Welcome to the New School Year at Acera!

Welcome to the new school year! We have been getting ready for your student this week and throughout the summer! We are very excited for this new beginning, and are looking forward to seeing all the students together next Wednesday, September 8th! In the meantime, here are some highlights from our summers and preparations that we are making for the Fall. We are also adding details about the classroom, our Open House, and necessary items to bring in during the first or second week of school.

Summer Fun: Ms. Jen

Ms. Jen had a great summer with family and friends!! After a masked school year, remote education, and social isolation, she planned opportunities to connect with loved ones. She traveled to North Carolina to see her brother, sister-in-law and nephews as well as a number of friends! She also spent two weeks in Chatham with her daughters, Maddie (23) and Anna (21) and their besties and then time with my West Dennis cousins. I also spent last week in Yarmouth visiting several beaches and resting before the start of the year!

I sailed a couple of times and it inspired me to re-launch my sailing career! I am taking an intensive certification course in Boston this Fall so that I will be able to take the ASA 101 Basic Keelboat test. I am really looking forward to the course and hoping for some nice sailing weather in late September and October.

Summer Fun: Ms. Alaza

I spent most of the summer at Acera teaching Summer camp. 🙂 It was such a positive and gratuitous learning experience to create hands-on camp fun. When I wasn’t teaching, I spent time catching up with my family in Missouri and exploring. This summer was a bunch of firsts for me! I was blessed enough to attend my first wedding, build my first scale model house, eat good food whilst being entertained at a murder mystery dinner and experience being inside a cave with absolutely no cell reception…. It was beautiful! Oh, and I got a fish named Kitty.

Summer Work

My new home in Arlington is coming along s-l-o-w-l-y but this summer I was able to tackle painting in the bedrooms and a most challenging hallway! The 2-floor hallway involved some creative scaffolding and days of peeling, scraping, plastering, sanding, and painting. It was SO messy! Not to mention that my new puppy, Penny, was house training. She did well when I was attentive, less well when I became absorbed in one project or another.

I also did LOTS of reading for fun and learning. The best school related book was Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism and Asperger Syndrome which confirmed my thoughts about how important understanding sensorial issues in all children and especially children with ASD! It was very compelling and will inform my practice going forward. Acera’s hands-on, progressive, and integrated approach serves children with hyper and hypo sensitivities beautifully!

Summer Preparation

Creating a New Environment

The classrooms last year needed to be specially designed for COVID, and as the returning families would share, Room 1 was outside last Fall! Our classroom was used for summer camp and so over Labor Day weekend we will work together to transform the environment to suit our new and returning learners. Dusting, cleaning, and organizing as well as lowering our adjustable tables to accimodate our 11 Kindergarteners and 5 First Graders. We will continue to adjust our classroom materials and furniture to adjust to the needs of our students.

Making Materials

While walking on Nauset Beach last week I started picking up white pebbles… and then as my hands became full grabbed a few shells to act as buckets! Picking up pebbles and filling up my shells lasted for a couple of hours and while engaged in this activity, I thought about our Room 1 students. What could they do with these materials? Sort from small to large? Large to small? Bright white to grey? Circles to ovals? My imagination is nothing compared to a 4 to 6 year old! I expect they might assign names to the stones and make a story or allocate a numerical value to the stones. We can’t wait to see how they interact with all the assembled materials available! As you have the opportunity (again) to see the classroom, please ask about the materials whoes use might not be immediately obvious.

Writing Cards

We understand that the upcoming year brings all kinds of feelings… excitement, anxiety, joy, and uncertainty. All feeling that children have will be acknoleged and accepted. Our brief introductory cards will hopefully support the positive feelings, and please encourage your student to write back! A picture of the summer, not necessasarily “writing” is communication! There is also no need to write back as we will be using the prompts “How was your summer?” to start our bonding and communication. Comming to the classroom Open House on Tuesday afternoon might also help with the transition to school!

Open House, September 7th 1:00pm to 43:00pm

On Tuesday, September 7th from 1:00-3:00 we will be having an Open House or Open Classroom! Vaccinated parents and child are invited to come anytime for 15-20 minute visits to meet the teachers, see the classroom, find their cubby, drop off extra clothes, and tour the space. Alaza and I will be working on the space and invite the children to do the same. This is clearly optional, and we will offer Home Visits during the year if Teacher/Student connections need to deepen.