In keeping with the Crossroads’ mission statement, “To prepare individuals with and without developmental disabilities for life success within their family and community,” Room 13 is a school-aged classroom in which all types of skills are addressed, to help our students truly achieve success. This means that while we are targeting academic skills suited to each students’ individual levels and abilities, we are additionally working on social and communication skills, attending skills, life skills and more, in order for each of our children to live the most functional and independent life possible. We believe in the principles of ABA; they work, and we’ve seen amazing progress where others before had given up hope.
In addition to individualized teacher-made materials to reflect the precise needs of each students, we utilize 3 curriculums throughout our day and week. Learning Without Tears is used to teach 3 domains: math and numbers, literacy, and readiness and writing. Touch Math is used to teach higher mathematics skills. Together Counts is used to teach healthy eating and exercise principles. Many of the students, in this classroom, take the alternate assessment
01.16.26 - Rainy Day Reading
Rainy days are perfect for story time! It’s cloudy outside, but that’s not stopping these kids from lighting up Room 13 with their energy. At crossroads, we promote individual learning. Seeing these students listen and engage in their own way warms our hearts. We love to see it!! Great work Room 13 😊
A visit from SANTA! 12.19.25
We were so fortunate to have a visit from Santa and Elf! With a gift for each child, they gave everyone a chance to sit on Santa’s lap and hear a joyful Ho, Ho, Ho!
We’re thankful to Steve Oill, Diane Rusch for their roles! We also appreciate Toys for Tots Capital Region for the amazing help they gave Santa, and Samantha Bailey Photography for her fundraiser for Crossroads by taking orders for photos with Santa!
12.16.25 A Special Visit Filled with Music, Language, and Smiles!
Yesterday, we were delighted to welcome Monica, a high school Spanish teacher from a nearby district, who brought the joy of language and music into four of our classrooms, including ours. Monica loves teaching learners of all ages, and it truly showed as she engaged our students with stories and familiar songs in both Spanish and English.
Through music like Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, children were introduced to colors, animals, and body parts in a fun, accessible way that encouraged participation and movement. The use of familiar melodies helped our students feel comfortable while exploring a new language.
We were also happy to meet Mikayla, Monica’s daughter and a Siena College student, who assisted with group management and helped make the experience smooth and successful for everyone.
Our students and staff loved this enriching visit, and we are so grateful for the time, energy, and enthusiasm Monica and Mikayla shared with us. We can’t wait to welcome them back again soon!
12/1/2025 A Visit from Moonbeam and Carol
As part of our Giving Tuesday celebration, we were thrilled by a visit from Moonbeam, a flat-coat lab, and Carol, her owner.
Moonbeam, aged four, is certified as a Therapy Dog by Therapy Dogs International, and her training shows. Gentle and sweet, she loves children, and our students responded with delight to her kisses and wagging tail.
This was our first visiting pet this year and we can’t wait to see Moonbeam and Carol again, soon.
11.7.25 Focused Learning, Individual Growth
In Room 13, our school-age students are hard at work — each one engaged in individualized 1:1 instruction with a teacher or therapist, or with a peer for reinforcement. This focused approach, known as Discrete Trial Training (DTT), is one of the research-based methods we use to help children develop essential communication, academic, and social skills.
Through DTT, students learn by breaking larger skills into small, manageable steps — with clear instruction, practice, and positive reinforcement along the way. You’ll see students working on everything from identifying numbers and letters to following multi-step directions, answering questions, or building conversation skills.
Each child’s program is carefully designed around their individual goals, so no two learning sessions look exactly alike. What’s consistent, though, is the enthusiasm, focus, and joy that fill the room — evidence of both the students’ hard work and their teachers’ dedication.
At Crossroads, individualized instruction like this empowers students to make meaningful progress, gain confidence, and celebrate every success — one step at a time.
10.9.25 Fire Safety Fun!
On Tuesday, we had a special visit from our local PINE GROVE Fire department! Firefighters showed our students their gear, equipment, and trucks, helping everyone learn what to do in case of an emergency. The kids were fascinated watching the firefighters put on their uniforms and loved getting a chance to touch the equipment and even explore the fire truck up close!
These hands-on experiences not only teach important safety skills, but also help our students feel more comfortable and confident around community helpers. It’s especially important for children in case of a real emergency to not feel afraid of the firefighters in their big equipment. A big thank-you to our local heroes for making learning so exciting!
10.3.25 Play with Friends.
At Crossroads, while individualized learning and one-to-one sessions are at the heart of what we do, we also know how valuable group socialization and free play are for our students.
Here, our Room 13 students came together on the playground with our friends in Room 13. With staff joining right in, students are not only having a blast but also learning essential play and interaction skills. Every laugh and game is building friendships and confidence!
9/11/25 Ms. Corrine writes, “Letter Aa tracing with q-tips and paint!”
Using Art as a medium for learning makes for a hands-on adventure! In this creative fine motor activity, children traced the uppercase and lowercase letter Aa using Q-tips dipped in paint. It was a fun way to build letter recognition, strengthen pencil grip muscles, and explore artistic expression—all while getting a little messy in the name of learning! A few days later, we used brushes to free paint; ORANGE was our concept!
8.6.25 Science + Sensory = So Much Fun!
Room 13 had an exciting hands-on science experience by making hurricanes in a bottle! Students combined dish soap, water, and food coloring inside two bottles taped together at the openings. With a shake and a swirl, they watched mini whirlpools form — just like a real hurricane!
This activity was super fun and it also helped students explore cause and effect, build fine motor skills, and enjoy rich sensory input. Way to go, Room 13!
A Hoppy Surprise: Grasshopper Discovery Sparks Curiosity! 7.25.25
Our young nature lovers had an exciting encounter during outdoor time—a big grasshopper hopped right into their day, landing gently on one child’s arm! Some of us gathered around in awe, observing its long legs, big eyes, and the way it slowly moved before leaping away.
Their excitement turned into a spontaneous science moment, full of questions and wonder. What do grasshoppers eat? How do they jump so far? Why are their legs so big?
Here are 3 fun facts about grasshoppers:
Grasshoppers can jump up to 20 times their body length! That’s like a person jumping over a school bus.
They hear with their bellies! Grasshoppers have ears on their abdomens.
Grasshoppers are herbivores, which means they munch on leaves, grass, and crops.
We let him or her go in the garden beds near the peppers, so he’d have lots of food!
Moments like this show that nature is one of the best teachers—and our kids are always ready to learn!
Recently in Room 13...
6.13.25 Ok, we know, Rice Krispie treats are not USUALLY considered Healthy Food, but in our case, we have to (get to?) think of them that way.
When you’re afraid of swimming, the ocean might be a difficult choice to have your first try, and when you can’t do CRUNCHY, it would probably be a bad idea to start trying crunchy things with bread sticks. Maybe pick something more yummy, something like rice krispie treats.
Another reason we dubb these crunchy, sticky, crumbly treats as “healthy snacks” is that they are simple to cook. In most minds, this has nothing to do with being healthy. But for our Room kids the love for learning is dependent on few things, one being timeliness. A lesson that drags out for a whole half hour loses them completely to other interests. We want to teach cooking, and food preparation, and other important skills for life, but doing so in our room means doing something quickly. Rice Krispie treats offer the efficiency of teaching: measuring, mixing, heating up in the microwave, reading the ingredients in the ingredients, making choices of which kind of treats to make – chocolate chips, m&ms, plain, granola – which kind of treats to make FIRST, which also can count as a civics lesson (voting and majority rule), let’s see, there is also a lot of household and lifelong tasks here, think of cleaning the surface before preparing food, using utensils, washing dishes and surfaces, and in our case, sweeping up the spilled toppings.?
So, hope we have made the case well enough to convince you, Reader, to check out our pictures. Enjoy! And remember that you too can faithfully endorse Rice Krispie treats as healthy snacks at least for today in our classroom.
