Physical Health Israel Project #23390

"Ofarim" - School for Autistic Children

by Ofarim

Apr 9, 2023

Ofarim School April 2023 Project Report

By Nahum Bloch - school principal

Dear Donors,

We like to share with you some of our recent happenings in our school.

Ofarim School students are exposed to cultural content such as: plays, concerts and performances performed by professional actors in a customized and unique way. The “Apache” show and the circus show were two exciting shows that were presented to the students to give them a unique experience and to activate their ability to understand the humor of the spectacle culture. When the students watched the shows, they were exposed a new world of creativity, humor and games and were engaged and intrigued.

Cooperation between Ofarim school students and various volunteers is a humane activity that happens every year. When students with special needs and different volunteers work together, a positive atmosphere is created and promotes unity and mutual respect. Volunteers get the opportunity to give from themselves and be helpful with the needs of the community. This cooperation promotes social and moral learning processes, and also encourages creative thinking skills and problem solving. The common goal of all those involved in the process is to dedicate time and resources to promote education and improve the lives of the children of Ofarim School.

Teamwork at Ofarim School is a challenging, and it is important to note that its success depends on the unity and camaraderie of the team. When a team works together, with all the possible differences between the people, everyone can contribute their abilities and professionalism for the common goal - educating the students. When a team works together, there is joint activity, knowledge sharing and planning together. Respectful behavior and respect for all members of the team ensures a pleasant and efficient atmosphere. When the team works in unity, everyone feels important and part of the team, and this helps create a desire to help each other, solve problems together and take responsibility for the success. The Ofarim school team strives to implement the values of respect for difference, listening and considering the needs of the team while supporting and openness that allows the team to succeed together in their goals regardless of religion, race and gender.

The students continue to learn and develop various skills, learning language and arithmetic. Our skilled team combines all this with the help of alternative supportive communication in a way adapted to each student.

Supportive and Alternative Communication (ACC) is any form of communication that allows children and adults who have difficulty with spoken and written communication to express a position or opinion or share common experiences with the other. ACC means methods include natural and indirect ways of communication such as gestures, sign language , facial expressions and voice production as well as unique communication aids such as printed symbols, communication boards and binders, voice output devices, iPads with communication applications and communication computers.

In the same way, a lovely student who is non-verbal managed to contact her favorite singer with the help of typing. She typed him a letter and shared with him how his songs affect her. Another form of communication for non-verbal children to communicate with the world and share their feelings.

For our students, it is very important to use ACC as a means of expressing needs, feelings, thoughts and opinions. In the Ofarim school, there are symbols cards soread all over to express basic needs such as toilets, drinking or eating. In the restrooms this symbols assist students in organizing the order of operations for getting dressed or washing hands.

Thank you for your generous donation that helps us to continue our diverse work. We wish you a happy Easter, Ramadan Kareem and a happy Passover.

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Dec 30, 2019

Ofarim School December 2019 Report

By Nahum Bloch - School Principal

Hanuka Candles

Dear Friends Shalom, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year

Towards the end of the year we continue working with the kids with high motivation and drive. In addition to the academic goals we continue to add enjoyable activities to enrich the kids experiences.

Our children has communication and expression difficulties. The iPads we are using especially with the Touchat and TanyTab apps enable a new communication method and a better way to reach the children. With the donation we received from you through Global Giving, we purchased additional 3 iPad protection covers ($1600).

We would like to share with you some of the special experiences we had in the last few month.

During the month of November we had a field trip to an agriculture farm named "Gan Carmit" and toured in a banana plantation farm.

We continue to host students from high schools around Haifa city that are coming to know the autistic children and help taking them to outdoor activities and playgrounds.

We had a theater show that came to school for Hanukah holiday talking about light and darkness using aluminum foils. Along Hanukkah we also celebrated Christmas and Sigad in school.

Two of our teachers created a very special activities: Teacher Gil was using puppet to demonstrate play with the kids, and teacher Raaia created a musical show for the holidays,

We like to thank you and express our appreciation for your donation which help a lot with the keeping our school doing more for the children.

Happy holidays,

Nahum

Hanuka

Classroom

Activity with Aluminum for the Holidays

In the Banana plantation

Outdoor activity

Theatre

Puppet Show

In the playground

Links:

Global Giving Donation page for Ofarim

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Oct 2, 2019

Ofarim School September 2019 Report

By Nahum Bloch - School Principal

Dear friends,

About a month ago we started the school 6th year since it started operating.

It started with only 3 classrooms and now the school has 12 classrooms in such a short time period.

The years go by with many activities that are purely for the development of our students both socially and academically.

We are making very good progress with embedding technology with iPads and AppleTV but on the other hand we keep the kids closely connected to earth and nature through field trips and other activities.

We host many groups from around the country that come to volunteer in school. Many of them from close by high school, military, and industry including Apple employees. The volunteers many times accompany the kids to the park and learn from us about autism.

I added pictures to this report of the volunteering activities outside and in the classrooms.

We are marching into a great new year and we want to wish you one as well.

We hope to continue get your support and share the progress of our students and school with you.

Best regards,

Nahum, School principal

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Jul 5, 2019

Ofarim School July 2019 Report

By Nahum Bloch - School Principle

Purim

Dear Freinds,

In the last three month Ofarim school has been full of activities in variety of domains.

In Purim we had parade and a colorful party which we celebrate the holiday every year.

We had neigoneiboring schools coming to visit us and organizations such as the police and electrical company came to volunteer in the school and work with the kids.

As spring come we had several shows on book culture coming to school. Also, several school bands came to play for the kids as well as circus show and world music event.

Spring time in Israel is all about outdoors and flowers. We wend out for a field trip in the Carmel mountain reserve. We also participated in watermelon picking in a close by orchard.

Towards Shavuot holiday we learned all about cheese and the process of making cheese. We were making cheese in school to complete the experience and that was a very successful activity,

The end of the school year was celebrated in a show by the kids which was fantastic. We met the parents and presented the plans for next year,

These days, we are busy with preparation for next year such that we can make even better than this one.

The school continue to operate during the summer.

See the many pictures from our last period.

We will share our summer events soon.

We all very appreciate your help to our school and which you a pleasant summer.

The kids of Ofarim school

Purim party

Activity with the police

Purim Parade

Theater Show

Outdoor trip

Spring hike

World music show

Cheese activity

Shavuot Holiday activity

School Show

Watermelon picking

Links:

School website

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Apr 9, 2019

Ofarim School April 2019 Report

By Nahum Bloch - School Principle

In the Snow

Dear friends and donners,

Ofarim school for students on the autistic spectrum in Haifa is starting the spring period after a winter full of activities.

We went on a field trip on the Mount Hermon where the students enjoys a meeting with the Alpine unit. They took part in several snow activities and had a great time.

In March we celebrate Purim holiday in a costume parade, and celebrated in a carnival with clowns and music.

Volunteers from the Israel Police came and explained to the children about police car. It was a very positive experience for them.
We continue the tradition of integrating our students with students from different schools in Haifa city. During this period, we hosted at our school students from 'Leo-beck' high school and the 'Reali' high school. With the students we enjoyed a drum circle activity and games in an accessible playground for children with special needs. We also visited cows in the Diary with the volunteering students.

We would like to thank you all for the support throughout the year!

Nahum Bloch, school principle.

Mt. Hermon

With Students in the park

Outdoor activity

Diary activity

Outdoor with volunteering students

Links:

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