Welcome to the Swans Class!
Staff
Teacher: Said Zaheer
TAs: Helen Thomas and Jabulie Mazibuko
Mid Day Leader: Charlene Harding
Newsletter
On The Move
The Swans have had a very busy but a fantastic term. We have been listening to a range of holistic stories, related to our topic, “On the move”, which encompassed various massage strokes, which the children really enjoyed. We listened to the story of “Ben Goes on the Bus”, the children engaged with that story really well.
We explored lots of different resources and really enjoyed getting messy, within our Play sessions. In our sensory art session we have been having lots of fun. We created different art pieces related to different colours. We explored the scent and texture, which was related to a specific colour and used the torches to look at the colours more closely.
The Swans have also been developing their pre-writing skills, in Move and Mark sessions, where they explored various types of wet and dry stimuli. They enjoyed making marks in these sessions. The children have had opportunities to use all their senses when accessing learning, to ensure they get the best possible learning out of the sessions. Some children have been doing some independent mark making, which has been enormous progress for them, so well done.
The Swans had a fantastic time, in their physical development sessions, which incorporated Sherborne Development play, Jabadao and physiotherapy guidelines. The approach devised is very effective for the children’s physical needs and allowing them to embrace what they can do independently.
While the sun was out, the Swans made use of it and have been going to the “woods” where the children enjoyed being in nature and exploring the variety of things that we found in the woods.
The use of visual development strategies has been effective, and most of the children have been accessing EyeGaze on a regular basis, hence their effectiveness of using it has improved a lot. They used the programme to play games independently at break and lunch time, which is fantastic.
Furthermore, the children enjoyed creating different types of sounds in their Respond, Create and Interact sessions. They also enjoyed our mindfulness therapy in the morning, and enjoyed interacting with their peers, during that time, by vocalising, laughing, and looking. The Swans have settled in well and had a great start to the year.
See you all soon.
Signalong
At Kingfisher we use Signalong as a part of a Total Communication Approach, we are constantly using core vocabulary with the children to support their language development and then through each of our topics we introduce new signs and language, which extends their vocabulary further. We also have two “Signs of the Week” which helps maintain and extend key knowledge and skills of everyday vocabulary.
Each half term we will be creating a short video showcasing and demonstrating signs relavent for the current term so that you can learn the signs and further this learning at home.
Click play to watch this half terms Signalong video!
How You Can Help at Home
The following activities are just a guide to help reinforce the learning taking place this term and to strengthen the skills that are being developed.
- Explore sensory materials together, which are associated with the topic “Winter wonderland”. When exploring the materials encourage your child to look down at what they are feeling, smelling and tasting.
- Encourage your child to follow objects in different directions. Do this at a slow and steady pace for your child, as it helps their visual development.
- Play with toys and tactile materials that encourage grip – holding on and squeezing.
- Encourage your child to push and pull objects.
- Play cause and effect games with your child or allow them to independently play with cause-and-effect toys.
- Encourage your child to use their voice in response to yours, to allow them to have.
- Listen and interact with music and instruments, encourage them to play instruments independently, or explore it the way they want.
- Explore more objects in lots of contexts with your child.
- Share books related to our topic, touchy feely books and books with sounds are great.
- Take them on nature walks and allow them time to process the sounds in nature. Allow them to explore what they find on their nature walk.
