{"id":14630,"date":"2025-12-11T08:54:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T13:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=14630"},"modified":"2025-12-11T08:54:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T13:54:59","slug":"sense-sational-fair-welcomes-students-of-all-abilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/sense-sational-fair-welcomes-students-of-all-abilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Sense-sational Fair welcomes students of all abilities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Sense-sational Fair guests visited the Sky and Weather room where they made clouds out of shaving cream and food dye.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Books came to life during the Sense-sational Fair at the Great Neck Recreation Center on Dec. 5.<\/p>\n

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The Sense-sational Fair was organized by the Cox High VTfT students. The event featured an array of sensory activities, including cloud-making. From left, Ava Dove, Cain Beshears, Lincoln Nicosia, Cameron Seyfert, Sophia Jeffries, Kennady Rodriguez, Vaiden O\u2019Hara, and Charles Norena.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wearing a hat topped with white polyester fiber fill, Cain Beshears greeted a group of students in the Sky and Weather room featuring the book \u201cCloudette.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHi guys!\u201d the Cox High junior said. \u201cToday we\u2019re going to be making clouds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The special guests made clouds out of shaving cream and blue food dye.<\/p>\n

The multi-sensory activity was part of a first-time event for special needs students of all abilities, organized by Cox High School\u2019s Virginia Teachers for Tomorrow(VTfT) students in partnership with Youth Volunteer Corps of Hampton Roads.<\/p>\n

Program director Kiley Jensen said the fun, creative fair provided students with the experience of giving back to the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to work with youth and inspire a lifelong ethic of service,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Sophia Jeffries came up with the idea for the sensory exploration service project featuring the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecial education is my heart,\u201d she said. The Cox High senior plans to become an educator in the field.<\/p>\n

Approximately 170 students from VBCPS high schools, Great Neck Middle, Linkhorn Park and John B. Dey elementary schools arrived via school buses and were divided into groups.<\/p>\n

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The book \u201cIce Cream Soup\u201d tied in with the Sense-sational Fair\u2019s Ice Cream Shop. From left, Youth Volunteer Corps program director Kiley Jensen, her daughter Olivia Jensen and Haylen Jock, both Cox High juniors, served ice cream to guests.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They spent the morning rotating between eight different sensory spaces, each paired with a book, including \u201cIce Cream Soup\u201d in the Ice Cream Shop room.<\/p>\n

Students tasted ice cream and sniffed jars of slime, including grape, strawberry and lemonade flavors.<\/p>\n

Cox High senior Dee Dee Fulton ate some chocolate ice cream and colored a piece of paper with a strawberry-scented marker. Her favorite part of the day?\u00a0 \u201cDancing!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The book \u201cRainbow Fish\u201d was highlighted in the \u201cUnder-the-Sea\u201d visual room. The lights were dimmed so visitors could project fish silhouettes onto a screen.<\/p>\n

Reagan Hardesty and Isabella Terry monitored the Dinosaur Dig tactile room, themed with the book \u201cI am NOT a Dinosaur.\u201d Guests dug for tiny plastic dinosaurs in a kinetic sand box.<\/p>\n

The Cox High juniors said they enjoyed the project and learned a lot about working with students of varied abilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just need more patience and to work at a little slower pace,\u201d Isabella said.<\/p>\n

Bayside High School special education assistant Melissa McGee attended with about 28 students, including eight from the school\u2019s VTfT program.<\/p>\n

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The lights in the Outer Space room were dimmed as students used fine motor skills to build with Legos and make slime.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They practiced fine motor skills in the Outer Space area featuring the book \u201cPete the Cat: Out of This World.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dimly lit room featured Legos, slime and lava lamps.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is wonderful,\u201d McGee said.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents can engage with tangible material, interact with new friends and experience independence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fair also included a pizza lunch, thanks to the Noblemen of Virginia Beach, a photo booth, an inflatable 40-foot obstacle course and a DJ playing tunes.<\/p>\n

VTfT teacher Jennifer Nardelli said the innovative service project helped her students build empathy for others. Developing an inclusive mindset now is important to teaching or any career, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project reduces stigma and promotes inclusion and builds relationships that matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Fish silhouettes were projected onto the wall in the Sense-sational Fair\u2019s Under-the-Sea room.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Cox High senior Dee Dee Fulton said the strawberry markers smelled nice and the chocolate ice cream tasted good during her visit to the Ice Cream Shop during the Sense-sational Fair.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
One of the rooms at the Sense-sational Fair featured the book \u201cHarry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban.\u201d Linkhorn Park Elementary student Cloe Durff showed off the shaker she made out glitter, beans, sparkles and baby oil.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Members of Leadership Workshop, including Cox High juniors Owen Walrod, left, and Mavrick Piper, guided guests from room to room during the Sense-sational Fair.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Cox High VTfT students Reagan Hardesty and Isabella Terry helped out in the Dinosaur Dig tactile room as visitors dug for tiny dinosaurs in the kinetic sand box.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Books came to life during the Sense-sational Fair at the Great Neck Recreation Center on Dec. 5. Wearing a hat topped with white polyester fiber fill, Cain Beshears greeted a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":14632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14630"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14644,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14630\/revisions\/14644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}