| Seal’s topic this half term will be exploring ‘Our Community, Our house and Our Homes’
Each week we will explore a new story related to our current topic. During each week we will engage in a number of activities that are topic related. Your child will be encouraged and supported to explore and engage in each of these activities at a level that meets their individual needs. The holistic approach to learning in Seals class will allow your child to progress at a pace that is suitable to their individual needs and abilities within a rich and enabling environment.
Your child will regularly bring home information on their individual learning targets, individual targets may change in line with the topic, as and when experienced or consolidated. Each pupil will have individualised timetables to work alongside our class time table. Each individual timetable highlights targets taken from your child’s personal targets such as EHCPs, Sensory enrichment plans and communication plans. Your son/daughter’s individual timetables and current PLGs will also home at the beginning of the term, if you have any questions or require an additional copy please do feel free to contact me.
Please do feel free to explore individual targets at home, it would be great to hear about your child’s experiences via their home School book, here are the themes we will follow this half term, including key signs and stories of the week.
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| Curriculum Area | Subjects and ideas for home |
| ‘Our Community,
Our house and
Our Homes.
| Activities and exploration of learning will be as follows, each activity will be linked to our topic of ‘Our Community, Our house and Our Homes’ or directly to the story of the week.
Total Communication will be running throughout each activity and working alongside children’s individual Communication plans, we will be learning topic related words/signs and symbols found in our stories. We will continue to work throughout the half term on contextual words that support requests, play and social situations.
Daily activities – As is our class routine, each day after registration we will continue to take part in a number of activities such as –
Number songs
Disco dough
Exploring listening skills and comprehension.
Fine motor skills and dexterity
Following direction-pinch, roll, splat etc., forward, backward, numbers 1-5
Tactile discrimination
Wake up shake up
Exploring listening skills and comprehension, following instructions
Gross motor-wake up shake up.
Recognition of body parts, feet, hands etc.
Moving around the room safely/spatial awareness.
During our Multi-sensory Listening and Attention sessions we will be exploring our individual PLGs and communication targets/SaLT programmes. This will involve attention and anticipation activities, following instruction in activity songs, exploring our listening skills in line with music and expressing our preferences to stimuli.
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| Maths/Problem solving | In maths we will be taking part in exploratory activities, such as building houses using blocks, Duplo or 3D shapes-through this we will explore number and colour. By setting tables we will explore making sets, counting the correct number of plates, etc. for the number of people. We will also be exploring where things are kept in our community, so that we are aware where to find the things that we need.
Throughout the week we will be exploring
Pattern
Experiencing patterned objects and images
Beginning to predict what happens next in predictable situations
Joining in with repeated actions in songs and stories
Anticipating meaningful events in response to object / song of reference.
Becoming familiar with patterns in daily routines
Joining in with and predicts what comes next in a familiar story or rhyme
Correctly identifying object/song of reference for part of school day
Place value
Showing response to number rhymes and songs e.g. anticipation.
Becoming aware of number names through their enjoyment of action rhymes and songs that relate to numbers
Responding to words like lots or more
Creating collections of objects in play showing awareness of contrasting quantities.
Finding/matching (by eye pointing, gesture...) photo of object ‘the same’ from a selection of two.
Properties of Shape
Exploring differently sized and shaped objects
Beginning to put objects inside others and take them out again
Stacking objects using flat surfaces
Responding to changes of shape
Attempting, sometimes successfully, to match shapes with spaces on inset puzzles
Pushing objects through different shaped holes, and attempting to fit shapes into spaces on inset boards or puzzles
Beginning to select a shape for a specific space
Eye/hand points to direct the actions of another to put shapes into matching space.
Enjoying using blocks to create their own simple structures and arrangements
Sorting objects which are the same
Choosing puzzle pieces and tries to fit them in
Making simple constructions
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| Communication/English | We will be exploring the stories above which deliver a great backdrop to investigate Our Community, Our house and Our Homes. Using symbols and pictures we will discuss elements of our topic, such as who we live with, what type of home we live in, and what we do in each room of our homes. We will be matching symbols to objects found in our community, decoding singular symbols/photos.
This will include daily story time, mark making activities, listening activities, activities focussed on the story of the week, during this time we will be focussing on.
Reading
Responding to sounds in the environment such as cars, sirens and birds
Showing anticipation of repeated refrain or key moment in a familiar story or rhyme
Beginning to join in with actions and/or sounds in familiar book sharing experiences.
Noticing pictures and symbols
Beginning to recognise what pictures and symbols stand for within their familiar experiences
Recognising and decoding a single symbol
Beginning to respond to pictures in familiar book sharing experiences
Handling books, printed and digital reading material with interest e.g. tactile books, symbols, pictures, photographs, electronic devices
Being interested in and anticipates books and stories and may have a favourite
Having some favourite books or stories
Writing/mark making
Manipulating objects using hands singly or together, e.g. squeezing water out of a sponge
Hands start to operate independently during a task that uses both, with each hand doing something different at the same time
Using a combination of independent movements in play e.g. grasp, release, throw, bang, drop, using one hand or two hands
Tolerating hand over hand support from adult during play/learning activity eg. to complete a task, to request/exchange a PECS symbol.
Enjoying the sensory experience of making marks e.g. in food, damp sand, water, mud, paste, paint
Attempting to use tools to interact with materials, e.g. crayons, chalks etc.
Beginning to understand the cause and effect of their actions in their mark making
Enjoying drawing and writing on paper and/or in different media, e.g. in sand or playdough, foam, paint, styling gel
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| Creative (Art, Craft and DT) | Will also involve mark making skills as above, we will explore these by manipulating different materials found in the home and designing items for the home such as furniture, printing our own wallpaper and using clay to make tiles.
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| Exploration and investigation | Through our Exploration and investigation we will work on the area of ‘Understanding the World’. We will be exploring recognising familiar people in their own lives. Using a range of different ways to explore materials. Showing an awareness of different environments and exploring different ways to operate things e.g., switches, buttons, simple mechanisms. We will continue to explore who we live with, what type of home we live in, and what we do in each room of our homes. We will be thinking about how we safely and appropriately access utilities at home, such as water, electricity and exploring how to be safe in the kitchen/while cooking. |
| Motor skills development
| As well as our usual motor skills activities will including-Pencil control, hand eye co-ordination activities, puzzles, which are topic related-and life skills such as cleaning, tidying away, laying the table, locating objects in their correct place. We will work on our individual Physio and SE plans alongside our motor skills too, including Fine motor skills to develop independence (holding cup, cutlery, isolating fingers to point manipulate objects.)
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| Personal development/PSHE | will be woven in through our weekly activities, exploring pupils individual PLG’s, aspirations and Feelings.
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| Relaxation | To draw our busy week to a close we will take part in a number of relaxation activities on a Friday afternoon, such as yoga, foot spas, massage mats and time for reflection. We will explore how we feel before, during and after these sessions as well as how to activate such resources. |
| Things to try at home. | At home you might wish to explore/discuss who you live with, what type of home you live in, a house, bungalow, flat, apartment etc.
Try involving your child in setting the table for meal times, counting the amount of people who will be eating and making sure there are enough plates and cutlery for each.
Maybe discuss their bedrooms, what do they do in there? Sleep, play, getting dressed. Where are their favourite things kept in the house?
Your child may enjoy being helpful around the house, hanging out the washing, hoovering or polishing, this would be great for their motor skills.
Explore what items your child can safely access/operate independently in and around your home, they may surprise you with a new skill.
We would love to hear all about your home, photos and descriptions would be very welcome, please feel free to comment in the home/school book or send me an email
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