BackPack Program

We are beginning a partnership with a food bank.  It is called a BackPack program through Central Pennsylvania Food Bank. I was fortunate enough to hear about it and decide with help we could do it.  

A grant from a local agency has got the ball rolling.  Now, setting up the volunteers needed to pack food into the backpacks and ordering food and identifying the children will take some time. Oh and we are doing a food drive for the Easter holiday and to kick off the program.  The food drive flyer will be attached to a brown lunch bag to give the kids who can contribute as a reminder and something to stuff items into.

I am providing a link to the BackPack program. Hope it becomes clear where you should use your talents in a similar way!

http://www.centralpafoodbank.org/AboutUs/OurPrograms/BackPack.aspx#.UypTXym9LCQ

Cool and In School Club

We are about to start another round of our Cool and In School incentive parties.  The program was started by an intern I worked with at the last school I provided social work services in.  We developed the concept together.  The idea was to encourage children to attend school and attend school on time.  These children were chosen for this group based on their ability to be on time or in school.  Many had trouble getting to school and the chosen for that purpose.  We decided on a minimum number of days absent or late to be enrolled in the program.  At the present school I work with another intern on the concept and have developed an even more expansive program.  We track attendance and then invite children to parties on a quarterly basis.  My intern, Dana, is very creative and finds some fabulous themes for our parties.  We have had a happy Owl-o-Ween party. We have decorated Easter eggs, created Valentines, and had a science party as well.  It has made a significant difference in attendance for children who were really struggling.  I will try to attach pictures of the parties so you can see some of the cool ideas.   Of course Pinterest has helped.  Hope you like the idea and use it at your school!

Puppet Time and other Play Techniques

http://pages.uoregon.edu/cfc/classes/CPSY_642/Readings/Class%209/Fifteen%20effective%20play%20therapy%20techniques.pdf

Some great ideas for play therapy. 

I have used several of these. I recently used a puppet with a fourth grade student who is very reserved if not guarded. I interviewed the puppet of its career goals. The student enjoyed the puppets ability to answer for him. The puppets hair shook as he nodded its head.  This expressiveness was fun for both of us. 

Hope you are able to incorporate puppet time even for your older student!

Perfect Attendance Winner

We began in this new school a year ago...a team made up of a guidance counselor and me, the social worker.  It has been great fun!  I created a program called the perfect attendance winner.  It is meant to reward  children for attending school every day and on time.  So every two weeks I choose a name from all the children attending.  Then I check their attendance for the last two weeks.  If they have been to school every day for the last two weeks and on time, they win prizes.  I also take their picture and place it on a bulletin board with perfect attendance winner as the title.  The picture remains up the entire school year.  Prizes include small things like bookmarks, pencils, tiny prizes such as erasers, journals which are composition books.  This program shows a significant increase in attendance over the entire school year for the last two years.  I hope it works for your school too!  Let me know what your results are.  Thanks so much for checking out my blog.

I am so thankful for family today, Thanksgiving.  I wanted to put this up on my blog to let them know.  Here is a free printable from a lovely blog site:
http://www.landeeseelandeedo.com/2012/11/simple-thanksgiving-mantel.html




I can see a great many purposes for this printable in therapy.  I am envisioning printing the statement, then adding the client's description in their own writing to the printable.  This would be a nice way to repair a relationship between child and parent.  You could also do it as a filial therapy assignment where the two talk to each other through their entries on the printable.  Such as "you make my day!" and "you are so kind to me!".  I often make suggestions to get this kind of assignment started.
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Hope your day is fun and filled with memories and family moments!

it's a great party...only more fun...many ideas for great plans for kids!

I've been really super busy.  I did get my job back in the school...It has been amazing moving back in.  I'm in a different school now.
The kids may need me more here, as there seems to be a great interest in the social work aspects of my position. I will be able to use those networking and problem solving skills I have developed in my studies and research.
But also, I am excited about the space that I will have to do some of the activities. I have begun to look again at how other blogs can lend themselves to great ideas for child therapy and play therapy, not to mention filial therapy!  Hope you enjoy this link, and that you join me in this research.  Comments anyone on the ideas found here? or other ideas found at other sites?  Let's share, or let's party!
God's blessings on your work and your play!



http://livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/2011/10/linky-party-3.html

I have been super inspired about the options for sensory play in the  blogs I have been reading.

I created this idea to use popcorn and measuring cups and spoons for the kids to play with.  I just happened to have a popcorn bucket.  A happy accident.  My youngest, B, was not so excited about the sensory bucket at first.  But then, he was all about it.  Using a spoon to make the popcorn fall into the bucket and make a sound became his favorite activity in the end.  It made a sound like rain fall.  So, of course, I had to sing “Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.  Barney’s friends all want to play.  Rain, rain go away.”  The kids, my older daughter, J, nine years of age, play with the bucket for 45 minutes.  They added B’s cars at last, and created their own play.

Another idea I found in a blog includes the light tray made in from a clear storage container.  I used this inspiration to expand the play with an booster tray simply because I had no clear container.  Battery operated lights showed the shapes of the items on the tray.  First I utilized some magnet shapes but the shapes were not new in our play.  The nature items found outside were more interesting, but some were a little ‘prickly’ so they were maybe not as exciting to my older, more sensitive, daughter, J.  Due to her Down Syndrome, she is sometimes too cautious.  But the stencil and crayon play excited her.  We also drew some freehand flowers which she also enjoyed. 

Given more time, I think we can find even more things to use for a light tray, like a house key, feather, kitchen utensils.  You tell me what you think!