Success Story: Ann-Marie

“Pizza Party!”  Ann-Marie loves a party and has an abundant zest for learning. Ann-Marie loves coming to school at Bloom360. She enjoys helping and encouraging her friends with positive feedback such as, “You can do it!”, does her classroom job of vacuuming diligently, and especially enjoys decorating and party planning. Ann-Marie’s beautiful facial expressions communicate her excitement and pure happiness in the moment!

Ann-Marie, like many neurodivergent people, learns best with high interest, hands-on, functional activities and projects. One of the highlights of Ann-Marie’s Bloom360 experience this year was the hands-on opportunity to make her own pizza with pizza making expert, Giacomo Falluca – CEO of Palermo Pizza. Ann-Marie came to school dressed for a Pizza Party – wearing pepperoni pizza themed shoes and a red pizza party shirt! She listened intently with great interest to the story of Palermo Pizza and then engaged whole-heartedly in the process of making pizza. Ann-Marie is also a “foodie” and enjoyed several samples of pizza varieties. This experience was profound for Ann-Marie.  Mom was excited to share, “This was the very first time Ann-Marie shared what she did at school in great detail” when asked about her day.

Pizza making, pizza tasting, and pizza parties are all of high interest to Ann-Marie and when learning is fun, meaningful and purposeful engagement and communication increase at a profound rate.  Ann-Marie continues to grow and thrive in all areas of development (mind, body, spirit, social and emotional) here at Bloom360. She is kind, zesty, and helpful each and every day – if you met Ann-Marie you would know she feels a deep sense of belonging at Bloom360.