Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Has it really been that long since we last updated our blog?  We have been so busy having fun that we lost track of time!  Happy New Year to all of our friends and family! We wish you all the best for 2013!

So what has been going on in the Hayes Transitions class?  We have been busy with lots of exciting learning experiences to prepare our students for the "real world"!  Before the holiday break, the class had a hot chocolate fundraiser to earn money for Toys for Tots.  The students created a product, a yummy one too, determined how much money they would need to sell the hot chocolate for in order to  make a profit, and sold it to the teachers and their peers during lunch periods everyday for almost a month.  In the end we had made enough money to take everyone on a special trip to Toys R Us where they picked out the perfect gifts to make the holidays a special time for children in need in Delaware County.  We even had time to head over to Polaris Mall for lunch and to do a little holiday shopping of our own!  

Also, the students worked to design, create, and build the Hayes Transitions Villa Apartments.  The students designed floor plans for their apartments by using graph paper to measure and draw templates to build the floor, exterior walls, and bedroom walls in their gingerbread apartments.  They used their cooking skills to make the gingerbread dough, used their templates to cut out the floor and walls to their buildings, and then followed directions to bake their gingerbread dough into perfect building materials.  We have quite a few future architects in our group!  Before they could build and decorate their apartments, the students completed roommate compatibility surveys to find their perfect roommate, a rental application, a lease agreement, a roommate contract, and wrote checks to their future landlords for rental application fees and security deposits.  Finally, the students decorated their new apartments to show off at our Hayes Transitions Open House.

A big thanks to all of our community friends, family members, staff members, and the Delaware County Board of Elections for stopping by to visit us and check out the apartments at our open house in December.  It was very exciting to see so many people there to support our students, teachers, and classroom goals.  The students worked really hard getting ready for the open house event by making invitations for their favorite people, creating a menu, and preparing appetizers for our guests to enjoy.

Since we have been back in the classroom, we started to discuss and investigate possible future careers, traveling independently around the community, and the positive and negative aspects of using social media.  Yesterday, the students read an article from Scholastic about how the things we post on Facebook could have negative consequences in our lives.  Then we created a class list of the "DOs and DON'Ts" when using Facebook or other types of social media.  It was a really great learning experience for everyone and I must say, we already have some technology savvy young adults in our midst.  Check back soon for pictures of all of these exciting events and more updates from us on our journey to become successful, independent adults!