Let the sun shine!

With the sun shining, we’ve had a lovely first week back to school. Taking full advantage of the of the unusually warm weather we all made our way outside for outdoor learning, where we found all the things we could hear and see. On the way around all of the outdoor areas in school we found some rather cheery animals that started to sing! We all had a sing along, and even had a dance to the hokey cokey. After all of the singing we decided we were ready to explore and see what we could find. So we all got out of our chairs for a good look around. Ella found herself in a tree, Peniel found a boat, and Billy found a tyre! Good searching guys!

With it being the first week of term we decided we needed a way to get messy while giving ourselves some energy! So for messy play we had Weetabix and Milk. The power food! Peniel, Shay, Joseph and Jordan had lots of fun crunching and mushing the Weetabix into the milk, we even noticed the Weetabix absorbs the milk like a sponge so Peniel asked for more milk. With all of the fun going on for the boys the girls decided they’d have some time in the thrive room where they found a GIGANTIC TEDDY BEAR! Ella and Kimberly fell in love and gave the teddy lots of cuddles, so we will go back to visit him soon!

Billy and Peniel got a lovely pamper this week. Peniel had a relaxing foot spa while Billy had a fantastic haircut. Billy sat so well while having his hair cut, nice and relaxed with a Thomas the Tank Engine book. Well Done Billy!

Thrive and achieve!

This week in the Thrive Room we found our own fun and involved our friends along the way. Fatima found her way to the doll’s house, where she gave all the family a lovely warm bath all by herself. Over on the sofa the boys brought a story book to Amy and then enjoyed an exciting story with lots of wild characters and voices. Katy and Peniel put on a great show, taking turns to bring the stage to life with the puppets.

A successful day indeed!

This week Ella and Billy had a fantastic time working with an adult on the computer. Ella spent her time looking at all the different letters on the keyboard and then with support coming to realise they were on the screen too! Billy went head to head with Phil in a bid to become the next top gamer. Who will be the ‘Legends’ Champion?

The whole class had a fantastic time with our usual antics too! Using shadows to tell stories in exploration and investigation and substituting hair for noodles in messy play! Good idea Fatima!

Shay also saw a prime time for a photo during exploration and investigation. Picking the iPod up himself, he took it over to Louise and shouted ‘Photo!’ Jordan jumped in on the action too. Cheese!!!

So we’ve had a hectic couple of weeks back in Class 5/6, falling back into our daily routines and busy schedules.

To start our first week back from the holidays we had a new sensory story, the Magic Bus! We all moved our chairs into rows, strapped on our seat belts and set off.  On our visit we found ourselves at the beach, the Antarctic and even got ourselves stuck in the jungle! We also had a visit from a wolf, a dinosaur, ostrich and sheep on the way! Fear not, as life like as they were it was just Simon and Leon in disguise!

Our new topic for exploration and investigation is ‘Light’. We filled the room with lots of different lights and activities.  Using the lights we made some fantastic shadow shapes, explored UV light and found out new ways to use the lights to have lots of fun!

Although we’ve loved getting stuck into our new activities, getting back to our normal fun has been great too. Our topic this term for messy play has been ‘water’.  Take a look at our class in action!

This term we also said a huge happy birthday to Ella! Who is now in the double digits squad, at 10 years old! Happy Birthday Ella!

On Friday, all of us at Hadrian showcased our fantastic Christmas performance.

Class 5/6 would like to say a huge well done to all of the children and all involved for the hard work that went into making the show so magical.

Our class joined forces with Johns class, and together we produced a video of the children having lots of fun in a ‘Winter Wonderland’ to the ever so popular song ‘Somewhere only we know’. The video really captures how fantastic our children are, and we are very proud of each and everyone of them. The performance on Friday went smoothly, and they all stayed calm and happy from start to finish. Even showing lovely smiles on stage!

Well Done Everyone!!

We have had lots of fun on the run up to Christmas this week!

Our week has been full of festive cheer, with lots of singing and dancing. We had a trip to John’s Class on Tuesday morning, for a Christmas sing along and enjoyed it so much we invited our friends around for another session on Thursday.

Some of the group got to meet some animals this week. Billy, Kimberly and Fatima got the chance to say hello to a few farmyard animals, and fell in love with Marble the sheep! Unfortunately Marble’s time was in high demand this Christmas period, so not everyone got the chance to say hello. However the rest of the class didn’t mind, as they had lots of fun in the classroom during exploration and investigation. Peniel loved using the ripped up paper as snow balls!

The whole class got to enjoy our annual class pantomime this week. Cinderella! Lots of laughs and giggles were had. It really helped us get into the Christmas spirit!

We look forward to next week, to have more festive fun!

Calling all explorers!

We have had a busy week exploring the school, on Wednesday we all went for a wander in to the mud kitchen and wild life garden to see what we could find! The sun was shining and the leaves were crunchy, so we enjoyed finding our inner explorers for the afternoon.

As much fun as the mud kitchen is, we couldn’t spend all day there as our friends at school love it too! When we got in the exploring didn’t stop there. Messy Play was lots of fun and we got very, very purple. Purple powder paint, dry rice and water proved a successful way to get messy. We made sure of it!

With Christmas fast approaching, Class 5/6 thought we would get ahead of the game and start making Christmas cards on Wednesday morning. What time better to do it then in messy play?! The children all put a unique twist on their own Christmas cards by mixing together oil, glitter and paint all while having lots of messy fun! Here are some of the class in action.

This Tuesday, after a very energetic hydrotherapy session had relaxing massage using the oil and foot spas. This was an ideal time for the children to use their big voices, relax and have one to one interaction with peers. After massage we went on to do a great TACPAC session which involved lots of choosing, tactile experiences and moving.

We took full advantage of our soft play spot on Wednesday afternoon and had a fantastic time! The children had a great time passing the balls to one another and enjoyed lots of giggles. Leon decided we all got a bit excited, so gave Katie some deep pressure!

We are very lucky to have our Music Therapist, Bev Raynor, doing a music therapy group with us this half term.  She knows our children well as has worked with many of them individually, but we are now having a whole group session every Thursday afternoon.  Every child shows brilliant increased engagement during these sessions.

Music Therapy is engagement in shared music making, whether this is done improvisationally, making use of music people already know, creating new music together, or working towards some kind of performance.  Music making is part and parcel of the way that all children learn about the world around them and develop new skills. It is a safe way of taking risks and developing independence. It is playful and intrinsically interactive. It is motivating and encourages children to keep trying things.

We look forward to our next session and seeing how our children’s enjoyment of music.