On Tuesday, March 11th the Freedom Acres Gym was transformed into a Hawaiian Luau setting for a school dance in which all students and staff took part. Students with Severe Cognitive Impairments (SCI), students with Severe Emotional Impairments (SEI), and Alternative Education students (A2) came together for a fun-filled morning. ”Wowie Maui,” Freedom Acres’ first SCI dance, was the product of a cooperative effort between Adaptive Physical Education teacher Carol Ritcheske, SCI teachers, and SEI and A2 staff and students. The 4 SCI classes were responsible for creating and delivering invitations, making wall decorations, providing refreshments, and making picture frames for souvenirs. At the water/punch station, teachers incorporated switches and Boardmaker pictures for students to use when requesting refreshments.

The SCI Dance was a Service Learning project for the A2 class and began with the purchase of Polaroid cameras. The A2 students took individual pictures of the students and put them in the frames made by the SCI classrooms, for parents to take home. The A2 students were also in charge of the different stations — the DJ station for music, the picture station, the refreshment station, as well as dancing with the kids. Laura Lynch’s students in the SEI program took pictures during the dance—a total of 250 of them!! WOW!

Parent turnout and participation in the dance was excellent! The event was festive and fun as guests, staff and students dressed up in Hawaiian garb and were given leis to wear. Everyone enjoyed dancing to music from the ’60’s...a great time was had by all! Many thanks to parents, Bob Kjolhede, Scott Hubble, and Maureen Reeder for taking time out of their busy days to visit and take part in the fun! Thanks too to Terry Platte, our Principal, for his support and enthusiasm!

 

Everyone loves to do the "train!"

Dancing to 60's music is great fun!

I'm having fun!	New Friends!	Time for a slow dance!

Nice posing for the photographer!