Summer Term 1

13th June 2023Rachael Ford

Hi everyone! What a fantastic half term we have had in Rachael’s class.  Our topic has been natural things and we have really enjoyed exploring lots of natural resources both in class and outside in nature.

The children loved the ‘nature paintbrush’ activity in Art.  They were supported to collect items from nature during their weekly Mud Kitchen session including sticks, leaves and flowers to make the paintbrushes.  The flower stamps were also a hit and the children had lots of messy fun!

This half term we celebrated Eid together as a school with a special assembly and in class we took part in some Eid themed activites.  Class 2 spent time exploring porridge oats with moons and stars, there was some lovely engagement in this sensory activity and fantastic filling and emptying.  What a great job they did decorating their Moon and Star hanging mobile too!

The children joined in with the Coronation Day celebrations by making some Nature Crowns and wands which tied in nicely with our nature topic.  They also came to school wearing red, white and blue and had fun playing with balloons and Union Jack flags.

Our Nature themed Art and Messy Play sessions continued with some leaf spray painting and daisy soup which the children loved!  They also enjoyed painting sticks and making marks with pine cones, Rachael’s class love nothing more than getting messy!

The children love to explore things with all their senses and particularly enjoyed our lavender themed session.  We had lavender playdough, lavender water play and lavender foam.  The classroom smelled divine and lavender is supposed to be calming and relaxing so I wonder if the children slept well that night!

Other messy play items this half term have included, split peas, cereal and the ‘you either love it or you hate it’ item….gloop!

In May we took part in Mental Health Awareness Week with a relaxing session based on the book ‘The Colour Monster’ by Anna Llenas.  The children watched a pop up version of this story on you tube (which Lucas found hilarious!) then hunted for the colour monsters in the sand, played with water and enjoyed some relaxing music and images on the smartboard.

 

Class 2 have continued to enjoy all of the regular activities on their timetable, here are some photos of them in soft play.

We are looking forward to enjoying our last half term of this academic year with these brilliant boys.  Summer 2 will have a Seaside theme which I’m sure will prove a massive hit with all of the children in Rachael’s class 🙂

Rachael, Rachael, Kira, James, Leighanne and Lynda xxx

Happy Easter!

31st March 2023Rachael Ford

Hi everyone! What a lovely few weeks we have had in Class 2 to end the spring term 🙂  The children enjoyed celebrating red nose day with a red themed exploration session and loved putting red playdough noses on images of themselves!

As part of our farm topic Class 2 went on a trip to Whitehouse Farm, this visit went so well and all of the children (and adults) really enjoyed their day.  Kira did a great job driving the minibus and everyone was really happy and calm.  When we arrived we visited the sheep, cows and pigs in the barns before feeding the lambs which the children loved! We saw the emus and birds of prey then had a very exciting tractor ride before stopping for lunch.  We had an action packed afternoon with a play in the soft play, the park and go-carting.  Class 2 ended the day by being super brave and petting a rabbit and a blue tongued skink (a type of lizard).  We are looking forward to enjoying some more outings next half term!

This week Class 2 really enjoyed watching the older children perform Othello as part of the Shakespeare in Schools festival and made some lovely Easter Cards.  They have continued to enjoy their usual therapy sessions, here a few photos from this week’s Rebound and Hydrotherapy sessions.

This week Class 2 and Hadrian School say Goodbye to one of our team, Adam, who is leaving to train as a children’s nurse.  Adam will be a big miss and we wish him so much luck and happiness in the next chapter.

We have welcomed back teacher Rachael Budden and she has already built up a lovely rapport with the children 🙂

Have a lovely Easter and we look forward to welcoming the children back in two weeks time 🙂

Rachael, Rachael, Adam, Kira, James and Leighanne xxx

Fun in the Snow :)

10th March 2023Rachael Ford

Our Animal topic continued this week in messy play with a farm themed tuff tray.  The children really enjoyed playing with the farm animals and exploring the different textures which included cereal, artificial grass and uncooked green rice.  They also loved getting messy and making animal footprints in the paint with the large farm animals.  Birthday boy Thomas was very engaged in this activity and full of smiles, Happy Birthday Thomas!

The children have had a great time in the snow this week! They have loved exploring it, touching it, throwing it and even tasting it.  Kira led a lovely session on Thursday with syringes and food colouring in the snow which really engaged the children.  They also made a start on some cards for their Mammies 🙂

Class 2 have, as always loved their regular weekly sessions, and we now have Sensory Circuit on our timetable which was very popular! Here are a few photos of some of them in Soft Play.

Have a great weekend!

Rachael, Kira, Adam, Leighanne and James 🙂

 

World Book Day

3rd March 2023Rachael Ford

This week Hadrian School are celebrating World Book Day with lots of lovely activities around school.  In class 2 the children started this special week with our new sensory story, ‘Down on the farm’. The children really enjoyed interacting with the story props both during the story and afterwards. Maaz in particular loved playing with the pigs in mud!  This story was also an introduction to our Spring term 2 topic ‘Animals’.

Class 2 have really enjoyed getting cosy on the bean bags and enjoying some animal themed books such as Dear Zoo, Little Rabbit Foo foo and We’re going on a bear hunt.  The children were really engaged and enjoyed exploring the books with staff.  Lawson loved sharing ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ with a very enthusiastic Kira 🙂

The Children celebrated World Book Day with a whole school assembly.  Ollie-Joe represented Class 2 in the parade and did a fantastic job on the catwalk.  The children enjoyed listening to stories from ‘The masked storytellers’ and joining in with some story themed songs such as ‘A squash and a squeeze’ and ‘When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears’.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and we look forward to seeing the children back on Monday 🙂

Rachael, Kira, Adam, James and Leigh-Anne xx

Class 2 Spring Term 1

17th February 2023Rachael Ford

Hi everyone 🙂 We have just been set up on the blogs and are really excited to show you some of the things that Class 2 have been doing this half term.  The Children have settled really well with their new Teacher Rachael and we are so proud of all they are achieving every day!

This half term our topic is Asia, the children have had a great time exploring Chinese themed Messy Play, exploring lots of lovely textures, colours, smells and tastes.

Our sensory story this half term had a Chinese New Year theme and they loved listening to Chinese music and dressing up in all the lovely coloured gowns and feeling the silk fabric of the tunics.

 

They have also created some lovely art for Chinese New Year with red and yellow paints around the Year of the Rabbit. The children in Class 2 thoroughly enjoyed using paint and exploring the colours and messy texture of the paint, brushes, sponges and rollers.  As well as paint, the children have done some fantastic mark making with chalks, pens and in other materials such as sand, glitter and even yoghurt this half term.

This half term we took part in Children’s Mental Health week, the theme this year was ‘Let’s Connect’ and was all about making connections.  We marked this by inviting parents into school for a Coffee afternoon and it was so lovely to get the opportunity to chat with parents and for them to spend some time in class with their children and their peers.

The Children had a wonderful time celebrating Valentine’s Day last week, we had a lovely sensory session with paints and lots of different paper, felt and card.  Class 2 loved exploring the different textures and tearing the paper.

The Children have continued to love their regular Hydrotherapy, Rebound, Jabadao, Thrive Room, Soft Play and Mud Kitchen sessions.  We have seen lots of wonderful progress during these sessions, particularly around communication and making relationships.

I hope you all have a great half term break with your wonderful children, I look forward to sharing more of their school adventures with regular blog posts after the break.

Rachael, Kira, Adam, Leighanne, James and Tracy 🙂