Aberdeen Middle School and John Archer School came together this school year to form an amazing and unique partnership. Teachers Sara Fratrick (Aberdeen Middle), Stephanie Sauter (John Archer), and Amy Mangold (John Archer) worked to develop activities for the students that promoted social skills, communication, and collaboration between students.

Beginning with an event in the winter, students met and worked together on Makerspace activities based on curiosity and exploration. Students visited different stations where they worked together to create murals, build items using a variety of tools and materials, and explore switch-adapted items.

Then, students from John Archer School recently visited Aberdeen Middle School where the middle school students showed off their dance moves during an opening performance. After the show, students from Aberdeen worked with children from John Archer in a variety of learning stations that engaged pupils with hands-on activities such as making letters in Jello, working on matching skills with individualized name mats, and singing songs that incorporated the interests of both the middle school and primary students. 

But the favorite activity for the students at John Archer was being read to by the middle schoolers. Each student from Aberdeen Middle School worked hard to author their own version of an alphabet book for the reading pleasure of the PreK and kindergartners from John Archer. In June, the students from Aberdeen Middle School will visit John Archer where they will be hosted to a “Funshine” event.