Covid Safety Precautions With our Transitions Community's safety at the forefront of our planning, next week we will continue to limit our applied community learning activities. This entails:
HUMANITIES Students have been sharing their final presentations with their peers. Over the past few weeks, each student wrote a short speech describing their home neighborhood, including their favorite spots and activities. Everyone did a wonderful job practicing their public speaking skills, building their confidence, and supporting each other! We have also been taking the opportunity of returning after New Year’s to take stock of the year that just finished (and what a year it was!) and look ahead to 2022. We talked about and researched the big events of 2021, from the personal (finding a new favorite television show, coming to Transitions for the first time), to changes in the city (voting in the local election in November, swearing in our new mayor) and national news (vaccinations, space exploration)! After reflecting on our experiences in the 2021, we are beginning to learn about SMART goals and getting ready to set personal and academic goals for the new year. Independent Living There has been so many things happening in Independent Living. Students have been working on strengthening their kitchen skills and social skills in the classroom. Before the holiday break, students prepared a gluten-free sugar cookies. Students had a wonderful time following the recipe, identifying different tools used in the kitchen, mixing ingredients, and baking it in the oven. This week, Page students baked Mamon, a traditional Filipino chiffon or sponge cake! In addition to working on kitchen skills, students have begun a new unit on Wellness. This week, we began a discussion on how health relates to wellness. Students identified examples of what they think of when it comes to health. They shared some amazing responses such as: taking medicine, eating fruits and vegetables, having leisure time, working out, taking dance classes, maintaining their hygiene, and much more! As we continue this discussion on wellness, we hope students begin to understand how wellness and health are interrelated. Alumni Association Winter Workshops start the week of January 18th! Below you will find information on workshops that still have space available. Remote Workshops Music Mania Show off your skills with “name that tune”, learn fun facts about your favorite artists, share your opinion on “who sang it best”, enjoy exploring new music and more! Mondays (4:15pm - 5:00pm) Jan 24th/ Feb 7th, 14th, 28th/ March 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th Registration fee $80 Click HERE to register. Short Films & Chit Chat Join us for a viewing of a short film followed by a discussion with peers. Tuesdays (4:15pm - 5:00pm) Jan 18th, 25th/ Feb 8th, 15th,/ March 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th Registration fee $90 Click HERE to register. In-Person Workshops Social Snack A socialization and healthy snack making workshop. In the kitchen, we will learn how to make healthy snacks while making connections with our peers. Wednesdays (Dismissal - 4:30pm) Jan 19th, 26th/ Feb 2nd, 9th, 16th/ March 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th Registration fee $200 Click HERE to register. COMMUNITY RESOURCES AND UPCOMING EVENTS Holiday Shopping! Transitions welcomes the season of giving! All cohorts have the chance to participate in holiday shopping trips to various destinations throughout the city and beyond, including the Columbus Circle Holiday Market, Staten Island Empire Outlets, Queens Center Mall, and Newport Centre Mall. During these trips, students had the opportunity to buy a gift for a friend, family member, or their secret person for our upcoming holiday gift exchange. Let's Make Moves! From group sports old and new, to free time and team building challenges we have been making moves all semester! We utilize all the wonderful public spaces NYC has to offer including parks, piers, and schoolyards in order to safely exercise together, get some fresh air, and get our bodies moving. Above Video: Dorsey cohort playing steal the bacon! A Taste of the Tropics! So it's another week and I am sure you're all wondering what we've been up to in the Mindful Nutrition kitchen. Well...a lot! Students continue to enjoy preparing easy recipes from other cultures that they can recreate at home with families. This week we took a flavor trip to the Tropical island of Jamaica to try festivals. (yes, it is a party in your mouth!). Festival is a pretty easy but delicious side dish that is usually paired with the famous jerked chicken or escovitch fish, which is fried fish dressed with slivers of carrots, onions and bell-peppers cooked in a spicy vinegary sauce. Festival can be compared to a sweet fried dumpling which has cornmeal as its main ingredient. In class, we paired it with sweet plantains (maduros) and some chicken. We've attached the recipe below, just in case you also crave a taste of the Tropics during this chilly season.
End of Semester at St. John's The Bryant and Dorsey cohorts celebrated the end of their semesters at St. John's University with St. John's students and faculty. Congratulations on their hard-earned success! Alumni Association Alumni activities are available to Transitions students and alumni in the form of after-school workshops and events. Registration for Winter Workshops and the January Bowling Event opens today at 12pm! Winter 2022 Workshops Music Mania (remote) Show off your skills with “name that tune”, learn fun facts about your favorite artists, share your opinion on “who sang it best”, enjoy exploring new music and more! Mondays (4:15pm - 5:00pm) Jan 24th/ Feb 7th, 14th, 28th/ March 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th Registration fee $80 Click HERE to register. Short Films & Chit Chat (remote) Join us for a viewing of a short film followed by a discussion with peers. Tuesdays (4:15pm - 5:00pm) Jan 18th, 25th/ Feb 8th, 15th,/ March 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th Registration fee $90 Click HERE to register. Social Snack (in-person) A socialization and healthy snack making workshop. In the kitchen, we will learn how to make healthy snacks while making connections with our peers. Wednesdays (Dismissal - 4:30pm) Jan 19th, 26th/ Feb 2nd, 9th, 16th/ March 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th Registration fee $200 Click HERE to register. Karaoke & Dance (in-person) Do you enjoy having a good time with friends belting out your favorite songs? Come be a part of the Karaoke & Dance workshop! Thursdays (Dismissal - 4:30pm) Jan 20th, 27th/ Feb 3rd, 10th, 17th/ March 3rd, 17th, 24th, 31st Registration fee $180 Click HERE to register. January Bowling Event Friday January, 14th 4:00pm - 5:00pm Fee $25 Location: Frames Bowling Lounge (550 9th Ave) Attendees must be fully vaccinated. NYC requires all guests of Frames Bowling Lounge to show proof of vaccination. Additional Details: Students will travel with staff to the bowling alley. Dismissal is from the bowling alley (550 9th Ave). Pick-ups must be at the bowling alley by 5pm. A light snack will be provided before traveling to the bowling alley. Food will not be served at the bowling alley. Face masks are required to be worn during the event. Bowling bumpers will not be available for this event. Attendees must wear rubber soled shoes - shoe rentals will not be provided. Click HERE to register for January Bowling Holiday Shopping with Transitions Transitions is preparing for the holiday season! Each class will have the opportunity to participate in a student gift exchange and to buy a gift for a family member or friend. Students that choose to participate in the gift exchange will learn who shopped for them at our holiday party on Thursday, December 23. Be on the lookout for an email being sent home next week that has more details! Ciao for Now to Chow at Taste Buds The Page cohort had their final cooking classes at Taste Buds Kitchen and Cooking School in Chelsea. The students worked alongside two professional teaching chefs for 9 weekly sessions of gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free recipes. Students scooped batter for mamón, whipped egg whites for cloud eggs, melted and drizzled chocolate for chocolate strawberry scones, rolled dough for sugar cookies, chopped vegetables for colorful corn salsa, sliced apples for apple cinnamon fries, cracked eggs for masa real, blended ingredients for mango sago, and got creative with decorating their finale dish of buttercream frosting cupcakes. It was a great experience to prep, cook, and bake in a professional kitchen. Though their time with the Taste Buds chefs has come to an end, Page students will continue to don their aprons throughout the semester! Related service providers George (OT), John (counselor), and Suzy (speech & language therapist) will continue to support students' cooking and baking skills in the Transitions Kitchen. Additionally, the cohort will have opportunities to practice teamwork while they search for and read recipes, make shopping lists, and shop at grocery stores for ingredients. We look forward to continuing our fun, food-focused Mondays. Real World Math Students have been excited to learn both in the classroom and out in the community. Classes have been focusing on banking, budgeting, and comparing prices. Students have been making biweekly trips to banks near Transitions and have been able to open up new accounts, reactivate old ones and check their balance. Students took trips to the local grocery store to compare prices, estimate total costs by rounding up to the next dollar and calculate change due. Classes have also had the opportunity to purchase items for the Mindful Nutrition classes! During these community trips, students have also been able to practice navigation skills and make safety phone calls. A highlight for many students has been receiving their internship paychecks! They are able to practice depositing at the ATM machines or with a teller. In the upcoming weeks, students will further practice their budgeting and purchasing skills during our Transitions holiday trip. Here are a few pictures and moments from the past few weeks! -Jeremy Burgess Transitions Head Math Teacher Cultural Cuisines It's another exciting week in the Transitions kitchen with students learning about dishes from various cultures. For November and December, the curriculum theme is “My Culture”. Students continue to prepare for life after Transitions as well as become more independent presently with meal prep, by practicing here in Mindful Nutrition. They are also still learning how to safely use kitchen tools and appliances as well as have the correct measurements for recipes as they make dishes that take their special diets into consideration. An interesting lesson they have also been learning is how to modify a given recipe when certain ingredients are unavailable or when they need to make more or less servings. All these skills require continuous practice and we encourage families to try some of these recipes at home with students. Some recipes students have done so far include making arepas, mofongo, mangu, tostones, maduros and festivals. In the coming weeks we will be trying our hands at making more recipes from other cultures; stay tuned! Today we are sharing a recipe for tostones, and scrambled eggs that students made during Mindful Nutrition, as well as some highlights of students making a complete breakfasts with these dishes. - Nefertari and Nina Mindful Nutrition
Alumni Association Holiday Trivia Friday, December 10th 4:30pm - 5:00pm Do you love the holiday season - listening to music, watching movies, decorating, shopping for gifts? Put all your holiday love to the test by joining us for trivia! Click HERE to register ($10) Thanksgiving Party |
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