We are starting the new term off with a new topic of ‘sailing the seven seas’ and are exploring this through our sensory story, sensology and attention autism. We are also exploring this topic through our continuous provision during nurture and structured play times.
We have been exploring cornflour mixed with water, making patterns with our fingers and shells provided. We also counted our ships labelled 1-10 which were in the sand. We enjoyed digging for coins and treasure chests buried in some dried pasta before burying them again.
This week, our learners really engaged in our ‘a day by the sea’ sensory story. This story incorporated colourful semantics to help our learners read along. Everyone had a core board to support them through the story and also aid their communication, allowing them to show us what they can see, hear and feel. The story was based on a puppet called Billy, and he did lots of fun activities at the seaside which we also took in turns to participate in. The first thing Billy did when he got to the seaside was build a sandcastle. We all enjoyed watching Billy build the sandcastle before having a turn ourselves. We practised scooping the sand into a bucket, patting it and carefully lifting the bucket to see the sand castle we made! We then joined Billy watching and listening to the waves, referring back to our core boards to tell our teachers “I hear waves” and “I see waves”.
We then watched Billy use a scoop to catch the sea urchins out of a small tray of water. Some of us had a turn, practising our scooping skills and feeling the bumpy texture of the balls.
Billy then touched the jellyfish. Mrs Summerfield walked round group with a very pretty, dangling jellyfish for us all to look and touch before taking round a plasma ball for us all to touch and see the lights on our fingertips.
Before Billy went home, he smelt the salty seaweed and brought it round for us all to smell. Most of our learners didn’t like the smell of the seaweed but was eager to smell something new and different.
We all watched Billy get on the bus to go home after a very busy day by the seaside, and waved him goodbye.
All of our learners were really engaged throughout our sensory story, showed brilliant participation and excellent turn taking skills. Well done Maple class, what an amazing start to our new term.
Maple week 1 7s
