Monday, April 6, 2015

Little Feet Meet!

Recently some of our outstanding students were excited to participate in the Little Feet track meet at Albemarle High School. The Little Feet track meet is a program with the Special Olympics of Virginia that seeks "to bring together children with and without disabilities to promote more inclusive school environments." You can read more about the Little Feet meets at this link.

Students from Mr. Spellman's class and Ms. Clark's preschool class traveled to AHS with a buddy from each of their partner homeroom classes, who were there to encourage their friends and to support all of our Baker-Butler students.

One the best parts of this day was the celebration send off that the teachers organized to cheer for our students as they left for the track meet. Classes lined the hallways and curbs to encourage their friends with their personalized signs and cheers.

Our students cheering their friends on to the buses for the Little Feet meet.
 
Preparing to cheer on the buses as they leave.


Cheering on our friends. 

Check out this video that Mr. Spellman took from the bus as they left to go to the meet!



 You can learn more about the track meet through this news story about the event, and by looking at some of these pictures from the Daily Progress.

All of our students had a fantastic experience at the Little Feet meet this year, and it was a powerful day that unified our entire school community.

New American flag thanks to the American Legion!

Recently we had the privilege of partnering with our local American Legion post for a very special activity.

While we had a formal Virginia flag that we use for special occasions, we discovered that we did not have a formal United States flag. Ms. Beauchamp in our front office shared this with a friend who is a member of the American Legion, and they immediately offered to donate a new formal flag for our school.

American Legion and our bus drivers (both veterans) saluting as our flags were raised.
We asked our new partners at American Legion Post 74 to come present the flag to our students and to share about their service and why the American flag was so special to them. We invited our 5th grade students who volunteer to take care of our outside flags every day (you can read more about them in this blog post from the fall ) to receive the flag on behalf of the school.

American Legion sharing about the American flag and their military service. 


 As a gesture of thanks from our school, Ms. Beauchamp created a special thank you note for the American Legion. We wanted to share out sincere appreciation for their generous and thoughtful gift to our school, and this framed thank you card was signed by our fifth grade students. The members of the American Legion shared that they will display this in their lobby here at Post 74 in Charlottesville.



Formally presenting the flag to Baker-Butler students.


Baker-Butler students presenting their thank you card to the American Legion. 
We are so appreciative of the American Legion as well as all of our community partners!