Philosophy
of the WOW Classroom
(Supporting K-6th
grade level of learning)
Lead by
Autumn Cain- DeMeo, CTRS
CLICK HERE for her
first impressions of the pilot program
If you are tired of
schools that seem to only babysit your special
needs child, look no more. We offer engaging
hands on activities in math, language, science, art, music, dramatic
play and social/emotional development.
Our program is ideal
for any child including children with
hyperactivity, dyslexia, disgraghia, Autism,
Giftedness, CP, Downs Syndrome, sensory and
developmental delays.
We believe that
every child is unique and has an innate desire
to learn. Our curriculum is developmentally
appropriate and child-centered. Our teachers
will create hands-on learning experiences
that tap into children's natural curiosity to
explore topics and develop skills. There is
very little paperwork, making this classroom
ideal for children who have not developed their
writing skills or those that experience physical
disabilities such as
Cerebral Palsy or disgraphia.
"WOW kind of evens the playing ground for
children with severe physical and learning
disabilities. They all love it. All
of
our students have 90-
100% retention of what is presented. It is
totally amazing. We have children with CP
that can not
write are
excited about the WOW lessons. Writing takes
them 5-10 times the amount of energy that a
typical student
uses. Some
of them have gifted levels of comprehension,
they just can not write or it's exhausting for
them to write.
Students
with dyslexia need the interactive qualities of
WOW rather than written lessons that accentuate
their
disability. Students with
autism benefit from the playfulness of the WoW
Kits Multi-Intelligence
curriculum
to engage
their
attention and social interaction. The
playfulness also is helping their desire to
speak and use their language skills."
Holly M Fales BS MA
The curriculum is flexible to handle different
situations. Our curriculums are tools that help
smooth the transition of theory into
practice. Curriculum and progress reports are
based on Howard Gardner's Eight Multiple Intelligences.
Eight Multiple Intelligences
Various Learning
Styles:
1)
Verbal/Linguistic - All aspects of formal
language (poetry, storytelling, oral conversations)
2)
Logical/Mathematical - Clear thought process
(problem solving, classifying, sequencing, puzzles)
3) Visual/Spatial
- Visual perception and forming images in the mind
(drawing, painting, playdough)
4) Bodily/Kinesthetic
- Expressing oneself and learning through physical
activities (gross motor skills, blockbuilding,
creative movement)
5) Musical
- Understanding through rhythmic movements (dancing,
circle games, singing, instruments)
6) Interpersonal
- Knowing how to communicate cooperatively with
other people (large groups, role-playing, drama)
7) Intrapersonal
- Inward thoughts and emotions (one-on-one, small
group, independent and imaginative activities)
8) Naturalist
- Observing and wondering about natural environment
(simple science experiments, nature walks, planting,
collecting objects)
The idea behind the theory is that intelligence
is more complex than the traditional view of IQ.
Everyone has different strengths in each of
these areas. Our strengths affect who we are and
how we learn.
Understanding children's strengths and providing
them with activities that play to their
strengths can greatly improve our effectiveness
as a teacher.
Serving Children
with Special Needs
WoW curriculum was designed with the
understanding that every child has different
needs and abilities. The philosophy of a
child-centered approach to teaching and
developmentally appropriate practices guide our
thematic units, helping even inexperienced
teachers to more effectively meet the needs of
children with differing abilities.
Theme-based units
provide a strong context for learning
A child better understands new concepts when
they are put into the context of real life.
Thematic units create this context, and WoW
curriculum builds upon this idea by providing
activities across a variety of disciplines.
Activities incorporate
Multiple Intelligences
A child is more likely to become engaged in an
activity if that activity plays to the child's
strengths. Each WoW activity lists the
intelligences addressed. We use this information
to match activities with each child in your
program.
Each unit is designed to reach and teach every
child
Creative activities are fun for teacher and
child
Variety of activities in math, language,
science, art, music, dramatic play and
social/emotional development
Activities are child-centered
Each thematic unit is designed to be flexible,
allowing us to tailor the activities, the
schedule and even the length of the unit to meet
the needs of the children in our program. Our
professionally trained staff will pick and
choose the activities that best suit our
curriculum goals and the needs and interests of
our children each month. If you have found that
your child is particularly taken with the
tactile activities. The variety and quantity of
activities included in our curriculum allows us
to tailor the unit to this new interest, or
extend the unit, capitalizing on the children's
enthusiasm.
Units
include activities to develop social/emotional
skills Children with special needs
often require extra help in developing
social/emotional skills. Each unit includes a
section devoted to activities designed to
develop these skills, including increasing
self-esteem, cooperation and improving social
interaction.
| Need
to read more on the curriculum? CLICK
HERE |
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Our K-2nd Grade Units already
developed and sold on Incredible Horizons.com
Marvelous Me - Children
will jump into the fun as they learn about their
bodies from head to toe. It's not only about
bones, muscles and body parts, it's about
keeping them safe and healthy too! See real
human x-rays! Listen to your heart with a
stethoscope! Watch children learn about
themselves and their classmates as you explore
the concepts of diversity, family, self-esteem,
health, hygiene and fitness.
Also taught on 3rd-6th
grade level |
Dinosaurs - Travel back to the
time of the dinosaurs. Children
will explore this ancient time through the
adventure based activities. Be a paleontologists
and explore a realistic fossil replica with a
magnifying lens! Our activities will stimulate
an overwhelming fascination for this topic and
makes this a favorite unit among children and
teachers.
Also taught on 3rd-6th
grade level expanding into Archeology |
Construction Zone - From
backhoes to bulldozers you and your children
will dig deep into the world of construction
workers. With help from the activities in this
unit children will become a part of a
construction crew from their hard hats to their
work gloves. A tool set, pounding board and nuts
and bolts for counting and sorting will
transform your classroom into a busy workshop.
3rd-6th grade level will
study machines and inventions |
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In
the Garden
- Watch children’s curiosity grow and the fun
blossom as you explore farming and plants. Kids will keep track of the weather
with a magnetic weather board, use garden tools
and see how plants grow with our unique viewing
planter. Also
taught on 3rd-6th grade level |
Land
of Castles - Our activities
allow our children to travel back in time to the
world of lords and ladies, knights and dragons.
Our activities and exciting materials will help
bring this bygone era alive and spark the
imagination of every child.
Also taught on 3rd-6th grade level |
Five Senses - Explore the
realm of the senses and how we learn from them. Our unique materials and
activities encourage children to put their
senses to the test. This unit encourages sensory
exploration, as children add in their own
imagination and creativity.
Also taught on 3rd-6th grade level |
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Rainforest - We bring the
rainforest to life in our classroom! Our lessons
help us transform our classroom into the treetop
canopies of the rainforest. Children explore the
rainforest through loads of activities as they
learn that the Rain Forests is important to all
living things and should be protected.
Also taught on 3rd-6th
grade level expanding into ecology |
Ocean - Dive deep below
the waves to a world under the sea! We make the
animals of the ocean come alive with sea
creatures and real sea shells that all
work together to help create a multi-sensory
experience for your children. They'll be
sure to have oceans of fun!
Also taught on 3rd-6th
grade level |
Shapes and Colors - We can
spice up the usual routine with our unique
selection of materials and creative activities.
Colored bells and a variety of tactile
manipulatives ignite the senses and enliven
color and shape exploration in all areas of your
program.
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Making Music - Exposure to
music has many benefits for children. It's a
wonderful tool for self-expression, encourages
movement and exercise and supports brain
development. Explore the joys of making music.
Also taught on 3rd-6th
grade level |
Feelings - We will support
your child's emotional development with the help
of this unit. The games, books and activities
encourage children to explore feelings, and
develop empathy and cooperation skills.
Also taught on 3rd-6th
grade level expanding into interpreting facial
cues and body language for improving social
skills |
Letters & Sounds - We help
your children learn to read and write with
materials and activities that make learning fun.
From important pre-reading skills to more
advanced decoding and language skills, our
activities combine a variety of techniques and
approaches to help you make the pathway to
reading fun and exciting for every child. |
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****More 3-6
grade units will be added and published in the 2008-2009 School
year
All activities are planned to motivate and not
frustrate children. Children have a variety of
learning styles combined in a unique blend.
Multiple Intelligence Techniques enable the total
capacity of each child to be developed through the
use of various teaching methods. The curriculum
leaves room for both student and teacher
creativity. At this level, self-motivation and
independent learning is our goal. Most students are
capable of more detail, letter and number
penmanship, math development and readiness skills in
language.
Correct pencil grip and left to right sequence is
stressed in all activities to insure proper writing
of numbers and upper and lower case alphabet
letters. One-to-one correspondence, cardinal and
ordinal numbers, measurement and time concepts will
be introduced with the use of charts, scales and
graphs. The students will be introduced to concepts
of science and social studies through hands-on
activities, life skills and resources. Art projects
incorporate units of study and classroom themes.
Listening skills enable students to become active,
cooper-active members of the classroom. Special
attention will be focused on appropriate readiness
skills to challenge and encourage all students to
complete tasks and to be successful in school.
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The activities, materials and games in the learning centers
are specially designed to engage children in their thinking
and active learning. This helps support the planned lessons,
reinforces the concepts by revisiting, and promotes
self-directed, independent and co-operative play and
learning.
Unit Study - This method uses a topic to
cover several academic subjects. Unit studies can contain
selections of activities and resources from which to pick and
choose, making them more flexible than traditional packaged
curriculums. They can also be adapted to teach children of
different ages simultaneously.
For a unit study, you could have your children
study butterflies. Using a butterfly theme, you can create a
list of vocabulary words which could include thorax, antennae
and metamorphism. Reading activities are easy to incorporate
into this unit as you take your children to the library and help
them check out books about butterflies. For science, they will
learn how a caterpillar changes to a butterfly and examine the
differences between butterflies and moths. You can even include
a little geography in the unit by studying where certain types
of butterflies live.
Our lead
WOW instructor is a
recreation therapist with 10 years of specialized training
and experience in instructing special needs children.
This is how she described the units to our parents.
"The
WoW Multi-Intelligence curriculum
addresses all of the following subjects within the many
different activity lessons that we will be exploring.
-
Language: listening
comprehension, vocabulary, letter knowledge, speech and
verbal expression, print and book awareness,
phonological awareness, written expression, and
knowledge of literary forms.
-
Math: number and operations,
patterns and sequencing, geometry and spatial sense,
measurement, and classification and data collection.
-
Science: science process,
science concepts/ life science/ earth science/ physical
science/ and health science.
-
Social/Emotional:
understanding role in family, classroom, and community,
respect for differences, geographic thinking, social
skills, and emotional skills.
-
Art: uses art as a form of
expression, shares art ideas, and promotes an interest
in others art.
-
Music: participation and
response.
-
Dramatic Play: express
feelings through movement, play skills such as
reciprocal play
-
Fine and Gross Motor Skills:
physical movement. Fine motor development, and gross
motor development
As you can
see from the list above the
WoW
Multi-Intelligence curriculum
truly is an exceptional program that makes learning fun and
promotes confidence and social peer interaction. I am a
Recreational Therapist and when I first learned about this
program I was so excited because it allows me to address all
the domains in which recreational therapy encompasses
through this amazing program. Another great aspect of
the
WoW Kits Multi-Intelligence curriculum
is that each lesson is not set in stone and allows for me to
make adaptations as well as let the children lead me in new
directions if appropriate."
Autumn DeMeo, CTRS
Multiple intelligence
An intelligence is identified, in part, because it has been
shown to reflect unique neurological processes. For example, one
kind of intelligence can be impaired by brain damage when others
are unaffected. Some individuals with brain injuries experience
difficulty with visual-spatial skills, while other abilities are
unimpaired. Other people with brain injuries actually lose the
ability to identify and name living things (the naturalist
intelligence), while being fully able to recognize and name
inanimate objects. This “potential for isolation by brain
damage,” is one of six criteria Gardner used in selecting these
intelligences. For example, People can lose the ability to
communicate with words (linguistic intelligence), due to brain
injury, even when other abilities are unimpaired.
Gardner has made a tremendous contribution to psychology and
education by expanding the way intelligence is viewed. Human
intelligence is complex, rich, and multi-faceted, and
virtually all people are gifted in some way. He has also
offered a set of ideas that can help us educate our
children. By helping them understand their strengths and
weaknesses and using their gifts as paths to learning, we
can make education more meaningful and joyful. Such an
education will include opportunities for using language,
exploring ideas, playing, creating things, exploring nature,
relating to others, and coming to know oneself. Through
such a rich and varied education a child can gain a
thoughtful understanding of the world, develop his gifts,
and find great joy in learning. When given a wide range of
choices: to read, listen to, or invent a story, to do a
science experiment, to explore an unfamiliar play structure
with twists, turns, and tunnels, to play with building toys,
to hear or create music, or to explore a nature trail - what
does your child gravitate toward most often? Where does her
passion lie? This offers the most revealing clues to your
child's true gifts.
Gardner suggested using the student's strengths as "entry
points" to exploring and understanding topics of study. He
emphasized that these topics should be rooted in important
ideas that help students better understand the world. The
possibilities are nearly endless. Unit studies can be
excellent resources for relevant hands-on activities. "Many
people, particularly children, most easily approach a topic
through an activity in which they become fully engaged,"
Gardner wrote, "Where they can build something, manipulate
materials, or carry out experiments."
Info on purchasing this curriculum
Registration Form
for school PDF
(you may need to accept ActiveX
control to read form)
Testing and Educational Rehabilitation
Academic Excellence
Summer
Programs
Social/Life Skills Courses
Classroom
for CP and Developmental Delays
Lifeskills and
college or career preparation
Home School Support
Tuition and Additional Services Fees
Dyslexia Services
Tomatis-
Innovative Educational
Transforming Things to do
before school year starts
How do I get started- If you have an
IEP with the public school and have been in public school in Florida for one
year- You need to be registered for your McKay scholarship.
Call 321 751-1313 for an appointment.
If you are currently using McKay Funds at another private school- You can switch
to our school very easily. However spaces are limited it is advised to
make the switch as soon as possible.
(Success
Project of Brevard is a non profit agency that operates Incredible Horizons
Academy.) The admissions office is located next to Promise
land church
Just north of Dominoes on the corner of Lansing
of Aurora.
1855
Lansing St. Melbourne Fl.
321 751-1313
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you
and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
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