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Each December The NSSA Parent Association hosts a holiday party complete with pizza, dessert and live music.
Teachers and direct support professionals enjoy the festive atmosphere while students and clients enjoy lunch and dancing.
Some of the adult clients have been practicing for weeks to put on a Holiday Singalong, led by teacher assistant Shelley.
Teachers got in the act, too.
And everyone else came to watch and sing along!
As if that wasn’t enough, on Friday, SANTA surprised the boys in Classroom 1 by showing up with gifts for everyone in the room!
It was quite the way to end 2017…and now classrooms are empty and quiet waiting to be filled again after New Year’s with happy excited voices and activity.
Here’s a little video for you…have a Happy New Year.
Everyone looks forward to Halloween at NSSA. Students, clients and staff have fun dressing in costume for the day’s activities.
The Halloween party is a big success with games, activities and treats. Adult clients do a great job running the different stations. And this year some of the younger classrooms went trick-or-treating in the administrative offices.
Students kept busy with games and activities.
And as always, everyone enjoyed the Costume Contest contestants’ efforts.
ELIJA Farm extended an invitation to NSSA’s Adult Services clients to attend a Cooking Demo with natural foods chef and food activist Bhavani Jaroff. Currently Bhavani is running a program called iEatGreen which is helping to facilitate change in our communities, home, schools and workplaces.
On July 12 she visited the ELIJA Farm to speak to our clients about healthy cooking and eating.
The demo was beneficial for our clients so they could learn how to prepare healthy food choices. They were also practicing attending to a speaker while in a group. And the most fun part, they got to try new healthy foods.
A. is enjoying the demonstration.
B. & J. eagerly await their sample meals…
…and relish the new dishes when they arrive!
Bhavani shared some recipes for healthy cooking:
Wilted Kale Salad with Pepitas, Pomegranate Seeds & Lemon Dressing
Remove the stems of the kale and discard in compost. Chop the leaves into small pieces and put into large bowl. Squeeze 1/2 lemon onto the kale, drizzle 2 tbsp of olive oil and sprinle 1/2 tsp of salt over. Massage the kale leaves for 3 minutes, until softened. Add the grated carrots, parsely, pomegranate seeds and pepita seeds. Make a salad dressing with the remaining olive oil and lemon juice, and mustard. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with avocado right before serving.
Watermelon, Mint and Feta Salad
Drain 1″ watermelon cubes for 1/2 hour with a bowl underneath (this way you can drink the juice!). Whisk together the white balsamic vinegar, oilive oil and lemon juice in a bowl. Mix the drained watermelon, feta, onion and mint in a large bowl. Chill in refrigerator. Drizzle with dressing, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, and toss right before serving.
The students and faculty of Smithtown High School East, once again, hosted an evening of dancing, food and fun at their Hollywood-themed event for NSSA adult clients, consultation students and Barell students aged 14 and up.
Attendees arrived by walking up a red carpet and into a gym filled with high school students dressed up and ready to dance with our students and clients.
It’s so great to see our students and clients having a great time with the Smithtown East students and one another.
The high school also served a fun pizza dinner that was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Many thanks to Stacey Agosta for helping to set this up, DJ Matt Figuccio for the dance music, NSSA teachers for accompanying their students and Smithtown High School East for their graciousness and hospitality in putting this event on for us once again.
Smithtown High School East once again hosted a Winter Dance for NSSA students and clients who were over 14 years old.
The cafeteria was decorated with a winter theme, refreshments were served by Smithtown High School students, DJ Matt Figuccio kept the dance floor jumping…and there were smiles everywhere.
Thank you to Smithtown High School East with providing our students and clients with another evening of fun and friends!
2016 ended at NSSA with a flurry of holiday activity.
From the end-of-year luncheon hosted by the Parent Association, complete with pizza, live music by Fish and dancing for staff, students and clients…
To a holiday craft led by Tori Ardito…
Thank you to Tori for leading the students in this fun craft project!
And…there was even a surprise visitor…
Thanks for stopping by, Santa!!!
It was a busy but fun and festive end to the year…and we look forward to more good times in the year ahead!
Classrooms 1 & 2 had a surprise visit this week from a Barell parent and brother who came in to read a story to the classes…
…and brought cupcakes to decorate and eat.
Some students enjoyed decorating…
…while others preferred eating!
But everyone participated and had a good time!
Hope you enjoyed being a guest at our little impromptu party!
NSSA closed out its summer session with the 5th Annual Sibling Day on Thursday, August 18, 2016. Invitations were made to students’ and clients’ families to join us for an afternoon of fun, food and friends.There were indoor and outdoor activities, a waterfall slide bouncy house, wonderful Grill Boys food truck lunch courtesy of NSSA’s Parent Association, and a prize wheel and photo booth (thanks to the artistic stylings of Tori). And kids everywhere! Sliding, swimming, scootering, prize-wheel spinning, swinging and just plain having fun. It was a wonderful way to end the Summer of 2016. See you all in the fall!!!
The wonderful students and staff of Smithtown High School East once again hosted a fun evening for NSSA students and clients on April 1, 2016.
They decorated the space and dressed according to a Luau theme and everyone had a great time dancing, snacking and limbo-ing.
The event is geared for students and clients aged 14 and up. Smithtown students encourage dancing and socializing. NSSA staff attends as well.
DJ Matt Figuccio keeps the party lively playing favorite tunes.
Thanks again to Smithtown High School East for being such gracious hosts, we look forward to seeing you again soon!
Martin C. Barell’s Classroom 1 is our youngest classroom, with six boys between the ages of 7-9. Six (wonderful!) teachers work with them throughout the day from the moment they get off the bus in the morning until they leave to go home at the end of the day. As you can imagine with boys this age, this is a busy classroom! Let’s follow them through a day back last summer…
The boys arrive by bus at 9am.
They greet their friends while learning to unpack and put their backpacks away in their lockers.
Mornings are spent doing goal work, such as reading, counting and sequencing.
And then there’s some time to learn to play with new toys.
The teachers were designing a new bulletin board for the classroom with the theme “Kicking Off to a New Year” so we had a little photo shoot with the boys dressed as football players.
Lunchtime is spent practicing using utensils and napkins appropriately and trying new foods.
Once a week the group takes a yoga class where they learn and practice postures and movements.
After working up a sweat in yoga, the class heads next door to the JCC for swim.
Some are super enthusiastic to get in the pool!
Some are a little more cautious…
But once in, everyone enjoys themselves.
After swim it’s almost time to get ready to pack up to go home.
The end of a long day. See ya tomorrow!