Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!  

We have been busy in the SCORES room!  Last week in social group, we worked on perspective taking and inference through watching various Mr. Bean animated clips.  There are many animated Mr. Bean clips on Youtube.  Mr. Bean is a great way to practice perspective taking and inference because he doesn't talk much and when he does, he has major Mumble Monster in his brain!  He also has really exaggerated and silly behavior so it offers a lot of opportunity for inference conversation.  Plus, the kids are really engaged because he is funny-Bonus!  

In Lunch Bunch, we worked on kindness.  Click here and scroll down to Wall of Kindness to learn more about this activity.

This week, we are working on empathy in social group.  We are completing various worksheets together from the book, Teaching Children Empathy, The Social Emotion by Tonia Caselman.  Click here to learn more about this book.  We have been focusing on rating ourselves in regards to empathy and empathetic listening.  You should see these worksheets coming home in their blue SCORES folders.  Their homework has been to discuss these topics with you using their worksheets.  In Lunch Bunch this week, students are playing a Valentine's Day Social Language game made by Jenna Rayburn.  Click here to learn more about this game that has many components of social language.

I am super excited about our social group activity for next week!  We are going on an social skills scavenger hunt!  There will be clues throughout the building that get the kids thinking about appropriate social communication skills and then they will have to demonstrate inference and conversation skills to get to the next clue.  It should be super fun and engaging!

Parent teacher conferences are in full swing!  I am attending as many conferences as I possibly can.  Inevitably, there are scheduling conflicts when working with 13 teachers.  If I am not able to attend your conference, I am happy to meet with you separately to discuss your child's social progress.  Call or email me if you would like to set up a meeting.  

I just received Summer Camp information.  Click here and scroll down to Summer Camps 2013 to download the packet.  It has information about various camps available in our area.  Many camps fill up fast, so if you want to get your child in a specific camp, I encourage you to start the process as soon as possible.

As always, if there is anything I can do to help support you and your children, please contact me.  -Angela Cardenas