March 2021
Pine Class have been up to all sorts this term – both inside and out of school! Space is our topic, and we chose the story Aliens Love Underpants for our theme. We began the term with at-home learning sessions of Circle Time twice a week, with pupils free to dip in and out as they chose. Then, pupils had the opportunity to join in virtually with the sensory story with props at home – some even brought along underpants to fling about! When pupils began to come to school again, they joined in the space topic with a variety of crafts and sensory activities. When we all came back together (Hooray!) we continued our topic with live storytelling sessions – with more underpants being flung about and spaceships and aliens flying through the air!
We also dipped into the topic for maths and counting activities – where we also used our MOVE skills – and a drama activity where we visited different planets via a roll of the dice! The pupils enjoyed the ‘ball’ and ‘animal planets’ with props and music the most. We have also constructed some junk model spacecrafts with prizes to be awarded this week. For Easter, the pupils took part in some egg rolling, an egg relay race and Easter corners. We also enjoyed some special Easter crafts with Angela Harrison, art specialist, and the sports coach, Sharon Humble, as well as our own activities in class. The pupils also resumed their communication and other literacy work.
Lachlan’s neighbour, Jennifer, donated some lovely, handcrafted bears that his fellow pupils put together with some Easter chocolate for a raffle. We are just now preparing the daffodils bulbs planted last October – which have sprung into lovely flowers – for our entry into the Junior Groups Spring Bulb Competition for The Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society School Springshow!
December 2020
Pine Class have had an enjoyable term, both inside and outside of the school over this past half-term leading up to Christmas. We have created art for our sensory story, linked to our Pets topic ‘Room on the Broom’; some even acting out the story with the use of their pacers!
We have worked on our communication, vocabulary, and language skills in a variety of different weekly groups. Pine Class have also been enjoying sensory maths activities; and just this past week have been enjoying songs linked to Christmas and have worked on our counting!
We have acted out The Rainbow Fish sensory story for RME and learned about friendship and giving. We have also had a wonderful time during our performing arts sessions with Angela and Jacqueline, continuing with their magical sensory seasonal themes of Autumn and Winter in the gym hall every Thursday!
Outdoor activities have included weeding and planting garlic in our raised bed (using a variety of planting techniques, some of which have included throwing cloves of garlic!), listening to stories in our school polytunnel and visiting the Millennium Woods, investigating the weather, going on scavenger hunts, and gathering materials for our Christmas wreaths.
We will all be thinking about our friend and class mate Arabella this Christmas.
March to June 2019
There’s lots happening in Pine Class at Oaklands. Our theme this term is transport and we’ve been singing our way “around town” in buses, trams, boats and planes. We have heard many of these vehicles too on our outings into the community on Friday mornings.
In RME we have enjoyed and experienced a boat sensory story – Noah’s Ark in RME with lots of noisy animals and their friends. There is another story to explore in a boat; again with a big storm and choppy water; but that is coming soon.
The weather is getting better for exploring the great outdoors. Our recent school focussed week of Outdoor Learning has enthused us to get out there and enjoy the fresh air; blow the cobwebs away and hear and experience what nature has to teach us!
Stories about seagulls stealing ice cream becomes more lively with real live sound effects squealing above our heads in the playground. It is great also to have a regular volunteer helping us in the classroom (and outside) on Wednesdays. Birthe is pleased to be with us and she is planning to extend our repetoir with Norwegian children’s songs! We love our singing in Pine Class.
August to October 2018
The Pine Class Team have been making activity items to explore different textures over our lunch breaks. These were made from recycled materials, which will please our school ECO committee! These materials are easy to find around the house and in future we will be making more, using other things inside the lidded toy, like pasta or glitter in a bag. The sky is the limit over what sensory items we could use! We could even put yucky ones in like sandpaper …. We also used a body puff to put some interesting noisy materials inside, after we had taken the body puff apart. We had fun filling the big sausage shape with our favourite rustly pieces. What do you think?
Oaklands School 