Happy Thanksgiving 2019

This week everyone was excitedly looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with their families and friends.  But we remained focused and had a fun and productive couple of days.  

We're only in session one Monday of the year, and that's during Thanksgiving week.  We are thankful to have families who are flexible enough to do this, so we can enjoy Wednesday as part of our Thanksgiving holiday.  




Even though it was a Monday morning, we set to work as if it were a "regular" day, and got busy making posters for Coach Teri's neighborhood holiday party.  This is a "job" we have done a few times each year for a while, and everyone helps by coloring pictures that bring the details to life.  Here is the work during the production phase.  We talk to our "Arc-tists" about coloring "masterpieces" for these important jobs, and they have taken it to heart over the years.  We're proud of them!  (Now to work on the harder part:  cutting!)

This is how they looked when we finished!  Great work by our gang!

For our movement activity on Monday, the guys organized themselves into a great game of pool noodle volleyball!  

The leaves we pressed last week worked nicely for our leaf art project.  We gave the guys some ideas for using the leaves to create animals and insects, but then let them create whatever came to mind.  Kate was making a butterfly and Patrick was making a face with funny hair.  Annmarie, decided to trace the leaves rather than create with them.  We love their individual creativity!

Devin used his leaves to create a turtle, and Abraham and Lisa made an elephant.  Kacie's wheels were still turning, but she eventually came up with a feathery owl.

Aren't these great?!

So cute, and very clever!  The googly eyes brought the pieces to life!

After lunch, we went to the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg for our November visit with Christina.  She began the visit by showing us the beautiful tree that she works diligently to decorate each year.

There are almost 2,000 ornaments on the tree, and all of them are handmade.  It's a very beautiful tree!

For our lesson, we went on a scavenger hunt to find serving pieces, and along the way, we learned about the kinds of foods and beverages that were enjoyed by folks in CW in the 1700s.  In this picture, there is a ceramic punch bowl near the center of the photo.  Christina told us that punch in the 1700s was an "adult" beverage, consisting of 5 ingredients:  fruit, water, sugar, spices, and spirits.  She also told us that "punch" comes from an Indian word which means "five."  Then, she told us the "gross" part:  It was common for guests to drink directly from the punch ladle and then pass it on to the next guest! 😮 

Since there was no refrigeration in the 1700s, food was preserved by smoking, salting, or pickling it.  Therefore, condiments were popular for adding taste to food and were served alongside meals in a "cruet set."  They had salt, pepper, dried mustard, and even ketchup and soy sauce!

With one of the most important meals of the year coming up, Christina thought it would be fun to make place mats in the Education Room.  We went step by step with her and created a collage piece, which she then laminated for us!  

Thank you, Christina!  These are awesome!  Our guys did a great job following the directions, too!  Yay!

On our way out, we stopped to see some conservators who were gilding (with gold!) a chandelier!

This conservator explained the process of preparing a piece for gilding, and how the gold is actually applied.  The two conservators in the background were applying gold while we watched.  The tv screen allows for us to see the gilding process up close.  Very cool!  The chandelier will be finished in a few weeks, and we know where to look to see it when we return to the museums in January!

Sometimes we pair our guys so that one partner is stronger at a task than the other.  This gives the stronger partner a chance to "teach" and "support," while including the other partners in higher-level thinking activities.  On Tuesday, we did an addition worksheet.  Drew and Kevin used the chips to add and Alexis and Liz recorded the answers.  Afterward, they took turns coloring by number to finish the pictures.

Sam and Devin ended up as equal partners for the activity.  What was interesting with this partnership is that they are fun-loving guys who generally enjoy more "active" lessons.  They hunkered down for this one and worked quietly and efficiently to solve the problems for about 30 minutes!  They were proud when they finished, too! 👏👏

We're including Choice Time pictures again this week because we were surprised to see how relaxed everyone was on Tuesday.  They had been revved up a bit before lunch, but all of a sudden about 10 minutes into Choice Time, we noticed how focused they were on quiet activities!

Devin worked on a Thanksgiving word search while Drew played a math game on the computer and Kevin put together his favorite puzzle.  They were content to be at the same table together.

We hesitated to end the quiet Choice Time, but we wanted to watch a Mystery Doug episode about that "red thing" on a turkey's neck, and then do an extension activity.  We learned that the red thing is called a wattle, and it's only found on male turkeys, along with a snood, which is more red fleshy skin on the face. 

 For the activity, we used a paper cut-out of a turkey, paper clips, string, and a piece of straw to fashion a turkey that would wobble down the string.  Which led to us getting "revved up" again, as we tried to get our gobblers to wobble.  For some of our guys, holding the string taut was a challenge, but everyone persevered!

Earlier in the day we prepared pumpkin parfaits to celebrate Parfait Day (November 25th) and to learn that "parfait" is French for "perfect."  We also created our own Thanksgiving Bingo cards by pasting the pictures randomly in the squares so everyone would have a different card.  Laura did a nice job during her spare time of coloring hers!  

And our pumpkin parfaits, which we enjoyed while we played Bingo at the end of the day, were splendid.  Or should we say they were "parfait?"  

Before we wrap up this post with next week's agenda, we want to remind everyone that we are conducting a Food Drive to benefit the Salvation Army.  Please send donations over the next couple of weeks.  We plan to deliver them when we are in the area on December 17th.  Thanks in advance for your support!

We have also adopted two angels from the Salvation Army's angel tree.  We chose two little boys, both age 4!  We're asking each associate to make a donation (suggested $10) so we can shop for the boys on December 5th.  Thank you for supporting this benevolence project, too!

We're excited to help a couple of kids have a happy Christmas, and we're also excited to go shopping for the first time in this program.  We will divide into groups for this, and if it seems like a good activity, we may incorporate it into more of our planning for our cooking and craft activities!

That wraps up our short Thanksgiving week.  We'll return on Tuesday with a full agenda.  Here are the details:

Tuesday:  🎂🎈 It's Carol's birthday today!! 🎂🎈 We'll celebrate with bowling and pizza for lunch, courtesy of Laura's grandparents!  We will return to AFCC after bowling for a yoga session with Kiley!    Wear Arc shirts (and comfy pants)! (And thanks for remembering to wear Arc shirts last Monday for our visit to the Art Museums.  We forgot to remind you in the blog!!)

Wednesday:  It's a big day today!  First, Dave from the Rotary Club will be here for computer lab support, and we will work on the December calendar (which we didn't get to last week).  We're also welcoming special visitors, Pam and the Arc of GW Board of Directors!  We have new board members who want to see our program, and they are going to bring us pasta and salad for lunch.  Sadly, we will not have yoga with Patti as she will be having surgery to treat a lung infection and will not be with us again until January.  We will make her beautiful cheer cards to let her know how much we care!

Thursday:  Yesterday was Dice Day and we enjoy playing dice games each year, so we will do that in the morning.  We'll also begin holiday decorations for our room.  After an early lunch, we will head to Walmart to shop for our angel tree recipients.  Please remember your donations, and wear Arc shirts.  Lunch on your own.

Friday:  We will get back to our states' study today with the 20th to enter the Union:  Mississippi!  We'll also have a history lesson about Pearl Harbor, and continue working on decorations for our room.  Lunch on your own, but we will make Mississippi Mud Pie for dessert.

Thanks again to family and friends who continue to encourage and support us!  We are thankful for you during Thanksgiving...and ALL year long!

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang

A Twist on Turkey!

Yum!  Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and most of us probably expect something like this to be on our table for dinner.  Well, we had a "mini-Thanksgiving snack feast" this week, and our turkey looked nothing like this one!  Read on to find out about our fun twist on turkey that took place on Thursday, and along the way, check out the rest of our week, too!

We were hoping for the weather to at least be sunny on Tuesday, but we got cloudy and cool.  We weren't able to picnic outside and take the hike we had planned at Waller Mill Park, but we did get to Freedom Park for a visit to the garden, some fresh air, and a short walk. 

Laura, Abraham, Patrick, and Kacie noticed a lot of the plants at the raised bed fairy garden were growing and covering quite a bit of the soil.  The pretty rosemary plant in the corner has really grown.

Our mission included finding leaves, because we want to do an art project with fall leaves.  We found quite a few colorful ones that will work nicely!  

We also went to check on the area of the garden that we help maintain, along with our master gardener friends.  We discovered that several of the kohlrabi plants were ready to be harvested!  We first learned about kohlrabi in September when MG Rick shared one with us.  We also planted some that day, and now we're enjoying the harvest! 

While many of Fall's beautiful leaves have fallen, there were still bursts of pretty color along the trail at Freedom Park.  It was a little chilly, but we warmed up as we took a brisk walk!

Nature's crayon box!

When we walk at Freedom Park (or anywhere), we have guidelines, and everyone follows them.  We always have a staff member in the front, middle, and back of the group.  Those who make it back to the small bridge first, wait for the rest of us (instead of going into the parking lot to the vans)...or they can turn around and loop back to walk with our slower-paced walkers, thus getting more steps for themselves!

We returned to AFCC via the Colonial Parkway and spotted more pretty colors there.  If the sun had been shining, these colors would have looked even more vibrant.  

Back at the center, we ate lunch, enjoyed Choice Time, and read last week's blog.  We also discussed plans for the upcoming Christmas holiday.  That was exciting!

Carol took Dev and Liz to Eaton to drop off some parts that Meemaw had gasketed for us this morning!  Hi, James!  And thank you, Meemaw, for doing extra Eaton work for us!

  

Lisa sliced up the kohlrabi, sprinkled it with seasoning, and roasted it in the Nina.

We enjoyed it as a post-lunch snack, but snacking was ok because we looked up the nutrional info on kohlrabi and found it's loaded with vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber...and very few calories!  

We loved that this was growing in the ground a mere 4 hours before we ate it.  Talk about fresh veggies!  It was yummy, by the way!  (Kevin also tried it, but we discovered him sitting at the table munching away after we took the photo!)

Kacie, Alexis, and Kate kicked off Wednesday morning with a shift in the JRES library.  They shelved a lot of books and then worked on preparing others for discard.  

We had to press the leaves we collected yesterday so we can do a project with them next week.  Here, Carol helps Kacie, Annmarie, and Liz put some of them in the press that our master gardener friend Karen gave us.  Liz looks a little skeptical!

This group pressed more leaves the "old-fashioned" way by placing them between books.  We're not sure our guys have much (if any) experience with leaf or flower pressing.  We used pressed flowers and leaves at our last session with the MGs, so this is a good follow up for us.  Pressed flowers and leaves make pretty crafts!

Cameron shows the press that Karen gave us.  It's small and compact.  Beside him, on the car,t are the rest of our leaves, packed between books and with extra boxes on top for added weight.

Shoutout to Kate for taking the pictures of us pressing leaves, so here is a picture of trying to get the best shot!

Wednesday was National Peanut Butter Fudge Day, and we decided to "celebrate" by making some!  Therefore, we had to find some peppy workout videos so we could burn off the calories before we tried the fudge.  

This was a fun one that had us getting our groove on to a silly tune about peanut butter.

Jeff from the Rotary joined us today and worked on literacy and math skills with several of us.  Drew had finished his turn, but he was curious to see what Kacie's activity was!

Even though she still isn't 100%, Patti returned for yoga on Wednesday.  She's had a cold, and lost her voice!  Luckily, it was mostly back today so she led us through lots of stretches.

Balance work is always good for us.

She even taught us a new pose.  Horse?!  Moving with her feels good to our bodies!

After yoga we tried the peanut butter fudge and it was delicious!  This is a sweet group shot, too!

On Thursday, we learned about cranberries.  They do not grow in water, which some people think.  They grow on vines that are low to the ground, in sandy soil called a bog.  When it's harvest time (October-December), the bog is flooded and a harvest machine knocks the cranberries from the vines.  Since they have air pockets inside the fruit, they float to the top of the water and workers are able to help them "swim" onto loaders.  Only 5% of the annual crop is sold fresh, while the rest is made into cranberry products like sauce, juice, and Craisins.  Cranberries are SUPER healthy and are also one of only a handful of fruits that are native to America!  They are very cool!  

Abraham helped us make a simple cranberry relish, which we would enjoy later in the day.  The recipe called for cranberries, pineapple, strawberries and walnuts. 

We also talked about the difference between "stuffing" and "dressing" since Thursday was National Stuffing Day. We made a small amount of dressing, too...for later.  Most of our families make "dressing" since they prepare it as a side dish instead of "stuffing" the bird.  Either way, we think it tastes delicious!  To keep our brains healthy, we used the letters from the words "stuffing and dressing" to make new words like "sun," "finger," and "ride."

Drew made the word "sun" and then Alexis and Devin replaced the "s" with other letters to make the rhyming words "fun," "gun," and "run."

We shared our word lists with the other groups and added words from their lists that we had missed.  All in all, we came up with over 50 words!  

Math got a turn, too.  Becky helped some of us review odd and even numbers.

Xavier was focused on his number work!

We also learned about turkeys on Thursday.  Wild turkeys can fly short distances, but domesticated ones are bred to be bigger, so they don't fly.  The males are more "colorful" so as to attract the females, and, like cranberries, turkeys are native to America!  

Our colorful turkeys landed on the "entrance" wall by the door to our room!

Here's another nice group shot.  This was after we had walked several laps around the big field behind the school.  We referred to it as a "turkey trot" because we needed to burn a few more calories since we were about to have a "mini-feast."

Sam's mom, Coach Teri, sent us a "silly" treat this week:  Roasted Turkey Pringles!  Laura and Drew wondered how potato chips could taste like roasted turkey, so we set up a taste test!

Along with our cranberry relish and stuffing that we made earlier, we added the "roasted turkey" (chips) and had a mini-snack feast at the end of the day.  The cranberry relish was a big hit, very refreshing and tasty!  The stuffing was good too, even though it was a box mix.  As for the turkey chips...score!  Of course, our guys loved them!

Sam gobbled down his "turkey" enthusiastically!  It was a fun treat and a fun afternoon.  Thank you, Coach Teri, for spotting these chips and thinking about us.  They were the highlight after our lessons today, and we enjoyed them very much!

Friday was all about the state of Indiana.  We learned a lot of interesting things, including that they have an official state pie:  Sugar Cream Pie, which is also known as Hoosier Pie.  It's also the official team pie of the Indianapolis Colts! 🏈 And, it's a very simple recipe, too...mostly flour, sugar, cream, and vanilla.  With Kacie as the reader, Liz and Alexis put the recipe together for us. 

Laura and Kevin stepped up to clean the table after we got the pie in the oven.

We sent Devin and Kate to wash the dishes.  No, they didn't volunteer...but they did a great job! 😀

Today's fitness found us walking a mile without leaving our room!  We learned four simple moves and did them to a rhythmic beat for 15 minutes...and it added up to the same thing as walking a mile.  We followed a video trainer, who also had us add in arm movements to up the cardio.

We're all a blur in this picture because we were moving!

Everyone had to make their own meatball sub on a stick for lunch (which is why we aren't wearing gloves).  We followed a pattern to arrange the meatballs on strip of pizza dough and then inserted the skewers.  We put them on baking sheets and labeled each spot with our names, so we would know which sub belonged to which of us!  They baked up deliciously!

After lunch we continued our study of Indiana, learning that the current vice president of the United States, Mike Pence, is from there.  The cardinal is their state bird and the peony is their state flower.  There are also cities and towns in Indiana with names like Scotland, Mexico, China, and Santa Claus!  It was the 19th state to enter the Union, in December of 1816.

Our Hoosier Pie turned out perfectly, and tasted very good.  It's quite sweet, so a little goes a long way!  Indiana likes to keep it simple, and this pie was just that!

We were excited to learn that the Jackson Five (and Michael, of course) hailed from Indiana.  We played their music during our morning dance warm up.  We also danced to another Hoosier, John Mellencamp.  Our guys recognized his song...but not his name. 😕  At the end of the day, Carol told us about a Johnny Cash song that came out in 1964, called "Wabash Cannonball."  Since Kacie had spotted the Wabash River during our map skills work, and giggled at the sound of the name, we decided to play "Wabash Cannonball."  Abraham, Devin, and Sam couldn't resist the catchy tune!  Their dancing put smiles on our faces! 

This week seemed to fly by, but next week surely will, as we are only here on Monday and Tuesday (the only Monday of the year when AoA is in session)!  Here is what our two day week will look like: 

Monday:  We'll be busy in the morning working on creating posters for Coach Teri's neighborhood Christmas party and creating a special project with our dried leaves.  After lunch, we will travel to The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg for a visit with Christina.  Lunch on your own.

Tuesday:  We have a couple of things to do today that will get us ready to welcome December when we return next week.  First, we will prepare our December calendar.  We're also going to put up our Christmas tree.  We have created a paper chain tree for the past 3 years, but we have a new idea for this year!  Finally, we'll review Thanksgiving history, and celebrate National Parfait Day with a light version of pumpkin parfait!  Lunch on your own.

Enjoy the next few days with your families.  We are thankful for your support of The Arc of Greater Williamsburg, and our Arc of Abilities!

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and The AoA Gang