West Genesee High School students, under the direction of Megan Toumbacaris, speech-language pathologist, participated in the service project, Operation Summer Cinch Sacks. The students had been working on the important social skill of thinking of others over the course of the school year. It is a hard concept to learn, but is important as students get older and prepare for life beyond high school.
It was a team effort with kindergarten teacher Julia Gauzza; special education teacher, Traci Washo; and teaching assistants, Kara Creighton, Erika Nelson, Mary Telesca, and Christine Theberge pitching in to get the job done.
The West Genesee students assembled literacy supplies into cinch sacks for Ms. Mary Ellen LaFevre’s first grade class at the Roberts Elementary School in the Syracuse City School District. The bags were filled with literacy materials to keep the students who may have limited resources at home, learning over the summer months. Supplies included a calendar of social and expressive language based activities for the students to try at home, a grade level reading book as well as pencils, erasers, stickers and other fun literacy tools.
Students not only donated items for the bags, but worked on numerous real life skills while completing the project. Counting, categorizing, organizing, asking questions, following multi-step directions, and working with others were some of the functional skills accomplished.
In the fall, the students from West Genesee hope to take a virtual field trip to Ms. LaFevre’s class to meet her students, and then make more literacy bags in the spring. This will again work on important social skills for all of the students involved and hopefully instill the character trait of service to others. Way to go Wildcats!