Life skills students chime in on school project

SANDPOINT — A group of remarkable students has formed the core of an interdepartmental end-of-year project at Sandpoint Middle School.

Lori Stone's life skills class, designed for students with disabilities, is learning marketable skills while putting together material packets with a detail-oriented assembly-line approach. With the assistance of LPOSD Special Services director, Dr. Joy Jansen, she planned the project with each student's capabilities in mind.

Meredith Evensen-Lynch, occupational therapist, helped Stone and assistant Kristan Peacock put together several work stations. Each participant follows specific guidelines at each station before passing the packet along to the next student. Several stations require students to fine-tune their small motor skills. Seven bins of different materials and 17 steps are required to complete each chime kit, Stone said.

At station one, a student clipped a resealable plastic bag to a special stand designed by Dick Ross of Sandpoint Middle School's industrial technology department. At station two, a student added two bundles of string, one long and one short, to the bag. The student manning station three counted out 12 spacers into an egg carton and poured them into the bag. At station four, a student added 24 nails from her own egg carton counter, and at the final station in the assembly line, the worker put in a particle mask, a square of sandpaper, two metal rings and two wooden pegs. Each bag also contained a sheet of paper workers signed as they completed their assigned tasks, for quality control purposes. Students could consult visual instruction sheets as needed.

All those participating Wednesday agreed that they liked working on the chimes project. According to Stone, students are learning to perform tasks according to directions, build their focusing capacity, and learn marketable skills. They also learn to put away their work once the day's quota is filled.

Peacock said that each day, a student chooses one completed chime kit from the bin of finished packets. Then, the class checks to make sure it contains the exact number of items it should. Each student who contributed the right objects to the kit gets to select a nutritional treat from the classroom's snack cupboard, said Stone.

As of Wednesday, the class had completed two-thirds of their 140-packet goal. When they reach that goal, they will pass on the kits to Patrick Lynch's math students, who will add metal cylinders and wood components to complete each wind chime. Each of Lynch's students will have a gift to bring home sometime around Mother's Day, said Peacock.