West Metro Learning Connections

News Bulletin June 15, 2005

News Items

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Exciting New Saturday Offering!!!!

"Friendships, Feelings, Behaviors, and Fun"

Video-Based Social Skills Therapy and Therapeutic Recreation

June 25-August 20 (No Group July 9)

Designed for Ages 5-10

1:00-4:00

Video-Based Social Skills Therapy  For descriptions of each class please click on the class name, visit our website at www.wmlc.biz or click here.

“Angry? Ten Ways to Cool Off” uses dramatic scenarios to demonstrate ten highly effective ways kids can cool off whenever angry situations leaves them ready to explode, boil over, or burn up. Children learn to describe the physical and emotional changes anger can cause and to handle angry feelings without resorting to physical confrontations or hurting themselves.

“A Kid’s Guide to Feelings defines just what feelings are in real-life situations that children can relate to and understand. The situations in the video demonstrate that we all feel many emotions through a day and the workshop continues with an analysis of how we read the feelings of others and empathize with those around us. Finally, the program takes a close look at how our feelings and the way we express them change the way other people deal with us.

 “Learning to Care” encourages children to develop empathy by imagining themselves in someone else’s place and helps them understand that showing they care will make the other person feel much better and lead to a stronger relationship with that person.

 

Children will also develop their own Five-Point Scales to identify their personal anger triggers and warning signs and to plan strategies for dealing with anger and other difficult emotions.

 

Therapeutic Recreation

Therapeutic Recreation promotes increased physical fitness, coordination, balance, and skills for playing sports, doing activities, playing with others, swimming, and skating. Friendship skills and the skills learned in the video-based therapy are applied throughout the recreation activities.

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A Class Update

 Meet and Manage Emotions and the 5-Point Scale

(For descriptions of each class referenced please click on the class name, visit our website at www.wmlc.biz

Ages: 6-12

Description:

            “Meet and Manage Emotions” helps participants to identify and label positive and negative emotions, redirect negative thoughts to positive thoughts, interpret nonverbal, tone of voice, and situational feeling clues, identify degrees of emotions, express feelings with words and nonverbal clues, recognize and manage intense emotions.

            In addition, this group will review and address goals from Fabulous Feelings and Feelings for Everyone. “Fabulous Feelings” helps participants to value, identify, and communicate their feelings, to identify situations that cause certain feelings, to manage difficult feelings, and to recognize and celebrate their strengths, progress, and positive actions they have taken. “Feelings for Everyone” focuses on other people’s feelings, with an eventual goal of empathy, feeling what others feels, and of learning to recognize and predict others’ possible feelings and to make behavior decisions based on what might be appropriate responses to the identified feelings.

            Along with increasing emotional skills and understanding, participants will also learn to use the 5-Point Scale to help them learn about, communicate, and manage difficult feelings. Individuals will create their own scales for feeling angry, upset, and stressed.

            How to Do Recess is an instructional and therapeutic recreation component of the guided play and interaction. The unwritten rules of recess are the unspoken rules, social conventions, and expectations that most children and adults know and follow while at recess and during other recreation and leisure times. Since these rules and expectations aren’t written down, some people don’t know them, and they can also sometimes be confusing. Still, everyone is expected to know and follow them. Understanding and following these rules can help individuals be successful at recess.

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Openings Still Available For Regular Summer Scheduled Events

Click here for Summer 2005 Schedule - Click here for Summer 2005 Day Camp

Click here for Summer 2005 Offerings - Click here for Summer 2005 Registration

West Metro Learning Connections is still accepting registrations for all summer programs, including social skills therapy, day camps, therapeutic recreation, Friday Excellent Adventures, and sleepovers.

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Brain-Based Parenting:  How Science Can Help Us Parent Our Very Challenging Children Free Workshop for parents of elementary school age children at MN Children’s Museum on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.  There is a free lunch and free activities for children.  All children must be accompanied by an adult or responsible teen.  Activities are appropriate for ages 6 months to ten years.  Contact Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health at 651-644-7333 by June 23 or info@macmh.org

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Special Summer  Offerings

Registrations still being accepted

Video-Enhanced Social Skills Therapy

Through September

These special offerings combine professional videos and a variety of activities to target and address specific skills and goals. The four-hour program is done two ways. You may either sign up for as many two-hour long sessions as you would like. The Video-Enhanced Social Skills Therapy uses not only social skills videos, but also accompanying guided discussions, supporting materials and activities and guided play and reinforcement.

In addition, the program includes a take-home to provide opportunities for continued learning and practicing in school and home settings. Reviewing and practicing the skills found in the notebook will help the new skills and knowledge generalize and become engrained in individuals’ repertories of strengths.

These classes are by appointment only.  The price for each two hour session is $70.00. To set up an appointment, please call the West Metro Learning Connections’ office at 952-474-0227. For descriptions of each class please click on the class name, visit our website at www.wmlc.biz or click here.

Children Grades Kindergarten-3+

1. Angry? Ten Ways to Cool Off

2. Learning to Care

3. A Kid’s Guide to Feelings

4. Everybody Makes Mistakes

5. I’m Telling, A Tattler’s Tale

6. Don’t Call Me Names

7. Don't Be So Bossy

Children Grades 3-6+

8. Handling Anger

10. When It's Hard to Be a Friend

11. Put Yourself in Someone Else’s Shoes

12. What if You Lose when You Play to Win

13. Feeling Good About Me

14. Oops, I Messed Up

15. Stress: I Can Handle It!

Young People, Grades 5-9+

16. Learning Relationship Skills

17. Working It Out: Conflict Resolution

18. Suppose That Was Me

19. When Anger Turns to Rage

20. Being a Friend: What Does It Mean?

21. Respect: The Real Deal

22. Building Character

23. Cool to Be Me: Self-Esteem

24. I Like Being Me: Self-Esteem

25. What Would I Be Good At?  Exploring Careers

26. Go, Go, Goals! How to Get There

26a.  Being a Friend:  What Does It Mean?

Teenagers and Young Adults, Grades 7-12+

27. Anger: You Can Handle It

28. Building Good Relationships

29. Real People Relationships:  When They Help…. When They Hurt

30. Know Yourself: The Secret to Self-Esteem

31. What Teens Want to Know About Sex

32. Teenage Sex: Resisting the Pressure

Friday Night Excellent Adventures—4:30-8:30

$100 plus **noted amounts

June 17- Swimming and Dinner

This will be an adventure to not be missed!! We will be swimming in the Schipper pool and having hot dogs and hamburgers. If the weather does not cooperate with this activity, we will go swimming at Chaska Community Center and have food back at WMLC.

**Please send $5.00 for food supplies

**If we go to Chaska, you will be notified about additional money needed

4:30-4:45- Meet at WMLC, sensory starts

4:45-5:00- Travel to the Schipper House

5:00-6:30- Swimming

6:30-7:30- Dinner

7:30-8:00- Clean up, get ready to leave

8:00-8:15- Travel back to WMLC

8:15-8:30- Games, wait for parent pick up

Day Camps-10:00-3:00

$125 plus **noted amounts  

Thursday June 16-Como Park Zoo and Conservatory  

This will be a day of fun looking at animals and flowers.  We will first visit the animals at the Como Park Zoo, then go to the Marjoier McNeely Conservatory and view the gardens.

**Please send $2.00 for admission and a sack lunch.

10:00-10:15- Meet at WMLC, sensory starts

10:15-11:00- Travel to Como Park Zoo

11:00-12:30- Explore the zoo

12:30-1:15- Eat lunch

1:15-2:00- Marjorie McNeely Conservatory

2:00-2:15- Return to cars

2:15-3:00-Travel back to WMLC

Sleepover-5:30 p.m. to 10:00 a.m.

$150 plus **money for dinner

Saturday June 18-Sunday June 19

Come join us for our monthly sleepover at West Metro.  We will play games such as Yu-Gi-Oh, chess, and any other favorites, go out for dinner, watch a movie and sleep.  For dinner, we will go to Applebee’s.  Please send $8.00 for dinner.  Breakfast will be provided in the morning.  West Metro sleepovers are so much fun, you won’t want to miss out.

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Your Comments are appreciated.

WMLC invites comments about its newsletter. Please send your comments via email, letter or phone to:

West Metro Learning Connections
355 Second Street
Excelsior MN 55331
Phone:             952-474-0227
Fax:                 952-474-0249
Email:  connectskills@wmlc.biz 
URL:               www.wmlc.biz