Curriculum Enrichment

 Throughout the school year, New York Therapy Animals comes to visit the students at Pathways. The students pet, play with, and see tricks performed by trained and registered therapy dogs (Dogs can use AAC too!). Prior to each visit, the students write questions to ask New York Therapy Animals.

Throughout the school year, students and staff of Pathways Children's School have visits from various musical entitities (with a focus on disabled musicians), during which they learn about the many different types of music, cultural differences between types of music, and history of music. The students also learn to play and experience a wide variety of musical instruments including but not limited to bells, maracas, guitars, drums, harps, and keyboards.

Every other month, Pathways visits the nearby 115th Street Branch of the New York Public Library System. The students have time to look through books that are in line with their curriculum and choose books to take out on their personal library cards. During their time at the NY Public Library, students and staff additionally participate in group readings with the librarians.

Our students participate in frequent field trip throughout the five boroughs. The field trips provide an opportunity for our students to apply, experience, and synthesize what they have been learning throughout each school day. Before and after each field trip, students complete writing assignments to provide them with prior knowledge about each location and then to analyze and discuss their experiences. Some recent field trips:

     ~ Museum of the City of New York

~ The Africa Center

~  FDNY locations

~ 96th Street Q Subway Station

~ Henry Belafonte 115th Street Library

~ Central Park (with Ranger Tour)

~Central Park Conservatory Gardens

Our students participate in frequent community integration activities including frequent trips to central park, going to restaurants/coffee shops to practice ordering and paying for items, visiting a variety of stores (grocery stores, pharmacy, general stores, etc.) to practice purchasing and budgeting, engaging with the community during parades and festivals, and more.