March 19th – Covid
I must point you first to my colleague’s page next door – Snowdrop class. Niamh has put together a lovely schedule of ideas which Sweetpeas could also use with no adjusting, well done Niamh.
Here are some other activities you may also like to do if you need further ideas:
As you are probably aware, in school we would usually begin our day with free play, choice plays a big part in this area. We offer each child a choice between 2 toys and the child will play with that toy for a few minutes with help from an adult. We can play games with that toy, eg. hide the toy under a piece of material, possibly see-through if you have it, and help the child to realise that the toy is still there albeit under something. This is called object permanence and is another milestone in a young child’s development: the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, touched, smelled or sensed in any way. We can use the toy to look at colours, count parts of it, name the properties of it – soft, hard, smooth etc.
We do lots of singing in Sweetpea class. One of our favourite sites for songs throughout the day is The Singing Walrus. Here is the morning song that the children all love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuI_p7a9VGs you can find lots of other songs on their channel that you may enjoy with your child. We find that sometimes it can signal the beginning or end of an activity which can then help with transitions.
Music time in class usually begins with handing out musical instruments. I fully appreciate that you may not have these to hand at home but they are easy to make. Mainly our instruments are shakers or bangers – an old plastic bottle, washed and dried and with rice/sugar/coffee beans/pasta….. the materials are endless and each makes a different sound so you could make lots of different ones. You can decorate your bottle too. For bangers – an old tin or indeed a saucepan and wooden spoon. Simple.
Then you need to sing! Some of our songs are simple nursery rhymes eg. Baa Baa Black Sheep, 1,2,3,4,5, Once I Caught a Fish Alive, Wheels on the Bus, Incy Wincy Spider, Mary Had A little Lamb, Old McDonald Had a Farm, The Alphabet Song. Lots of sites on YouTube have nursery rhymes but we especially enjoy Little Baby Bum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP-MbfHFUqs
Story time is important too and sometimes stories on Youtube are great. Eric Carle is one of the favourite authors, you all know The Very Hungry Caterpillar I’m sure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75NQK-Sm1YY, this is the animated version and we love it!
March News
Lucas was busy on school corridors today practising his driving through switch operated device! Well done Lucas.
January News
We have been so busy since returning from our holidays. We have been working on the themes of New Year and Looking After Myself. We made lovely glittery 2020 pictures to welcome in the New Year. We also worked on our colours of the week and numbers. We listened to the Jolly Phonics songs for the letters S,A,T and we are making our alphabet books along with them. Our numbers are coming on too. We did a fun experiment with oil on water and then put in a colour beore popping in an alka seltzer tablet –lovely bubbles coming up from the bottom! We read Elmer in the Snow and made our own Elmer with a square sponge and different paints, our patchwork elephants look great. Our Food Dudes are going a treat, we all love to small and feel the different vegetables and fruit, hopefully everyone at home gets to have a little nibble too. Speaking of which, our mini quiches are scrummy and so was the banana bread and malteaser bars!
Sweetpea class is brand new to St. Gabriel’s School.
Five new pupils began their school days here in Sweetpea class in September 2019 making a total of six pupils in this class.
We started off gently and are now in full swing, doing all our curricular work and enjoying every minute of school. Our pupils all settled in well to class and now are into the routine of school. We love going out into the sensory garden, going to P.E. and also going to the Sensory room.
We can’t wait for Thursdays every week when we get to meet up with our friends from other classes in assembly and Music Generation on a Monday is brilliant too.