Welcome back from what I hope was a lovely half term break!

We’ve hit the ground running this week in 8G, lots of fantastic work has been happening.

On Wednesday morning we took part in our second My Thinking and Problem Solving lesson of the week. This started with a quick game of Numicon bingo (which we all love!) and then straight into our groups to complete our work. Mrs Fisher’s group were learning about addition to 10 and using the Numicon shapes to help us. Mrs England’s group were practicing logging on to the computer to allow us to be that little bit more independent when using the computers. Ben was a superstar and it clicked with him straight away, he was very proud of himself and wanted to tell everyone that he could that he was able to log onto the computer himself- super work! Some of us completed the TEACCH boxes in the workstation, watched over by Miss Aindow, while some of us explored the continuous provision activities that were set out, including finding the Numicon shapes in the coloured rice then matching them to the right number.

Wednesday afternoon meant it was time to split into our two groups for a My Community lesson. This week it was Group 1’s turn to go to the Food Tech room to take part in a Cooking and Nutrition session with Mrs England and Miss Aindow- making pancakes. Please see our other blog to see what they got up to in more detail.
Group 2 stayed in class with Mrs Fisher to work on their self-help and independence PLGs. Some of us were learning about how we can tell when clothes are turned inside out (to help us when we are getting dressed after swimming) whilst some of us were following a schedule when carrying out personal care. Some of us were learning more about strangers and were sorting photographs into 2 groups: people I know and strangers.

On Thursday Mrs Fisher was in annual reviews all day so Mrs England and Miss Aindow were in charge. Every morning, Miss Aindow leads a whole class session around social skills in a bid to improve interactions between the learners, and to encourage them to interact and take part in reciprocal conversations. Each day there is a different question that Miss Aindow asks, pupils take it in turns to answer it. Then we take it in turns to ask a who, what or where question about the little bit of information that we have been given, in the hope that this extends to a longer conversation that all learners are engaged in. It is fantastic to hear how pupils’ social skills are steadily improving and it is always nice to see them take an interest in what their friend has been talking about. Everyone took part in a My Communication session too where we carried on reading our new book- Topsy and Tim visit the dentist (still in keeping with our Spring term theme of Doctor, Doctor!). Lots of us were practicing our writing skills; some of us were over writing, some of us were mark making and some of us were writing our new sight-reading words. Some of us were using Colourful Semantics to comment on what our friends were doing in the lesson, and some of us were having a quiet moment reading in the reading corner.
Reminder that there will be no PE lesson again next Thursday due to Mrs Fisher being in reviews all day. Apologies for the inconvenience.

And then it was Friday (doesn’t it come round quickly?!). The weather was absolutely miserable outside so we were stuck in the classroom for the majority of the day. Mrs Fisher kicked our final My Thinking and Problem session of the week off with some Attention Autism. After “What’s in the Box?” for stage 1, she made some Numicon “cakes” with the shaving foam for Stage 2 where we practiced our counting skills, then for Stage 3 some of us took a turn at rolling the big dice then splatting the right Numicon cake. Very messy and lots of fun!
In our group work, Mrs Fisher’s group were practicing recognising numbers to 20 while Mrs England’s group were using the laptops to begin to create a Powerpoint on a topic of their choosing. We will build on this week by week, incorporating the necessary skills needed to complete a Powerpoint presentation to show the class. Miss Aindow’s group were in the workstations completing the TEACCH boxes to encourage more independence in our learning. Mrs Fisher and Daisy were singing number songs together, using the Playdoh as props for the songs too.

Friday afternoon was swimming at Chorley All Seasons- it is brilliant how all of the class enjoy swimming so much. Then back to school for our Star of the Week this week who is…
BEN! Ben has been asking fantastic follow up questions this week in Miss Aindow’s social skills group, plus he did a brilliant job of learning to log onto the computer by himself! Well done Ben.

Have a wonderful weekend, we will see you all next week.

Mrs Fisher, Mrs England and Miss Aindow

8G Spring Term Week 7