Overbrook Blog

Last Friday the Early Childhood put on their annual holiday show. It was glorious, as it always is. The children were glowing in red and white and the songs that filled the auditorium also filled our hearts. After the show, the Early Childhood family returned to the Nevil Center Multipurpose Room for a holiday party. The students also had the opportunity to meet Santa and everyone got a special gift from him.

What an incredible way to share the holiday season!

As 2009 comes to a close we are already reflecting on the accomplishments of the students and our school community — and looking forward to a great new year!

We wish all of our family and friends a beautiful holiday season and a great winter break!

Attention Families: Tickets Available for Peter Pan!
Saturday, December 26, 2009 at 7:00pm

Arden Theatre Company Presents: Peter Pan

Join eternally young Peter on his adventure to Neverland, a magical island where there are no parents, no rules, and fairies and pirates rule! Introduce your children and grandchildren to the characters you loved from J.M. Barrie’s timeless masterpiece: sweet Wendy Darling, jealous Tinker Bell, the vengeful Captain Hook, a horde of mischievous Lost Boys, lovable Nana the dog, and - last but not least - a very hungry, ticking crocodile.

If you are interested in free tickets from Overbrook School for the Blind, contact Kathe Archibald at 215-877-0313, ext. 264 or karchibald@obs.org

You are cordially invited…

What: Early Childhood’s Annual Winter Program

When: December 18, 2009 at 10:00 a.m.

Where: In the OSB main auditorium

Please come and share the holiday spirit with the Early Childhood Program. Hope to see you there!

The students in Ms. Dalton and Ms. Finnegan’s classes have been preparing narrated, audible, holiday-themed books in PowerPoint for the Early Childhood Program. They will be visiting the EC classrooms next week to read to the classes and have worked very hard to provide the students with read-along activities they can use in their classrooms. Big shout outs to all the students involved in this wonderful literacy project. You have done outstanding work!

If you are interested in making your own accessible, audible books visit SET-BC. They have a number of books created on their website and instructions for making your own can be found on their website as well.

We say FIRST ANNUAL craft fair because we know this awesome event will HAVE to happen again. Last Friday the staff, students and families of Overbrook School for the Blind contributed their time, talents and amazing products to our craft fair fundraiser to support the Senior Class. On display were jewelry, scarves, mittens, photographs, wreathes, artwork, and an incredible amount of glorious baked goods. Everyone enjoyed the day and the event and it came at the perfect time for holiday gift buying. We have so many talented community members and it was apparent in looking at all the wonderful items for sale.

We thank all of you who prepared, crafted, and purchased as well. The event was an ASTOUNDING success, and we are grateful for the joy it brought everyone as well. A special thanks to Ms. Lyn Perry and Ms. Dael Cohen for their hard work!

View a slideshow from the days activities

At Overbrook, we couldn’t continue to educate the students we do, without the support of our community. Last night, the Overbrook Friends Reception was held to say thank you to those who care about what we do, and contribute to our goal of education for students who are visually impaired.

The event was held at the home of the Director, Mr. Gerald Kitzhoffer and was a beautiful evening of celebration. There were smiles, laughs, conversations and an ease to the evening that made us truly remember why what we do is so important. We are grateful to the members of the community who believe in our mission and vision so completely that they help us each and every day.

We wish everyone in the Overbrook family a joyous holiday season filled with holiday magic.

View a slideshow of the event

Last night the Music Department and our incredibly talented students certainly did make this a “Holiday to Remember”. The show, Directed by Christopher Sapienza, Jim Palmer and accompanied by John Greica, was absolute magic. The theater was packed and the performers were at their best. With songs like “The Christmas Song”, “Caroling Caroling”, “The Hands of Winter”, “Swinging at Santa’s” and many more the students showed us their amazing talents.

There were also original songs written and performed by our very own students. “Golden Menorah”, Music by Maurice Weeks and Words by Donal Buie, was sung stunningly by Kassandra and wowed the audience. We are grateful to the music department for putting us in the holiday spirit and we are also grateful to the friends and family in the Overbrook Community for coming out to pack the house.

View a slide show from the beautiful evening.

FamilyConnect™ has a number of resources for parents of children and teenagers who are blind or visually impaired. If you are looking for fun, accessible games and activities for the holiday season, we hope you will find the following links helpful.

Holiday Gift Giving Guide

Toy Guide—AFB has been collaborating with the Toy Industry Foundation for over a decade creating this guide, Let’s Play: A Guide to Toys for Children with Special Needs. All of the toys are tested by dozens of children with vision loss, and we choose the ones that seem to be most popular. The guide indicates whether the toy is considered especially good for children who are blind (B) and children who have low vision (LV).

The Huskies looked more like Pit Bulls on Tuesday as they faced off with Hill Top Prep. Pin after pin for the Huskies and when the meet was over the final score was OVERBROOK 54 and Hill Top Prep 15. High Paws and Milk Bones for all the wrestlers on their first win of the season. Special liver snaps to Jomari, the new dog & Isaiah, the old dog for some impressive action on the mat. It was good to hear the dog pound alive with the sounds of the cheerleaders and crowd cheering our dogs on to victory… Thanks to all who came out to cheer us on and make the dog pound rock!!!! Next chance to see the wrestling Huskies is Dec. 17th at 3:30 in the dog pound for a 4-way meet. Coach big Dog