Sensory Cookery

On Monday afternoons we have exploration in sensory cookery using food based stimuli. The children have the chance to explore using their senses. They look at the materials being used, listen to the sounds they make, smell them, touch them and mix them, they also enjoy tasting the ingredients! The children can explore and create through the activity of play, often showing preferences through engagement in various parts of the session. This can be listening to the eggs crack, watching and listening to the milk being poured, looking at the flour being sprinkled down from above, using their hands to mix the materials separately then together giving lots of opportunity to feel a varied range of textures. They can smell the ingredients, sometimes the children will smile or scrunch their faces showing their like or dislike. This term we are concentrating on pancake mix, we use the basic mix ingredients then each week introduce a new ingredient for the children to explore further – spices, sugar, salt, and dried fruit. We go through the same routine each week so that the children can then anticipate what may happen next. The children will use their core vocabulary boards, speech and Makaton signing to communicate throughout each sensory cookery experience.

This week Jacob really concentrated when cracking the eggs, Kimberly and Fatima loved looking at the flour sprinkling down like snowflakes! Fatima and Ella really got their hands stuck into mixing… giggling at the mixture being so sticky and getting stuck to their hands! Ella, Peniel and Yahya showed how much they liked to smell the different spices, cinnamon was a definite favourite! Lacey loved watching and listening to the milk pour from up above, she liked the taste of the milk too! Aaron and Joseph weren’t as keen on the sticky substance, but they were both very curious and kept having a little sneaky touch without prompting.

Thank you for taking a look at what we have been getting up to, see you next week for more updates! Loveday and team xx

Welcome back after the October half term! We hope you all had a spooky Halloween break. Before half term and in this first week back we have been making use of our Caterpillar Garden. This is an outdoor space within the school grounds that the children very much enjoy. We  have used the garden for music therapy, sitting around the fire pit singing songs and of course exploring nature!  There is a wooden train, huge tyre, caterpillar willow tunnel, big distorting mirrors and the best part… lots of space, mud and sticks to play with. Kimberly and Aaron had fun strumming the guitar during an outdoor music therapy session whilst Joseph and Jordan loved singing with their friends around the camp fire.

When exploring the grounds, Lacey had so much sensory play with grabbing the mud from the ground in her hands, squishing it, then sprinkling it back onto the ground.

Peniel finds it funny to stand in front of the mirrors, looking at himself while he sings out loud his favourite songs!

Ella has been practicing her walking and strengthening her leg muscles and directing the adults to where she would like to be, needing very little encouragement. This can be tricky because the garden is on a pretty steep hill but she doesn’t let that stop her… go Ella!!

Yahya and Daniel adore freely exploring all areas of the Caterpillar Garden, along with Jacob who particularly takes interest in collecting sticks from the tunnel and putting them in piles ready for the fire pit to be used.

The first week back we had to say a sad farewell to our friend Conlan who seems very happy to be in his new class (and luckily we still see him around school), however we have gained another friend Lacey who has settled in really well with her new peers.

See you all soon, Loveday and Team xx

We are extra lucky being in Loveday’s class this year as we now have two classrooms – we are making great use of both areas.  Our additional classroom is now our play space! We use our play space for so many learning opportunities through play; we are developing strong trusting relationships with the adults and our friends, this gives us the sense of feeling safe and special through our play and interactions.

There are many areas in the play space to explore; this includes a sand and water, construction, role play, small world, mark making and malleable area. With our curiosity we move around to explore the areas independently giving us a wider range of experiences. When we initiate the play we are using our sight, touch and sound to make sense of what we are exploring. We develop persistence to try and try again, especially when using our fine motor skills. We discover we can do something new; at times with our peers, that causes realisation, surprise and excitement and we take interest in the results of our actions.  While our engagement builds we have opportunities for fun, pleasure and enjoyment and we focus for longer periods of time; becoming engrossed in our play. As time goes on we will develop in our sense of awareness and play skills, we look forward to showing you our progression in the future!

Thank you for checking in on us, see you next week! Loveday and team