with paperclips.

Place a towel over the waxed paper and iron at a low temperature. Display in a window.

Our School in Bloom

Thanks to a kind donation from Edmonds in Bloom, and the expertise of master gardener Barbara Chase, a planter of fall color brightens the front of our school. The planter box is full of asters, sedge, hebes, euonymus, sedum and “hen and chickens.” Barbara also helped us plant grape hyacinth bulbs that will bloom in the spring.

Looking Ahead

October 2 – HibernationParty Students may wear pajamas to school while they learn how animals prepare for the winter.

October 22 field trip to Fairbank Pumpkin and Animal Farm in Lynnwood. Date to be announced.

Science In October, we will begin a series of lessons about how our bodies work using our 4-foot skeleton and tactile models of various organs.

Social Studies We will begin a series of lessons about the Native Americans and the early settlers known as Pilgrims. Our students will learn the importance of respecting the land and will consider what it would be like without electricity, cars, plumbing, television, and computers.

October 10 Noon dismissal, teacher half-day.

October 24 Noon dismissal, first quarter parent conferences.

The Louis Braille School invites you to stop by the Edmonds Public Library during the month of January, which is National Braille Literacy Month. Visit the main lobby display case to see our exhibit.

You will learn about Louis Braille, the Frenchman who invented the raised dot system of reading and writing. January is his birth month. A slate and stylus, the primary means of writing braille during Louis’ time, are there for you to view along with a brailler and a chart of the braille alphabet and numbers.

Several tactile items are on exhibit including three pictures created especially for our school by the Seattle Area Delta Gamma Alumnae Group, a talking puzzle of the United States, a braille watch, a ruler, a measuring tape, and a popular children’s book in braille and print.

Beautiful tactile flags of the United States, Canada, and Mexico made by volunteers are proudly hanging for all to see. There is a talking world globe which is particularly popular at Louis Braille School summer braille camps.

The Edmonds Public Library is located at 605 Main Street, Edmonds, WA 98020. Visit the library website at http://www.sno-isle.org/or call 425-771-1933 for more information or directions.

Press Release

Louis Braille School Presents:
The “Touch to See” Program at Imagine Children’s Museum

In celebration of National Braille Literacy Month, the Imagine Children’s Museum is featuring a special presentation by the Louis Braille School. The “Touch to See” program will be on Saturday, January 12, from 11 am to 2 pm. Visitors to the museum will have the opportunity to braille their names on a braille writer, explore braille books with tactile illustrations, and try a talking calculator and braille watch. They will meet a guide dog and enjoy a story read in braille by the guide dog’s handler.

The Louis Braille School, located in Edmonds, is a private, non-profit, day school for children who are visually impaired. January is the birth month of Louis Braille, the Frenchman who developed the raised dot system of reading and writing. Visit the Louis Braille School website at http://www.louisbrailleschool.org or contact the school at 425-778-2384

Imagine Children’s Museum, “a place where fun begins and learning never ends” is located in downtown Everett. Dedicated to helping children understand the world around them, the Museum is proud to partner with the Louis Braille School for the “Touch to See” program.

Visit Imagine Children’s Museum website at http://www.ImagineCM.org or call 425-258-1006.
Press coverage.

On a drizzly Sunday afternoon in October, Louis Braille School director Carolyn Meyer joined guide dog puppies-in-training and their trainers at Fall City Farms in the foothills of Washington’s Cascade mountains. The trainers, affiliated with Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael, California, were from the Western Washington puppy training group. The crowd enjoyed freshly pressed apple juice, toured the working farm and purchased organic produce from the little store. One young pup showed up in a scarecrow costume in honor of the Halloween season.

For information about Guide Dogs for the Blind, visit www.guidedogs.com. To learn about puppy raising, click Programs/Dog Programs/Puppy Raising.

For information about the farm, go to www.fallcityfarms.com

On Tuesday, September 4, 2007, the Louis Braille School will welcome students for the 2007-2008 school year.

The school, approved by the Washington State Board of Education, provides a ten-month academic program. Instruction in skills of everyday living and orientation and mobility is integrated into activities throughout the day. The school features individualized educational programs and hands-on individual attention for each student.

Tuition is $1,500 per month. Financial assistance is available. No child is denied because of a family’s inability to pay.

To register your child or to make an appointment to visit the school, call 425-778-2384, or email Christina

Spring 2007

The Louis Braille School received a community grant totaling $2,500 from The Fred Meyer Foundation. The funds will support the activities, supplies and staff needed for the School’s two-week summer Braille Camp.

Braille Camp is a two-week summer day program for children who are blind or visually impaired in kindergarten through grade eight. The Camp runs from July 16th through July 27th, 10 am to 2 pm. Campers meet at the Louis Braille School, 10130 Edmonds Way in Edmonds, Washington. Tuition is $250 per child.

Activities planned for Braille Camp this year include a trip to the Edmonds Fire Station, Swedish folk songs and dances, red clay pottery with an Edmonds artist, hands-on country and blues music with Blues in the Schools, drumming with LaDrumma, the Woodland Park Zoo Education Outreach Wild Wise Program, and Guide Dogs for the Blind puppies-in-training and their trainers.

Glynda Brockoff, Philanthropy Coordinator for Fred Meyer and The Fred Meyer Foundation, said. We hope this community grant will help the School continue the important work it is doing to enhance the welfare of the community. We are proud to be part of the Edmonds community and are committed to helping where we can. These grants are the result of true community efforts involving both our associates through our annual Employee Giving Campaign and our customers through the contributions they make in our stores using the Make Change Count coin boxes and scan cards at the check stands

Fred Meyer is a division of the The Kroger Co., which is one of the nation’s largest food retailers. The Fred Meyer Foundation has awarded grants totaling over $7.2 million since it began awarding grants in December 1998. For more information call the Foundation at 1-800-858-9202, ext. 5605.

On Thursday, January 22, Carolyn Meyer, director of the Louis Braille School, will present a program about blindness to members of the Edmonds Lions Club. Lions Club members, with eyes closed, will participate in a short lesson in reading braille with their fingers. They will learn about the tools and skills that help people who are blind live full and independent lives.

For more information, feel free to call or email.

Blues in the Schools is coming to the Louis Braille School on January 25 from 11 am to noon

Blues in the Schools is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing educational music programs for schools. Blues in the Schools hires musicians to teach the history of the Blues, a musical art form that originated in Africa, to young students and teach them to play musical instruments.

Blues in the Schools musicians will be at the Louis Braille School on Thursday, January 25, to present a special program for our students. Music will be explored in a hands on setting with the children actively participating in the creation of music and songs.

There is no cost for this program. Please join us in saying “thank you” to Blues in the Schools for this very special gift to the Louis Braille School. The web site address for Blues in the Schools is www.bluesintheschools.org. Thank you!

On January 20, 2007, Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett will present an all-day program about vision challenges titled Can You See How I See? The Louis Braille School will offer information and hands-on workshops about braille and what it is like to be blind. The program for children ages 3-12 will run from 10 am to 4 pm.

The Children’s Museum is located at 1502 Wall Street, Everett, WA. Phone: 425-258-1008. Website: www.imaginecm.org

Carolyn Meyer, director of the Louis Braille School, was awarded ‘The One World Award’ by the Washington Council of the Blind at its annual convention in November.

Carolyn was recognized because of her outstanding contributions which have provided an opportunity of equal access for people who are blind or partially sighted. Because you do what you do, blind children are taught skills affording them independence for life, and the use of braille will live on in Washington State. Your efforts represent large steps in the concept of one world for all.

The Washington Council of the Blind has a rich history of legislative and community involvement. It works to promote equality, independence, and opportunity for blind individuals in all aspects of the community.