Robins

So far this term we have been very busy learning songs about different ways we can travel on 'holiday'. We have enjoyed lots of boat play whilst singing 'Row, row your boat' and 'The big ship sailed'. We have also sung 'The wheels on the bus', finding the object or symbol to choose what comes next in the song, and this week we are singing 'Car, car truck jeep'. We have been making lots of vehicles sounds, driving vehicles through paint to make marks and following patterns with cars. A favourite was rescuing vehicles out of the ice and finding the different transport in the slime, then finding the matching symbol!

We have had another busy couple of weeks as our Minibeast topic is coming to an end. We really liked singing 'Incy wincy spider' and following instructions to make spiders webs, some made out of strung and some using glue and glitter, as well as lots of spider crafts. We have enjoyed some sensory exploration alongside the book 'Mad about Minibeasts'. Finding minibeasts in cocoa pops and chia slime. We have also been practicing using a magnifying glass and matching the minibeast to the picture. We even made playdough snails and used real shells to decorate them, counting them as we went along. 

We have had a busy few weeks settling into our new topic of Minibeasts. So far we have read 'The Hungry Caterpillar' and enjoyed some fab butterfly art work paint printing and making caterpillar patterns. We even made a caterpillar out of balloons and enjoyed popping them to see the red and green glitter explode out.

This week we are starting to read 'Aargh Spider' and we are looking forward to making some glittery spider webs. We are also celebrating the King's coronation with a talent show and tea party!

Our key texts and topic maps for next half term!

Spring Term 2 

We have enjoyed a busy half term, with lots of different activities completed in such a short half term! We have been singing our songs of the week- Head, shoulders, knees and toes and really enjoyed the Cocomelon Body song. We have joined in Science week and enjoyed our experiment seeing how the chalk exploded, then using it to make marks on the floor. We have been matching body part photos to symbols and matching photos of different body parts. We have also been pointing to different parts of our body on request. Our last week is going to be lots of Easter fun making Easter crafts and some edible Easter nests.

What a busy few weeks we have had exploring our farm topic! We have enjoyed our songs of the week so far: peas in a pea pod pressed, 1 potato, 2 potato and baa baa black sheep. We really liked our sensory play with peas, mash potato and wool to support our learning for each song. We have also been trying some new activities called 'Attention Autism' to help with our attention and listening skills. Well done Robins!

Spring Term 2023

Robins have had a fantastic start to the term this week. We have enjoyed exploring farm animals and listening to our song of the week 'Old Macdonald'. We have been using the communication board to choose which animal is next.

We also enjoyed the big bubble machine and lots of sensory play with shaving foam and chocolate cloud dough. We liked using the animal cutters to make different farm animal shapes.

We have also been choosing our friends using their photos on a Go Talk, during 'hellos'.

We have all worked so hard at our work stations this week completing all of the activities!

We have been busy preparing our farm animals with lots of paint and sticking, ready to go on our class display- photos will come soon.

We have adapted really well to our staff changes this week too and Holly has really enjoyed getting to know everyone! Well done Robins!

Christmas fun! 

We have started our Christmas activities with style! The classroom is covered in glitter from our festive activities! 

We have had parties in the class and a very special Jolly visitor who was really kind and recognised that Robins Class have all been wonderful children this year! 

We have also been practising our Nativity lots and lots. We hope that you all enjoy it! 

Have a very happy Christmas and may 2023 bring you all the very best.

From Robins Team

Visit from Pentre farm!

We had some exciting visitors in school today! The kind people from Pentre Farm brought in lots of animals for us to look at, stroke and learn about. We really loved this experience! 

What a busy time! 

We have managed to fit so much in this half term! We have had Children in Need day, Anti-bullying week and celebrations in class of the fab work the children have been doing with their work stations, socialising and mark making. It has been so wonderful to watch their progress.

Tooth brushing.

We started tooth and hair brushing in class this week and the children have been absolutely amazing! They have been brushing their teeth brilliantly and we have had some lovely demonstrations on how to do it. The children know where their boxes are and we have been encouraging them to take them out when it is time to brush our teeth with the brush bus! 

Our first week back!

We had such a lovely start to half term! We started the week with Halloween crafts and ended it with bonfire biscuits and artwork. The children loved it! 

We have had soft play every day and the children have been encouraged to play together and take turns. 

We have started our work on the Queen by making a collaborative art piece which is a collage of the Queen which is on display in our classroom.

We got lots of hats down from resources and the children had fun trying them on. We had a teacher who was a witch and a child who was a wizard. There was a lot of magical mayhem! 

Welcome back!

We are so excited for the half term ahead of us! Our topic this half term is the Queen and we are using a variety of story books to influence our work across the curriculum. 

We will be continuing the success of our workstation-based activities and sensory work. 

The children will be bringing home reading books that have been carefully chosen to support their sounds work. (We also love sharing books and hope you will love it as well!) 

Happy half term! 

We have come to the end of our first half term in Robins Class and the break has definitely been earned by the children! They have settled into their new class brilliantly and every child is making progress with their learning, life skills and social skills. It has been an absolute joy to witness. 

We have been learning all about different homes and houses using various books, videos and learning resources. We have filled the classroom walls with amazing achievements and fantastic artwork. 

The children have been exploring the school environment and transitioning is improving as each week passes. We particularly enjoy being outside! 

Nat and the team have implemented workstation learning and the children are enjoying the more structured approach of this learning method. Some of the children even look for more work! 

As we end our first half term we say goodbye to Jacqui who has started as a Level 3 TA in Swans class. We will be joined by Donna on the 31st October when school starts again. Donna will be a full time Level 2 TA and she knows most of the children already. 

Have a good half term!

Robins team

Week ending 7th October

Robins Class has had another busy week with some fantastic progress made by all the children as a group and as individuals! 

Our work this week was based on the book 'The Gruffalo' and we had a lot of fun exploring different animal homes in the classroom and outside in the woodland area.

We have spent a lot of time outside the classroom this week. We are noticing that leaves are turning different colours and it is getting cooler! 

Alison came in for the best music lesson yet! All the children sat and were engaged!

Week ending 30th September 

Gosh, I can't believe we are heading into October already! We noticed that the leaves are all turning brown in Forest School and some of the children had fun kicking the leaves up, making nests and cakes with them. We also looked at all the colours- There are so many at this time of year! 

Our book this week is 'The tiger who came to tea' and it has been the inspiration for some fantastic bits of work! We had some brilliant fine motor skills work with painting and colouring. 

We made a cup of tea for the tiger to practice pouring skills and to explore how the water changes when the tea bag is put into it and then stirred. The children chose teabags to use by using their senses. We did have some split bags that made for interesting observations of floating and filtering!

The children also had the opportunity to make jam sandwiches for the tiger and it was a really great activity which engaged the children as they spread butter, jam and then cut their sandwiches into squares or triangles. 

We have continued focused work station work with sensory experience breaks. The children really enjoy this and we have seen so much progress because of it. 

Alison came in on Friday to do music with the children. It is always a highlight of the week and gets us in party mode for the weekend ahead!

A good start to the school year! 

Robins class are amazing!!! The children have all come in and adapted to their new classroom, team and friends in a really positive way. We have seen their confidence grow already and fantastic work being done in the work stations and in class groups. The team have been concentrating on making the classroom a safe, relaxed space using calming music, muted tones, story massage, Handy Pac and friendly smiles! 

It has been a busy start and the children have achieved so much. We started the half term with 'The Colour Monster' which is a fantastic book to help children explore emotions and also how to cope with them. It reminds them that they are not alone in their feelings and there is always someone there to support them. We made a set of feelings jars which will be displayed in the classroom for the children to refer to when they want to communicate how they are feeling. 

We have now begun our topic 'homes' and of course- we started with 'The three little pigs'. The classroom smelt like a farmyard with our straw! The children explored the materials that the pigs used and also blowing things over like the big bad wolf. 

In PE, the children have been using their bodies in lots of different ways using the equipment. There have also been some fantastic examples of following the instructions 'stop' and 'go'. 

We have done lots of mark making using different tools and materials. The children have been encouraged to use all of their senses during these activities and to communicate what they do and do not like. 

The Forest School area has proven popular with all the children and having the freedom to explore has really ignited their interest in the world around them! It is phenomenal to see how much more engaged Robins Class are in the natural environment around them. We have had some really exciting interactions out there! 

We have started our weekly swimming and it has been splash-tastic! It will be lovely to watch the children's confidence grow in the water and also their progress with dressing and undressing themselves for this activity as part of our 'My Independence' curriculum. 

The children have also enjoyed chilled out time in the sensory rooms and adventures in Soft Play.

It has been such a fantastic start and we can't wait to see what the weeks ahead bring. 

Our story next week is 'The Tiger who came to tea.' 

Welcome to Robins Class!

We are so excited to be starting the school year with the children in our class. We just know that it is going to be the best year ever and we look forward to sharing many adventures with you all. 

We will be starting the new school year with the book 'The Colour Monster'. We know that coming back in September can be a little daunting and sometimes our feelings get a bit overwhelming. 'The Colour Monster' is a wonderful story to help children explore their emotions and that they aren't alone when things do get too much. We will be creating a display for the classroom that the children can refer to when they need to explore and communicate what they are feeling.

From there; our topic for this half term is homes and we have a wonderful range of stories to support this topic from 'The Three Little Pigs' to 'The Gruffalo'. We will be exploring our own homes, other cultures and animals. It is a really lovely topic to start with and something that can bring something so familiar to the children into the classroom.

We are a communication driven classroom so we will continue to progress the children through PECS and Communication Boards. We will have symbols that the children can access to communicate their needs and we will be using signing throughout the day. Our team definitely believe that giving the children a voice is the best gift we can give them! 

We will be having regular sessions in the sensory rooms, soft play, Forest School, the pool and the hall so the children will continue to experience different environments and gain greater confidence in transitioning between them. 

What an exciting time! We will share what the class have done using Class Dojo and this page. With many many photos to come! 

We are always there for you on class dojo or via the teachers emails should you have any questions or exciting things to share (we love to hear about achievements made at home!).

Take care, 

The Robins Team