Art sessions at Rebecca School focus on building relationships through play and involvement in a variety of art experiences. With each interaction the therapeutic dynamics of art media are utilized to support each student’s core developmental capacities, creativity, and emotional processing. Through emphasis on process over product, healing components of art materials are used to establish rapport, deepen avenues of relatedness, and encourage communication. In order to maintain and grow this dynamic program, art activities across all capacities are guided by each student’s individual profile. Art activities can focus on sensory exploration, fine motor skills, visual-spatial processing, and stress reduction. Art groups can also address skills relates to sharing space, turn-taking, and symbolic ideations, to name a few.

Poetry

Poetry at Rebecca School began four years ago with a small group of students gathered together for an affinity group in the library. Since then, it has grown into a regular, weekly program that reaches every classroom and age group in the school. These Sensorimotor Poetry Workshops are a unique curriculum model designed and taught by Donnie Welch. They incorporate sensory play, social-emotional learning, rhythm, and movement into the reading and writing of poetry. They’re based on the idea that sensory integration goes hand-in-hand with literacy learning; that movement helps us understand rhythm, rhythm helps us understand poetry, and poetry helps us understand each other.