If you had stopped by ISDB on October 31, you would have seen the Elementary and Special Needs students thrilled to be dressed up in all sorts of creative costumes. Their teachers use the opportunity of this day to make the traditional Trick or Treat custom come alive in the school building, which includes teachers having goals for their students to stretch their skills to communicate with multiple adults in the school as they stop in offices to ask for “treats”. (None of them were really planning for any “tricks”!)
Before heading out from their own classrooms, the teachers intentionally practice the expectations for the communication needed for the typical Trick or Treat interaction-- with their students, some of whom are learning to use alternative modes of communication. The staff around the school gain great joy in supporting the students in these communication opportunities, as the students come in to show off their costumes and ask for that treat! This photo features a young preschooler whose desire was to be “a fish” for Halloween. His teacher, Jodie Hamilton, obliged him preparing a variety of details for the full costume--- she was the fisherwoman and he was the fish! Wherever they went in the school, staff and other students were treated to see them “act out” Fisherwoman Jodie swooshing her fish net to “catch” her student. He was delighted every time!