Leah Hodgeson, the special education teacher at Central Intermediate School, had her Central School life skills program 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade students at WCMY Wednesday to get our lobby decked out for Freezin for a Reezin.
It was part of the Central School tree decorating contest, the 5th Annual Prairie Fox Books Holiday Tree Competition. It’s a Holiday Tree Competition that is open to classrooms, families, and individuals who would like to decorate a tree downtown and participate in the friendly competition.
The life skills program kids of Central School in Ottawa chose a coffee-themed Christmas tree this year and made ornaments for the WCMY tree with coffee beans on them or coffee colors. It was based on their “coffee cart” idea, her students bring coffee to every teacher’s classroom on Wednesdays. This year marks WCMY’s first year of participation in the program.
The Central school has a kitchen in their classroom for Special Needs kids where they teach them life skills. Hodgeson and her two aids have the kids grocery shopping every Wednesday where they focus on what they call community training. Hence a big orange school bus turned up at WCMY last Wednesday.
Hodgeson, in her 18th year in teaching, inspired by her mom, who worked with special needs kids, also shares that love.