The children in class love to have fun and explore, but sometimes they enjoy relaxing with the lights and noise levels lowered – Tacpac is a lovely way to stimulate the mind and body. The children have one to one interaction during this session with an adult or peer. It gives the children the opportunity to develop trust and confidence whilst having intensive interaction. In Tacpac there is a range of various musical tracks that are played. For each track played there are textured materials, an object or our hands used to give the children various sensations to their bodies. Whist having a Tacpac session the children can work on building up their senses, preferences, awareness, communication, anticipation and relationships. All of the children like this sensory session, it really provides a calm atmosphere that is always nice after an upbeat active morning.

Thank you for taking the time to check in with us, see you next week, Loveday and Team xx

In school we celebrate all sorts of special occasions often with a special assembly. Last week on Monday we celebrated Chinese New Year. We had many things to look at and learn about Chinese New Year. We started out by singing ‘Gung Hay Fat Choy’ which is a song to wish Chinese people a happy new year and prosperity! We then went on to watch a video of the Chinese new year traditions. This lead onto our story that was acted out by Phil’s and Rachael’s class – the story was all about why each year a different animal represents the Chinese zodiac year. The children found this fun and interesting to watch. Many classes got right into the spirit of Chinese New Year by creating bright colourful dragons and lanterns with different materials – one class even came out dressed in a big Chinese dragon dancing to the beat of the drums. The fun didn’t stop there, a number of children were asked to join the front of the assembly to try some of Mrs Stokles’ special Chinese noodles. The children dressed in Chinese attire, sat at a table and ate noodles using Chinese chop sticks! The others didn’t miss out – we had Chinese treats to take back to class. There were noodles, prawn crackers and fortune cookies for everyone to taste… yum!

Loveday and Team xx

There are not many children that don’t like soft play – it’s always a hit with our children. Soft play is a great opportunity for the children to get one on one time with the grownups and have child led intensive interaction. The children will initiate interaction by choosing an adult they want to work with and then showing the adult what they are interested in doing. They play games like hide and seek, using equipment as imaginary role play like horses or trains, swinging, swishing in the balls, climbing, crawling, jumping and sliding.  We work on our early communication skills along with lots of physical skills.

Aaron and Daniel really enjoy the rocking horse and often take turns in having a go. Yahya and Peniel are our boisterous boys of the group who love to wrestle with the adults and be swung around on the soft surfaces. Fatima likes to play funny games with the balls, hiding them in her t-shirt or throwing them out of the ball pool so she can have a giggle at the adults picking them all back up!

We would also like to say a huge welcome to our new additional friend to the class, Leen! Her first few days have been busy, with lots of different activities; however Leen is very happy – she settled in with the adults and making new friend’s straight away. We look forward to getting to know her more and hope she continues to enjoy her time in school.

See you all next week. Loveday and Team xx

A very big welcome back and a Happy New Year to everyone! We have had a 4 day week with the children but this has not stopped us from getting back in the swing of things and having so much fun. This week we are showcasing each child’s individual moment of enjoyment and engagement. We thought this would be a lovely way to present a variety of activities we have took part in this week.

Some of the children who really enjoy the outdoors took advantage of our ever changing weather. At the beginning of the week it was windy so we decided to let the children explore this – using different objects that would move with the wind direction. Something as simple as plastic bags tied to sticks were a big hit with Yahya and Peniel, they were fascinated with the movement. Yahya and Daniel also enjoyed watching the bubbles float high in the sky.  Yahya watched them go away until they disappeared and Daniel was full of smiles and excitement – continuously signing for more! Lacey was amazing at blowing the bubbles herself too! What a successful session!

Aaron used snips (scissors with a springy handle) for the first time this week – he watched and then asked to use the “scissors” himself. He independently held the snips and used them in the correct way to cut through foil and paper. Each time he made another snip he said “squeeze” as he squeezed the handles together, well done Aaron!

Ella came back to school full of energy – in the play space she really showed off her big voice to communicate with an adult while walking around the room. She used the core vocabulary board to point to fast or slow whilst she vocalised the words in a loud clear voice – imitating those key words in a slow voice to say slow and a fast voice to say fast! Wow Ella we are impressed, keep talking!

Joseph has had a great week back, he has been working hard to communicate with his BAP, saying ‘uh oh’ in the right context and having a giggle.  He also chose his picture when asked to find himself during circle time. You’re getting the hang of this Joseph, keep going!

Fatima came back as her cheerful self – full of smiles. She had so much fun during Jabadao with an adult playing hide and seek in the tunnel, she found it hilarious to keep peeking her head back out of the tunnel while the adult said “boo”. Nice to see you enjoying the session so much!

Jordan also had a great time during Jabadao – while playing in the spinning cone he giggled happily but was particularly  focused with selecting ‘More’ on the core vocabulary board while pulling the hoop up and down repeatedly in a fast or slow motion. Brilliant work Jordan, lovely to see you engaged for longer periods!

Jacob thoroughly enjoyed taking control of his sensory art session, he was vocalising more and pull to request and pull the foil from the roll. As the adult working with him made models of big and small balls calling them the ‘big daddy’ and the ‘little daddy’ – Jacob repeated this back using his voice and signing! Well done Jacob, it’s wonderful to hear you speak more, keep it up!

Kimberly loved exploring the foil during sensory Art. Her concentration in tearing and scrunching the foil was impeccable, she could have sat there all day having fun – completely engrossed and engaged with the task. She is a joy to have during these sessions because she often makes the most of all the materials we are exploring and doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty at all. Kimberly you are a star pupil, keep up the good work!

See you soon for more updates. Loveday and Team xx