This was a "Turtle-ly Awesome" week at the Arc of Abilities! We had so much fun learning about turtles and tortoises with Intern Mallory, whose lessons were great! Our volunteer time at Grove Chrisitan Outreach was productive on Wednesday, and on a very rainy Thursday we welcomed Jeff, who brought his own kind of "sunshine," and helped us create beautiful art. We also had a surprise visit from Moose Patti on Thursday! Then, we were glad for actual sunshine on Friday when we went to work at Pet Supplies Plus, followed by an afternoon at the park. Check out our last week of March, 2024:
Tuesday, March 26
Our day began with a lively "Donuts and Dancing" period. There is a counseling office in Williamsburg called Precision Therapy PLLC, which serves individuals with disabilities. They stopped by to visit the Arc office and dropped off donuts, which the Arc office shared with us! Thanks to our peeps at the Arc office, and our friends at Precision Therapy PLLC, too!
Mallory was with us every day this week while Tracy was out of town. Yay for us!! She began a weeklong series of lessons and activities on the differences between turtles and tortoises today. Mallory has a number of reptiles for pets, including one turtle and one tortoise. One thing we learned today is that turtles generally have flatter shells with webbed feet and are more streamlined for swimming, while tortoises have shells that are more dome-like with clawed feet that are better for land travel.
Mallory shared a video about a personable sulcata tortoise named Tiptoe. Mallory's tortoise is also a sulcata, and her name is Sweet Pea. To watch Tiptoe's video, click on the pic!
The weather was too chilly for us to go out in the morning for our Spring Scavenger Hunt on campus, so we stayed at AFCC until after lunch. We decided to go to CW and look for signs of spring that would inspire us for the artwork we would be doing with Jeff on Thursday. It wasn't as chilly, but the sun was missing in action, and it didn't seem like spring, but we still found signs!
One sign of spring we noticed was nowhere to park at the Visitor Center where we hoped to park and ride the bus into CW! Tourist season is here, which is great for our economy, but not us. We were lucky to find space at the parking deck on N. Boundary St. today!
Here, Carol was pointing out the different stages of tulips in bloom. We carefully observed the colors, stages, textures, and such of all the flowers, trees, and other plants we saw. Hopefully we will use our observations for inspiration with Jeff on Thursday.
Some things we found were not actually signs of spring!
We ran into Adia who was arriving at the library with her new day program group! She was like a sign of spring because she suddenly burst on the scene with her colorful smile! We were so happy to see her!
We look great whether the sun is shining or not!
We returned to the center for a few minutes of Choice Time, but this group decided to organize the Bingo prize box, which will come in handy tomorrow for our Easter Bingo game! Lots of thanks to Dev's sister, 9 year old Hailey, for sending in some awesome prize donations! 💖💖💖
Wednesday, March 27
Today we split into two groups and sent one of them to volunteer at GCOC while the other stayed at the center to work on crafty dioramas with Mallory. When the GCOC group returned, they made dioramas, too. We also dabbled in Easter crafts this morning and colored more eggs and other pictures for decorating our walls. The room is bursting in spring colors!
We worked with Peggy (missing from photo) and Joel, the Birthday Boy (tomorrow) to fill nonperishable food distribution bags.
After our productive work session, we were given gifts of Easter Egg "Mystery" Art kits by our friends at Grove! We're posing here with volunteers Joel and Peggy, and Ally (behind Emma), who is the Community Engagement Coordinator at GCOC. Thanks for the surprise gifts, Grove Friends! We love working with you guys, and look forward to our biweekly visits very much!
Meanwhile, at AFCC, Mallory was busy guiding us in the creation of "turtle-ly" amazing dioramas which featured turtles or tortoises we made with clay! Thanks for providing the materials, and your expertise in diorama making, Mallory! We had fun coming up with our scenes, and deciding which kinds of turtles or tortoises to make. We loved the colorful clay for the shells! This was fun, and something we had never done before! 🐢🐢🐢
Mallory showed us what all of the options were for supplies, and then modeled how to use them to make our dioramas.
Alexis needed a little more clay for her tortoise.
Drew added moss to his diorama under the watchful eye of his buddy, Abraham!
Devin, Emma, and Liz worked on their projects with Mallory, too. Devin was using a cotton swab to spread glue so he could use sand for his base.
Laura wanted a desert background, so we helped her cover the bottom of her box with glue and sprinkle sand on top.
A few of the finished products!
After making dioramas, we had Easter crafts to fill the time. Making these cute bunnies made Beka and Lexi very "hoppy!"
We also made our own Easter Bingo cards and later, played Bingo with them. Nan encouraged Kevin to use a lot of colors to bring his card to life!
During Choice Time, Beka, Sam, Erik, and Devin enjoyed a game of Hungry, Hungry Turtle that Mallory gave us!
We finally finished Zorgamazoo! It was a fun book to listen to since it was written in rhyme. It was also filled with fantasy, mystery, non-scary gore, and lots of humor. We liked it!
Thanks again, Grove Christian Outreach Center, for the special gifts today!
Thursday, March 28
Today was super busy but also a lot of fun! First, we met Sweet Pea, Mallory's tortoise, who came to visit. Next we made homemade corndogs and veggie kabobs so we could celebrate National Something on a Stick Day for lunch. We also made homemade turtle candies for dessert in honor of Sweet Pea! By 10:30 we welcomed Jeff for a colorful art lesson (perfect for a rainy day), and later Moose Patti popped in to see us as well! It was a great day, and we have lots of pictures to prove it!
We were very happy the rain didn't stop Jeff from making the trek from Lanexa to spend time with us today. He decided to change the theme from spring to underwater, but we were cool with that. He gave us drawing lessons, and then we drew our scenes with crayons. Just like Jeff predicted, they burst to life when we colored them in with watercolors. As always, Jeff worked the room and helped anyone who asked, while also dishing out lots of positive reinforcement and encouragement. He's so good at that! He brought his speaker and a rocking playlist, too!
Mallory introduced Jeff to Sweet Pea. He showed us how to draw a sea turtle, though!
Painting jellyfish with Drew!
Jeff was joking around about something and Devin called him on it!
Jeff's inspiring artwork!
Our incredible artwork! (Most of us, anyway!)
Lunch was served when we wrapped up our painting. Jeff joined us in our National Something on a Stick Day celebration! Everyone said the homemade baked corndogs were good. (If a bit dry and crumbly!) Our veggie kabobs were gorgeous, and the turtle candies were the perfect ending!
Not long after we said good-bye to Jeff, we had a knock on the back door and it was Moose Patti! She had an unexpected day off and chose to spend part of it with us. We caught up on everything, including the upcoming 9th Annual Women of the Moose Golf Tournament which will be on August 3 this year. Please mark your calendars now! We hope to have more teams, more sponsors, and more volunteers from Arc of Abilities than ever before. It's so much fun! Thank you, Patti, for putting so much work into planning the tournament. It is a monumental task and you always pull it off in grand style!
August 3, 2024 at Kiskiack for the 9th Annual WOTM Charity Golf Tournament
Mallory led us through the end of our day. First, she shared a story she wrote, which was illustrated by her husband, Mark, about Sweet Pea. It's written with Sweet Pea as the narrator and it ends with Sweet Pea about to meet new friends and have a new adventure at the Arc of Abilities! After that, we got our zen on with Jaime's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles yoga segment followed by a relaxing Peace Out segment. Our busy, rainy day ended just right!
Friday, March 29
This morning some of us went to work at Pet Supplies Plus and the others worked on updating our calendar for April. Between all of us, we got a lot done!
Patrick found pictures to add to the calendar squares.
Liz trained Beka on inserting pictures, too! Great job on both of their parts!
Speaking of great job, Abraham and Drew colored some nice pics for our April Spotllight Wall!
Xavier helped to update the Birthday Board! Spring birthday season is upon us!
Michelle and Kevin said, "Bring on April!" as they reset the calendar dates.
Laura and Annmarie colored the letters that spell APRIL. We think this is one of the prettiest "month walls" we've ever had!
At Pet Supplies Plus, our team spent their time stocking shelves and enjoying the animals.
Erik and Devin assisted Scott with the heavier bags of dog food.
Mallory assisted Kate, Alexis, and Emma with the stocking of a variety of items on the dog aisle. Thanks again for hanging with us all week, Mallory! We really enjoy working with you!
Bryan and Tessa worked well together finding homes for things on the fish and small animal aisle.
Kittens Donut and Oreo are looking for a forever home.
Our team suggests you come and get some Easter toys and cards for your favorite pets!!
Once our PSP crew got back to the center, we traveled to Newport News Park for a picnic and search for turtles. It was sunnier and less breezy during the picnic, but once we got on our walk across the bridge, the wind picked up and the sun began going in and out of the clouds. It got a little chilly, then!
The water was higher than we've ever seen it, and there were little waves! We didn't see turtles like we always do, and we were a little disappointed as this was going to be the "big" ending for Mallory's weeklong unit on turtles and tortoises!
We persevered, and finally spotted two turtles sunning in the distance! Mallory zoomed all the way in with the camera and got this photo. She said these are red-eared sliders.
It was only 1:15 when the chilly weather had us thinking about heading back to the center. When we got to the vans, we saw the "Open" sign on the door so we decided to pop into the Discovery Center. We enjoyed a half-hour of engaging activities and interesting exhibits!
Beka noticed several types of turtles in this display.
Michelle and Drew with one of the many hands-on items, a turtle shell!
Coloring pages are always a hit!
Carol assisted Laura with a crayon rubbing of a ladybug.
Patrick enjoyed working the jigsaw puzzle.
Many interesting animal books to read!
Our stop at the Discovery Center put a great ending on our "Turtle-ly Awesome" week! Thanks so much, Mallory, for your engaging and interesting lessons. We learned a lot, and had fun doing it!
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We returned to the center with just enough time to chill for a minute, gather our things, and head home to start the weekend. We'll welcome the month of April when we return on Tuesday! Here are our plans:
Tuesday: It's the first Tuesday of the month, so wear your Arc shirts for a bowling morning followed by pizza for lunch! It's Spring Break week, so the picnic areas at the parks may be busy, but if not, we'll eat outside and take a nice walk before returning to the center for a Mystery Science lesson about April Fools' Day...no kidding!
Wednesday: We'll get our science on today as we learn about solar eclipses in preparation for the one occurring April 8. We'll also learn about rainbows since it's National Rainbow Day! There are birthday cards to make, too. Students are on Spring Break, so we hope to use the gym for movement and games. Lunch on your own. Microwave available. No JRES Cafeteria this week due to Spring Break for the WJCC Schools.
Thursday: Sam's birthday is Sunday, but we are celebrating it today with (at his request) a visit to the American Revolution Museum in Yorktown. Sam loves history! His parents will join us and also treat us to boxed lunch sandwiches from the museum cafe (we preordered last week) and pie for dessert. Thank you very much, Teri and Tim. We're looking forward to celebrating Sam's birthday with you!! Please wear Arc shirts.
Friday: We're off to Eaton for a work day, so please wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch. Depending on the weather, we'll either take a walk after working or return to the center for yoga with Jaime.
Happy Easter Weekend to All,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
