Welcome back to all our fantastic pupils in 8G! Everyone seems to have settled back into routine after the chaos of Christmas. It has been really nice to hear about what you have all been up to over the Christmas break.

Our new theme for the Spring term will be Doctor, Doctor! This first half term we will be learning more about going to the doctors, the human body and looking after ourselves. After half term we will be focusing on vets and learning more about animals and looking after animals too.

On Wednesday morning we took part in My Thinking and Problem Solving. Our new focus for the Maths side of things this half term is going to be measure. We sang a new song all about "big and small" which everyone enjoyed (we love a good song in 8G!). When we split into groups, Mrs Fisher's group were talking more about big and small, and labelling objects big or small from a choice of too. Everyone found this really easy, which is great. Mrs England's group were doing some Computing work and getting more familiar with using the keyboard and recognising the letters, which can be quite tricky! Miss Aindow's group were working on their independence skills in the TEACCH workstations, and then playing a turn taking game using their fine motor skills.

On Wednesday afternoon it was our first cooking lesson. Every Wednesday we will split the class into two groups; one group will go with Mrs England and Miss Aindow to cook, and the other group will stay with Mrs Fisher in class to do their My Community lesson and work on their self-help and independence skills. Please look at our other blog to see what group 1 got up to in their Cooking and Nutrition lesson.

Mrs Fisher's group were practicing lots of different skills. Some of us were following a schedule to get undressed and dressed again, as well as practicing turning clothes the right way so that they are easier to put back on. This is something we are keen to practice at the moment as this will massively help when we go swimming every Friday. If you can practice this at home too, that would be brilliant and very much appreciated. Some of us were collecting equipment, looking around the classroom and using the labels on cupboards and drawers to help us find items on our list. Another really important skill that helps us to be more independent. 

And I must mention about a very special WOW moment that happened on Wednesday afternoon. Skye tied shoe laces independently!!! We have been working on how to tie shoelaces with Skye since October time. Learning how to tie shoe laces can be very fiddly and sometimes frustrating as it takes lots of concentration/focus and of course, practice to be able to get it just right. Skye has been determined to crack it since she came back to school this week, and now she has! Super work, Skye! And this was the reason behind Skye being awarded 8G's star of the week this week too.

On Thursday morning we all took part in a My Communication lesson. Our new book that we are reading is Topsy and Tim go to the Doctors and, after starting the story on Tuesday with Miss Heaton, we continued with it on Thursday. We have some fantastic listeners who could recall the story so far to Mrs Fisher as well as everyone answering who, what, where questions about what was happening in the story. After our story, we split into our groups again. Mrs England's group were working on retelling the story, using pictures from the book to help. Mrs Fisher's group were using Colourful Semantics to build sentences about what our friends in the classroom were doing, which was lots of fun. Miss Aindow's group were continuing to practice their independence skills in the TEACCH workstations and sharing play with a friend.

Thursday afternoon was PE in the hall. Mrs England and Miss Aindow took everyone outside on the track for the daily walk to get their bodies warmed up, while Mrs Fisher set up the hall for PE. We worked with a partner to complete a circuit of activities and spent 3 minutes on each activity. We had bouncing on the trampette by ourselves, then jumping onto the mat with feet together. The next activity was jumping between 4 hoops with feet together, followed by bouncing on the peanut ball or gym ball. Next we were getting our heart rate up by doing star jumps and marching around the hall, and finally we got to have a rest on the beanbags in the middle of the hall. Everyone worked really well together and it was so nice to hear pupils encouraging their partner to keep going. We finished the session by following a relaxation video on the screen.

Friday morning we were very lucky to have Mrs James come into class to do some work with us all about our feelings and emotions. And what a brilliant session it was! Mrs James started the lesson with a brain break dance about different feelings and then it was time for "What's in the box?" Mrs James had a snake in her box that made her very scared, she had a party blower and some silly string that made her feel excited, and a water spray bottle that made some of us feel scared! The next thing in the box was a ball catcher, but Mrs James kept missing catching the ball which made her feel sad. She had a little toy dog that felt so happy, it kept barking and flipping over on the carpet. And then last of all, Mrs James let a party popper go BANG which made her feel excited.

For Stage 2, Mrs James had brought some different coloured balloons. The first balloon was yellow, she blew it up and drew a happy face on it. Then Mrs James and Mrs England played catch with the happy balloon. Next was the green balloon. Mrs James blew it up and drew a sad face on it. She filled her water pistol up and squirted the balloon so it looked like it was crying real tears because it was sad. The next balloon was excited, Mrs James blew it up and then let it go so it flew around the room with excitement. The last balloon was a red, angry balloon. Mrs James said it was so angry that it was going to explode, so she popped it!

For Stage 3 it was time for some of us to take a turn. We sang "If you're happy and you know it" but with some new words. First Mrs England was happy so she sat on the chair and smiled and laughed. Then Thomas took a turn being angry, he shook his fists and made a grrr noise. Nicola sat on the chair and pretended she was worried, so hid her face. Then Francesca pretended she was feeling silly so sat on the chair and pulled some funny faces. Next, Daisy pretended she was excited and jumped up and down with Mrs James. Finally, Rose took a turn and pretended to be sad and crying.

Thank you Mrs James for such a brilliant lesson!

Friday afternoon was our first time back at swimming at Chorley All Seasons. We were all very excited to be back at swimming and we all know which groups we are going to swim in next week. There was even time to play at the end of the session and Harrison and Skye thought it would be very funny to splash Mrs Fisher until she was wet through!!!! It was a good job she had her swimming things on!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, see you next week.

Mrs Fisher, Mrs England and Miss Aindow

8G End of Week 1 Spring