“Come As You Are, That’s Really All We Ask!”

8th graders are learning a lot of important life lessons while participating in our St.Vincent Special Needs Services. This incredibly impactful school community offers students who are differently abled support and access to resources they need.
Our students have got a great tour of facility over the past few weeks and are preparing to join classes and make new relationships. They got the opportunity to speak frankly about the social stigmas this population faces. This community are often the forgotten ones, but we stand a chance to change that for our students. We are proud of this partnership and look forward to sharing more.

In the meantime, we enjoyed and marveled at the amazing equipment students at St.Vincent have access to. Did you know that there are Beanbag chairs that have bass systems inside of them?!

If you are interested in learning more this topic, please check out this site! 

Horseshoe Tagging!

Unquowa Kindergarten and Grade 4 students visited the beach in Southport this week to help tag horseshoe crabs as part of a research program at Sacred Heart University called Project Limulus. Graduate students working on the project met us at the beach. They shared their knowledge about the horseshoe crab with our students and taught them how to tag them. It was such a huge success that the Project Limulus students ran out of tags!! All in all Unquowa Students tagged 25 horseshoe crabs and learned so much about this remarkable creature.

Touchdown!

The eighth graders participate in a Service Learning program as part of their curriculum. Our students travel either to Feroleto in Trumbull or Giant Steps in Southport each Thursday to spend time with their “buddy” either doing art projects, participating in P.E. or just hanging out. 8A had their third visit to Giant Steps School on Thursday and it was our best visit yet! The Giant Steps students were so excited to see us and we were greeted enthusiastically by Carson’s buddy, Charlie. A few of us spent the hour in the playroom helping the children use iPad apps and even learn to ride a scooter while the rest of 8A joined the PE class. The kids paired up to play many games, but the most exciting moment of all was when Stuart’s partner caught a football in “the end zone” and the teachers all jumped and cheered. In fact, the whole room was celebrating because as we later found out it was the very first time that child had ever caught a ball! The look on the eleven year old’s face was absolutely priceless! His aid later explained that Unquowa students bring a special energy and a peer connection that encourages the kids to take risks that they otherwise wouldn’t be willing to take. It was a very special moment and we look forward to spending more time at Giant Steps in the weeks to come.