Here we are again at the end of another week, this time week 9! It will soon be Summer term, how scary is that!

On Wednesday we kicked off Mrs Fisher's week with a My Thinking and Problem Solving lesson. We began the lesson with a quick brain break, a favourite of 8G, Body Bop. Lots of us love to follow the actions and dance along with the video and it gets our bodies warmed up and ready to learn. This was followed by an Education City game involving 1:1 counting of objects. Everyone got to have a turn, and we all cheered our friends on and encouraged them to have a try. Mrs Fisher's group were working on addition to 10 using the Numicon shapes. This is only the second time that we have tried this and I was very impressed at how much my group remembered about the process to find the answer and how they all attempted their sums with some independence. Super work! Mrs England's group were locating the Microsoft Word program, opening it and practicing locating letters on the keyboard and typing words accurately. Some of us completed the TEACCH boxes in the workstation with minimal support from Miss Aindow, while some of us took part in some water play where they needed to find the Numicon shapes in the water then match them to the right numeral.

On Wednesday afternoon it was that time of the week where we split into 2 groups. It was Group 1's turn to cook pizza this week so off they went to the Food Tech room accompanied by Mrs England and Miss Aindow, while Group 2 stayed in class with Mrs Fisher. Please read our other blog to see how Group 1 got on with their pizza making. In class, some of us were learning how to recognise when clothes are turned inside out and when they are the right way round. Some of us were learning more about strangers and were sorting photographs into groups: People I Know and Strangers. Some of us were working on our Sight Reading words, finding and recognising our key words, and some of us were working on choosing an activity with a friend, then keeping on task for a full 5 minutes. Rose and Skye did some brilliant teamwork building a jigsaw together, and both stayed on task for nearly 15 minutes to complete their jigsaw! Well done girls! When Group 1 came back from Food Tech we all got our coats on and went outside for Daily Mile to get some fresh air, then returned to class to sample some of Group 1's pizza- lots of thumbs up!

On Thursday morning we started the day with a My Communication session. Before we could begin we did some whole class regulation by singing and dancing to "Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes". Then split into two groups to read our class story "Topsy and Tim Go to the Dentist" for the final time. We took it in turns to recall different parts of the story, as well as answer simple who, what, where questions about the story too. Next week, we will start a new book with Miss Heaton in Tuesday's My Communication lesson. When we split into groups, Mrs Fisher's group played Bingo using our Sight Reading key words. This was tricky as we had to keep looking up at the word on the screen, then looking back down at our bingo card to see if they matched. We are getting much better at instantly recognising some of the words that we have been working on, as well as reading them too. Mrs England's group were practicing their writing, some were overwriting and some were writing their Sight Reading words in their books (reading the word, copying the word, then covering the word and writing it again). Miss Aindow ran a Colourful Semantics group where pupils were commenting on what their friends were doing around the classroom by building a sentence about it (who, doing, what, where), then did some mark making on a big scale with paper on the wall with some more pupils. 

In the afternoon we all took part in a Me and My Body lesson. Mrs Fisher started it off with some Attention Autism. For Stage 1 we did What's in the Box? Mrs Fisher had a happy little puppy dog that barked and flipped over, then she played catch but felt sad because she couldn't catch the ball. Some of us had a go at pulling a sad face, just like the one Mrs Fisher was pulling. For Stage 2 Mrs Fisher blew up a yellow balloon. She carefully drew a happy face on it and then played catch with Mrs England, making happy faces and laughing while they played. Next she found a blue balloon, blew it up and this time drew a sad face on it. Mrs Fisher made a sad face, then squirted the sad balloon with water and said it was crying. For Stage 3 we sang a song- If You're Happy and You Know it. Francesca took a turn at being happy, doing lots of smiling and laughing as we sang. Next it was time to be sad, Rose and Nicola took a turn at pretending to be sad and cry while we sang. Finally, we sang about being angry. Skye and Charlie were super at being angry and shaking their fists and stamping their feet. In our work, Mrs Fisher's group watched a video clip about a tiger that felt sad. We talked about why the tiger felt sad and that it's OK to feel sad sometimes. Mrs England and Miss Aindow worked with pupils individually to help them design a choiceboard to use when their engine is running fast, containing activities that might slow their engine down. Some of us found this easy and had a very good idea about what slows their engines down. Some of us found this tricky and needed lots of support from Mrs England or Miss Aindow in order to come up with some ideas. Next week we will put these ideas into practice when our engines are running fast. 

And then we blinked and it was Friday! Friday morning was our last My Thinking and Problem session of the week. We started the lesson with a brain break (Body Bop again,courtesy of Charlie's request) followed by another game of counting eggs. In our work, some of us were working through TEACCH boxes independently in the workstations while Mrs Fisher's group were making peg patterns that matched the Numicon shapes. Mrs England's group were continuing to work on their PowerPoint presentations based around their interests, this week they were adding a text box to a slide.Mrs Fisher enjoyed some singing using the Playdoh to make props for the number songs too. Friday afternoon was swimming (which we all love). We've only got 2 more swimming sessions left before the Easter break, then that will be it for the pupils until they swim in Year 9 in the summer term next school year. Finally, our Star of the Week this week is Francesca! She has done some amazing work this week- adding to 10 in her maths work, answering why questions about information that she has read, then some brilliant writing too. Well done Francesca! 

Have a lovely weekend :-)

Mrs Fisher, Mrs England and Miss Aindow

8G Spring Term Week 9