There’s a hole at the bottom of the sea!

11th June 2019Elaine Quinn

We were a little busy at the end of last week, so apologies for this late blog post!

We introduced our new story, ‘There’s a hole at the bottom of the sea,’ and everyone really enjoyed joining in with the repeated phrases.  We learned the signs for octopus, jellyfish, eel, snail, fish and dolphin and we plan to learn lots more underwater and seaside signs in the weeks to come.  We liked finding  out about food chains – the snail eats the weed, the squid eats the snail, the eel eats the squid and the shark eats the eel!

We started to set up our new role play area – we’re making a seaside scene, complete with a sandy beach and a rockpool.  Hannah brought in her blow up dinghy, but sadly it didn’t stay blown up for long!  We still had fun ‘floating’ around the Caterpillar Garden! We’ve been doing as much outdoor learning as possible when the sun has come out.  We enjoyed playing in the huge sandpit, filling up our buckets right to the top!

In class we have been practising ‘same’ and ‘different’ and using our flash cards to help us when we play pairs games.  Some of us have really good memories and can find pairs straight away.  Some of us still need some practice!

We had a fantastic time at Tynemouth Blue Reef Aquarium – watch out for our blog about it on Friday!

 

Seaside

10th June 2019Sharon Dodd

We’ve had great fun making a start on some messy play for our Seaside display, we have been painting with lots of different utensils and different shades of blues and greens to match the sea. We have also been busy decorating a giant box that we think might make a great boat to sail in. As well as all our messy play we have been digging and building sandcastles, looking at sea creatures and just having fun in the sun!

Rix Wiki

7th June 2019Elaine Quinn

What is a Wiki?

Wikis are simple, accessible, secure and easy to build. They can be used to create multimedia person-centred plans that use pictures, words, video and sound to capture the voice, skills, aspirations and needs of the individual.
Wikis give ownership of the planning process to individuals and families, facilitating genuine collaboration between parents, teachers and professionals, with access given to view the wiki only from the person who has the log in, and only that person can add or edit its content.

Wikis offer a method for children with complex needs to explain some of those complexities in their own way, to record their needs and just do it once. It can hold lots of information that could help anyone working with your child understand themselves and their needs.

I have added a link to show one families experience and how this has worked so well for them.

htps://vimeo.com/80887952

Skills for Life have secured funding to train parents and give a years free trial for the first 50 families interested.

This is the Greatest Show!

7th June 2019Julia Kelly

In PE we have been working on our dance moves and showcasing them behind the white screen to great effect. Our favourite piece of music is from The Greatest Showman and just look at our mini performance.

https://youtu.be/VVvgFhsSXw8

Centre Algarve ! Holiday centre for children with special needs

6th June 2019Elaine Quinn

This looks just perfect for any families that struggle to go abroad with their family because of their child’s additional needs.

One of our parents at Hadrian has recently returned and reported they had the best holiday ever!

You can apply for help with costs through the 24×7 Special Needs Holiday Trust which is a registered UK charity created to financially assist families where it could. The trust is constantly looking at ways to raise funds to send people to Centre Algarve for a well-deserved break, turning their wishes into a reality – http://centrealgarve.org/

Centre Algarve Holiday Centre for people with Special Needs –

“Set in the beautiful Ria Formosa Nature Reserve and just 2 minutes from the pretty local village of Moncarapacho, the Centre Algarve is mainland Europe’s only specialist holiday Centre which is fully equipped to allow people with special needs young and old to experience a wonderful holiday with their family or carers.
We have created an environment where everybody feels comfortable, safe and secure within our wonderful grounds that are fully enclosed and gated. A magical and unique holiday centre where fun and memories are created.
The Centre has 14 bedrooms keeping the experience intimate and not too overwhelming as with most large complexes. Whether you are relaxing by the pool or enjoying yourself within our private secure facilities, you will always be able to keep a watchful eye even whilst you relax and unwind in the evening”.

Facilities include:

Discovery centre »The Discovery Centre has a multisensory and soft play room which allows visitors to experience different light, sound and tactile sensations.

Animal experience »As an integral part of staying with us all guests can have an up-close encounter with our collection of animals.

Swimming Pool »The swimming and paddling pools are enclosed for safety and security. The pool is accessible via a seated hoist and there is also extended wider steps and grab rail.

Sensory and vegetable gardens »The Centre boasts extensive gardens with many smells textures and colours.

Sensory room »The Discovery Centre has a multisensory and soft play room which allows visitors to experience different light, sound and tactile sensations.

Welcome Back!

5th June 2019Loveday Fisk

Returning back to school nice and refreshed from the half term holiday, we started our summer term by getting straight back into routine.

We have a new sensory story this half term ‘Once Upon a Time’. Building on from our previous story ‘The Emotional Postman’, we have different emotions, actions and sensory experiences including a new one – taste!  This week the children travelled to the Antarctic where they got to experience the cold ice and meet a magic Postman, who granted each child a wish! The story has lots of opportunity for choice making and early communication.

On Monday, we have a new venue for our outdoor learning, the early year’s playground. During outdoor learning this week we have begun turn taking games. The children explore the playground themselves and find something they enjoy, we then incorporate vocabulary and turn taking into the activities. Kimberly found her way over to the football, where she took turns with Amy and Shay to score goals. Kimberly began to explore the different ways she could score. Rolling, bouncing and throwing the ball. Well done!

We had an excellent time in the pool this week, with new targets for the term met already! Peniel lay on his back for the first time, Ella started to blow bubbles into the water and Joseph began accepting water on his face. Well done everyone!

Science week!

5th June 2019Loveday Fisk

Science and Design Technology week!

This week, the whole school have been taking part in Science and DT week. Over the week we have had lots of interesting experiments and exploring to take part in. On Monday we all planted cauliflower and cress seeds outside in the sunshine, after planting our seeds we each took turns to water them using a watering can. We all heard and even began to say lots of different words during our outdoor session like flower, water, soil and plant.

On Tuesday the whole class got to go and visit our new water wall in the mud kitchen and wildlife garden, we all had a fantastic afternoon building and digging in the sand and figuring out lots of different ways to play and transport water. Fatima showed excellent engagement throughout our time at the water wall, showing curiosity and interest in all of the different equipment and figuring out the cause and effect for each of them. Well done Fatima!

On Wednesday we got our cooking aprons out for messy play but this time, we added a spring flare to our cakes to try and achieve another year of victory in the Hadrian Great British Bake off. While we all whisked up the classic sponge mixture Leon and Theresa went out to find daisies, blue bells and dandelions to add. Ella showed great enthusiasm when adding the flowers, investigating each one and smelling them too.

On Thursday we all went to the secret garden where there were bubbles, everywhere! Bubble machines, a bubble bath and lots of different gadgets to make GIGANTIC BUBBLES. Amongst all of the bubble play we had a paddling pool filled with soapy water and lots of tools to make bubbles, Peniel must have been having so much fun he got a bit warm so decided just to get inside the pool himself to cool off.

Pop Up Tuck Shop

23rd May 2019Julia Kelly

For the past few weeks we have been preparing for the “Tuck Shop in the Shed” to raise money for a local charity and also for our end of year trip. This morning we got together the goodies, baked and also decorated the shed in the outdoor play area. Each class was invited to come and spend their money on a selection of sweet treats. Our children took it in turns to sit with the till and collect the money. There was music selected by the children and even entertainment outside the shed provided by Nathan! There was a lovely atmosphere with lots of classes enjoying their treats outside on the tables and on rugs.

We would like to say a huge “thank you ” to Parents/Carers how kindly sent in money and donations and to all of the staff in the classes who supported us. It looks like we raised around £71.00 which is amazing. Also a huge “thank you” to Richard’s Nana, who provided many of the treats. We will add the money raised today to money already raised and will let you know the total very soon.

We hope you have a peaceful holiday and we look forward to seeing the children on June 3rd for the last half term of the year!

Babs, Jess, Lindsay and Ann.

 

We are going on an adventure…

23rd May 2019Jess Burns

Hi everyone,

We had such a great day at Plessey Woods, the children were so free and top explorers! We discovered a troll’s bridge and we walked across the bridge really quiet not to wake him!

On our travels, we found some wooden drums, the children found themselves a stick and banged really hard to make the loudest noises they could. A little further, we could smell a lovely smell in the air and we discovered some wild garlic. We all decided to pick a piece and put it into our bag so we could make some garlic butter for our bread! It was delicious!

There was an exciting discovery of a witch’s den and a troll’s bog! The child loved hiding the in the bog and scaring their friends. We even heard a witch’s cackle! The more we walked the more we found and we discovered totem poles hiding in the woods. They were bright and colourful and the children loved hiding and running around them. We then found some trees that were perfect for climbing, we decided to hang from the tree and pretend to be monkeys.

As we walked along, the children were able to move and explore the new and exciting environment, they were listening for birds and picking up all the natural objects they could find! They were so sensible, that we decided after dinner we deserved a play in the new park.

We couldn’t have done it without our helpful Year 6s, what top role models Hannah and Drae were!

I think the adults had just as much fun as the children!

I hope you all have a safe and wonderful holiday filled with exploring! This is the children’s last day at school.

Massive thank you to everyone who sends in snacks and donations for school and our class! We greatly appreciate it! Next half term we have lots of exciting trips!

Thank you,

Jess and the team

Day 5 of Science Week!

22nd May 2019Julia Kelly

On the morning of the last day of Science week we had a whole school assembly and every class’ Bake Off entries were judged. As you can see we called ours Gardeners Delight, using our snails as inspiration. Unfortunately we didn’t win.

We had a busy afternoon. We went down to the Music Studio which had been turned into a Light and Dark room. We had lots of fun in the tents and with the different lights. We then had to quickly run up to the Hydro pool to put our boats we made in the water and have a race. No ones boat sank, thankfully! Kinza was crowned the winner.

We have had so much fun taking part in Science Week.