What's Happening in the School for the Deaf

February 2022

Oh yeah, we think outside the Bach’s. (a music pun :))

Yesterday, our music therapist, Julie, and our music therapy intern, Adrianna, presented their School for the Deaf middle school musicians. The performance included a student keyboardist playing Beethoven, two duets with electric guitar and drums, and drum soloists. It was a joy to be in the audience and to receive the gift of music.

December 2022

In the School for the Deaf High School English classes, students have been learning about figurative language, personification, and metaphors oh my! In these photos, the class is practicing their poetry and personification skills by mirroring an ASL poem by Ian Sanborn called, "Caterpillar". The smiles and enthusiasm are contagious as the students also play handshape games and have fun with their language.

November 2022

Sweet!

Young student, in the School for the Deaf, proudly holds up his heart art that has three "I Love You" handshapes coming out of the heart. Student grins happily.

November 2022

Bulldogs Space Center! Introducing our new theme for the School for the Deaf Play-Based Learning Center - the Bulldog Space Center, where our Little Dippers can learn through space exploration. -School for the Deaf Instructional Coaching Team.

November 2022

In the School for the Deaf, Kindergarten and 1^st grade class, students have been enthusiastically learning about farm animals, where we get our food and milk, and what life is like on a farm! We concluded our learning by attending the Colorado Kids Ranch located in Monument on a field trip! There were farm animals and the kids got to feed the chickens and goats! There were even pretend cows so students could get a feel for what it would be like to milk one! We took a hay ride, explored the haystack tower, the obstacle course, the tube slide and even a playpen filled with corn kernels!

The students absolutely enjoyed Halloween dressed in their fabulous costumes, participating in our annual CSDB parade and we went trick or treating around the campus! We had a wonderful storyteller, Jennifer Mclellan, share a Halloween story with K- 5^th graders!

We moved on to learn about the Day of the Dead. Families sent in a photo of an ancestor and students were busy making tissue paper colorful picture frames for them. They learned what an ofrenda is and made craft flowers and candles to set one up. Students decorated sugar skull cookies and set them on the ofrenda as well before gobbling them up for their afternoon snack! The pumpkins that were brought back from the farm, students enjoyed bedazzling and painting skeleton faces on them! To wrap up our learning students sorted Halloween and Day of the Dead symbols into a Venn diagram to see visually what is different and the same between the two holidays!

We will be moving onto exploring places in our neighborhood and community heroes and there is even a play-based Bulldog Pizzeria set up in our classroom! Come in for a visit, they would love to take your order, make your pizza just how you like it and then of course, demand that you pay the cashier working that day!

by Ms. Rachella Ortiz

October 2022

Check out our Halloween Costume Parade, CUTE!

October 2022

Written by Julie Harrison, CSDB Music Therapist

A young woman holding a guitar meets a student at her school bus. The student finds it difficult to transition into the school day, and music is one of the supports she needs. The woman plays songs the student has come to associate with easing into the day. Erin smiles and begins to pat her legs. She rolls into the school building in her wheelchair.

Music therapy is a research-based health profession in which a board-certified music therapist uses music interventions to reach non-musical goals in a non-threatening environment with people of all ages and abilities. Music therapy can benefit in any setting, such as academic settings and medical settings. Music therapists work towards academic, communication, cognitive, behavioral, social and motor goals.

Music therapists, such as the one in the above story, are trained to utilize the captivating elements of music to help students with non-musical tasks such as transitions, learning the braille code, utilizing their assistive communication devices, and reinforcing Orientation and Mobility, Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy goals. 

CSDB has one certified music therapist who serves as our music educator, and a music therapy intern serving students until January.  The educator/therapist often co-treats with other professionals at the school and supports academic teachers with their IEP goals. She serves the School for the Blind and the School for the Deaf. This month, she will serve the Outreach department by supporting their family programs.  While we do not currently provide one-to-one music therapy services, we incorporate music therapy strategies in all music education settings. Music is a powerful tool for many of our students and can help our students thrive and achieve at CSDB.

October 2022

YUM!

Physics students, in the School for the Deaf, are learning about properties of matter, as well as physical and chemical changes as they make their own ice cream.

October 2022

Kaela Mangiaracina, one of our elementary teachers, has a background in filming and SFX (special effects makeup).  This year Kaela is teaching an elective drama class with our elementary students.  This week she has been teaching kids how to do makeup and special effects makeup, in class.  The students are completely captivated and loving it!

October 2022

In the School for the Deaf 3rd-5th grade social studies class, with Ashley Wood, students have been learning about types of landforms. https://csdb.colorado.gov/gottlieb-elementary-landforms

September 2022

The 1^st and 2^nd grade class this year, in the School for the Deaf, is starting off shooting for the stars!!!! After a few weeks of assessments and getting to know each other, students are getting right back into the swing of things.  In math class they are reviewing counting and skip counting. They have been playing games like race to 100 and working together to skip count to solve mazes.  For literacy, our class has been exploring the solar system.  We are looking at non-fiction text features and making connections to the materials they are learning about. They are reading books about the planets, sun, moon and stars.  In the coming weeks we will be making some fun crafts for the phases of the moon and learning more about astronauts and their jobs.  This past week we made hats of the planets and the order they occur in the solar system.  Students thought it was so funny that the solar system was bigger than their heads because their hats kept falling off their heads!

August 2022

July 2022

Remarkable creativity! Thank you to Jerry and the Colorado Springs Stormwater Enterprise as well as our CSDB art teacher, Allie Unker, for bringing this opportunity to #CSBDBulldogs students.

July 2022

Check out Murder on 5th Avenue, a production by CSDB!

Congratulations students in the School for the Deaf, and teacher, Julie Harrison, writer and director, for a terrific production! Huge thanks to students at Cherry Creek High School for voicing the characters who use American Sign Language.

June 2022

June 2022

A full audience watched the School for the Deaf Elementary Spring performance, yesterday. If you missed this cute show, here's the link! https://youtu.be/7pozxbb6rHA

May 2022

May 2022

Deaf Safari Day at the Denver Zoo!

More than 1,500 families, adults and children who are Deaf explored the zoo and visited vendor booths, including the CSDB booth! 5 staff from Outreach and The School for the Deaf represented CSDB to share information and connect with families! The excitement for being back in person, and at this event was overwhelming! We look forward to the next event!!

May 2022

Students from CSDB and two other schools (New Mexico SD and Utah SDB) went to the Aspen Camp for an experience where students learned construction-related job skills from experts in the field. Deaf contractors and hearing/signing contractors communicated with students about their jobs. Interpreters on-site facilitated communication when needed.

For more about this story, check out the Colorado Sun article: https://coloradosun.com/.../colorado-education-aspen.../...

Students rebuilt a deck, painted an entire lodge (outside), rebuilt benches, dug up a gas line, poured concrete, repainted the camp sign, chopped wood, learned how to use tools properly, and did some landscaping. All this to prep the camp for the summer, while learning new skills.

Students truly enjoyed the camp and made friends with students from other schools—networking skills!

May 2022

Students who are Deaf, in grades 2 through 5, are having a great time touring area parks and hiking trails as part of the Afterschool Outdoor Adventure club, each Wednesday.

https://csdb.colorado.gov/outdoor-adventure-club

April 2022

April 2022

Middle school and high school students participated in the yearly Optimist Club Communication Contest for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (CCDHH).

The topic for the 2021-2022 school year is: "Staying Optimistic in Challenging Times." As a precaution for COVID, their speeches were recorded and sent to ASL judges instead of giving a presentation in front of an audience. Best of luck to all contestants!

April 2022

High school science students, in the School for the Deaf, designed and built strong nests, to hold up to four real eggs (representing bird eggs) for one hour, using a variety of recyclable materials. Their nests were either hung from branches or laid on branches. In the end, students' nests were able to each hold four eggs securely, after being untouched, for one hour.  It was a great experience for the high school science students.

April 2022

This week CSDB is celebrating National Library Week. Today, the PPLD Bookmobile was on campus, and several students from the School for the Deaf enjoyed picking out books and movies.

March 2022

Today, Seniors presented their Capstone projects.

March 2022

In the School for the Deaf K-1 class, students gave their first academic presentation on animals and described basic information such as where the animal lives, its habitat, what it eats, and a few unique facts about their animals.

March 2022

March 2022

A place of exceptional coffee and kindness - Third Space Coffee! Our very own student, in the School for the Deaf, works at and is mentored by the terrific staff of Third Space Coffee, which is found at 5670 N. Academy in Colorado Springs. His goal is to open his own coffee shop, and he's gaining experiences now to reach that goal. Huge thanks to the staff for your support!!!

March 2022

Students in the School for the Deaf 1^st and 2^nd grade have been working really hard these last few weeks researching different kinds of animals.  Our class explored what class of animals they belonged to, what coverings they had on their bodies, how they move and so much more.  We also enjoyed fun St. Patrick’s Day activities.  Students took time to make traps to catch those sneaky leprechauns.  They were sure to include lots of glitter, rainbows and green so that their traps were appealing.  Students also followed a recipe and measured to make a special St. Patrick’s Day snack.  Lastly, in math students have been working hard to learn subtraction.  They love to use the shiny rocks to help them when they are practicing their skills. It has been a very exiting March!!!

March 2022

Fluency with addition and subtraction, with additional visual cues, have been the utmost focus for the students in one School for the Deaf mathematics class. A variety of manipulative approaches have been incorporated and still are used for the students to enhance their skills that align with real-life resources such as, time and money. Per time and money, the students are diligently using their adding and subtracting tools, on a daily basis, to ensure their habits with time and money are verified as they strive toward their life goals.

Written by Justin Wilson

March 2022

Colorado Reads! This week, in the School for the Deaf, students participated in activities to celebrate literacy.

March 2022

Read Across America Day brought together CSDB students along with students from other schools (virtually) to enjoy stories and crafts.

March 2022

CUTE! Today is Read Across America Day and our students had a blast! Students from the School for the Deaf were joined by Deaf students from other schools, to watch an ASL Storyteller and make celebratory hats. Students from the School for the Blind enjoyed hearing a story, making crafts and seeing the Cat in the Hat!

March 2022

Students in our Deaf Elementary Family unit are learning about gardening. In this 3-month gardening adventure, students will have their own 3x4 garden plot to dig, plan, plant, and water. They will learn about the safe and proper use of garden tools and how to plant for success as they start their own tomato plants. In the Fall 2022, students will return to the garden to harvest their crop.