Koala

Welcome to Module 6. We hope you enjoyed the May break and we are excited to begin the summer term with the children. 

We shall complete our third term with the IB Transdisciplinary theme  'Where We Are in Place and Time.' The Central Idea for the children's learning continues as 'People around the world have different experiences' and the lines of Inquiry for this module are : 

• Journeys give us unique experiences.

• Physical features in the world provide habitats and intrigue.

• Where we live and where we come from can influence our way of life.

We have been thinking about the season of summer and completing lovely art activities to depict summer. The children used crushed cheerios to represent sand in order to make a collage of a sandcastle,  dipped shapes into paint to print summer images and they used yellow and orange paint to create a sunshine picture. It has been lovely to see the children engaged in these creative activities.

In recognition of the Euros, we enjoyed a sensory story about going to see England play. The children loved exploring the different resources - feeling the ball and astro turf pitch, holding the football shirt up to them, waving the England flag, using the blowers to celebrate, holding the trophy and eating football cake in celebration of their win! It was lots of fun and the children were very engaged.

This week has been very exciting...it has been Sports Day! Koala Class loved every minute of it and joined in with all of the activities, including a running race at the end. It was lovely to see them taking agency for what they did and to see them trying new skills. Thank you to all of the adults who came to support the children - it was a very special morning.

In Music during Week 3, Jack set up the Music Shop for the children to visit. They could choose an instrument from the table or the basket and explore the sounds it made when they tapped it or shook it. Jack used the symbols alongside this to teach the children what the actions were. It was ots of fun.

Koala Class have been developing their focus during our Attention Bucket time. During this session, the children are required to look and listen to a song and then exciting objects such as bubbles or wind up toys are shown to them. It is all about encouraging them to participate without touching. The children are becoming really focused and really engrossed in watching the objects.

Module 6 has begun and our Koala Bears have come back to school full of enthusiasm. We are using the great weather to enjoy our learning outside. We are developing the children's personal skills and have started incorporating teeth cleaning into the afternoon timetable. 

Welcome to Module 5. This term we will continue our learning around our Central Idea 'People around the world have different experiences' for our IB Transdisciplinary theme  'Where We Are in Place and Time'.

The lines of Inquiry which are leading our learning for this module are : 

• Journeys give us unique experiences.

• Physical features in the world provide habitats and intrigue.

• Where we live and where we come from can influence our way of life.

Well it is the last week of Module 5 and it seems to have gone so fast. This week we have continued with the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar and have used it to inspire our cooking. We had 2 sessions for food technology this week and have made salad, fruit and cake caterpillars. The children had agency over which ingredients they used. There was also a picture to inspire them to create their own edible caterpillar. They look fantastic.

This week we have recognised Mental Health Awareness. The children have had extra opportunities to take part in wellbeing activities such as sensory massage, doh disco and yoga dances. We have finished the week but wearing green and donating to the mental health charity.

Week 4 has been a lovely sunny week so our Koala Bears have spent lots of time outside. They have been developing their tolerance for sharing resources and using the different wheeled vehicles to explore the outside space. To end the week, we joined with Bear class for a 'Very Hungry Caterpillar' themed Stay and Play session. Parents and carers were invited to share this time with the children and we all had a lovely afternoon. Thank you for your support.

This week we have considered physical features of the world. We have looked at the plants and natural objects outside. We have watered the seeds in the pots and we have used different media to create pictures of flowers - paint, collage, crayons and chalks.  The children have been developing their social interactions and the variations in weather have provided us with great learning experiences about how the world works.

During Week 2 we recognised St. George's day. The children watched a short animation first to show the story of brave St. George and then completed different art activities using a range of medium. These activities supported the development of the children's focus on adult led tasks, fine motor skills, open-mindedness to exploring different textures with their hands and sharing resources alongside their peers.

We hope you enjoyed your Easter break and we are excited to be starting Module 5 with the children. Our Transdisciplinary Theme and Central Ideas will remain the same but we will look at new texts to lead our learning. The lovely weather will support our learning about plants and growth as well as exciting outdoor exploration. We have planted some herb seeds in pots and once they have begun to grow we will plant them into the garden to create a sensory area - providing lots of lovely smells and hopefully attracting minibeasts. During the school break, we had a new climbing frame installed which has been very popular with the children! They have had fun exploring it by climbing up and down, crawling underneath and playing 'Peekaboo' through the port holes! 

Welcome to Module 4. This term we will complete our work around our Central Idea 'People around the world have different experiences' for our IB Transdisciplinary theme  'Where We Are in Place and Time'.

The lines of Inquiry which are leading our learning for this module are : 

• Journeys give us unique experiences.

• Physical features in the world provide habitats and intrigue.

• Where we live and where we come from can influence our way of life.

Welcome back after half term and Happy Module 4! We hope you all enjoyed your week off.

This Module, a new Theme, Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry ready for new areas of learning. The chart above shows all of this information and we look forward to sharing the children's successes with you soon.

Koala class have been working really hard with a busy start to Term 4. We have begun this Module with the text Rosie's Walk and the children have enjoyed sensory stories using characters, food and textured resources. The story has been supporting our theme of journeys using directional language: up, over, across, behind, through etc. They particularly liked it when Rosie went on her journey which was  supported by 'edible' resources! We recognised St. David's day by listening to a poem and painting some daffodils, which are beautiful. Last week was World Book Day and to celebrate the children had fun listening to a sensory story about The Three Little Pigs. Their favourite part was playing with the resources afterwards! Week 3 ended with the children making treasures for their Mummy or special lady in their life for Mothering Sunday. 

We are now at the end of  Module 4 and we have enjoyed welcoming Spring. There have been lots of festivals for us to incorporate into our learning which has provided lots of diversity for the children. We have explored lots of sensory activities and the children have been developing their art skills with painting, sticking, collage and drawing. As usual we have linked stories and songs to our lessons to support learning with visual and aduitory stimuli. We are very proud of the achievements and efforts of all of the children this term, especially with thier open minded attitudes to new sensory experiences.

Happy New Year from all of us in Koala Class and welcome to Module 3. We hope that 2024 brings you happiness and joy.

Here is our overview for this Module. The Central idea remains the same but the Lines of Inquiry have changed

Welcome to Module 3. This term we will complete our work around our Central Idea 'Our different experiences can make us unique and special' for our IB Transdisciplinary theme  'Who We Are'.

The lines of Inquiry which are leading our learning for this module are : 

• I am actively part of different communities.

• Animals and humans grow and change.

We have begun this module using the text 'Monkey Puzzle' by Julia Donaldson. We have been able to link this to a Maths song 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed, which the children have enjoyed. There are been lots of new sensory experiences for the children to investigate including gloop, bubble foam, cloud dough and foam fluff! These new textures allow the children to use all of their senses especially touch and then the children can make a decision about whether they like it or not! There were different implements to use for fine motor skill and hand eye coordination development. Our sensory story was full of figures and puppets for the different animal characters in the story which the children could hold and touch. We have also been looking at adult and baby animals which has linked in to the lnaguage of big and small. Alongside this the children are developing their social skills and understanding of sharing, as they begin to interact with each other. It has already been an exciting and busy term with lots more fun to come.

We have ended Module 3 with National Storytelling week where we used Goldilocks and the 3 Bears to lead our learning. The children made porridge and used oaty play doh to develop their fine motor skills. We had a tough tray with the characters and different textured resources from the story to promote explorative learning and engagement from the children. The song 'When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears' provided us with some fun music and dance sessions. At the end of the week the children could come to school dressed as a character from a story. For the final week of term we enjoyed linking our central idea about being unique to Chinese New Year. There were noodles, rice and pasta for sensory learning and discovery. It provided social interactions between the children and adults during filling, tipping, mixing and pouring activities. A Chinese lantern made from coloured noodles promoted investigations into texture, colour, measures and taste promoting children's individual perspectives and opinions. We also made chinese lanterns by painting card with red paint and gold glitter, then cutting and folding it to create them. A handle was added and the children supported the fastening of it by pushing the stapler down.

We hope you all enjoy a happy and restful half term break and look forward to seeing you for Module 4 on Monday 19th February.

Welcome to Module 2. This term we will continue with our Central Idea 'Our different experiences can make us unique and special' for our IB Transdisciplinary theme  'Who We Are'.

The lines of Inquiry which are leading our learning are : 

• Knowing we are different helps us to work together. 

•  We are all individuals who need to share the world around us. 

• Using our senses helps us to make decisions.

We have begun the term by listening to the story of Elmer the elephant. Our sensory story included songs, shaving foam, and rainbow ribbons! This book centres on uniqueness and celebrates each other's differences, linking really well to our IB theme. We have enjoyed lots of art activities this week and have explored them using our different senses. The children have demonstrated their open mindedness and risk taking attributes while they have been painting and sticking. This term is also going to be fun as we embrace lots of special occasions such as Remembrance day, Diwali and Christmas.

Today we have celebrated Children in Need. Koala class explored a Pudsey sensory tray, coloured in a Pudsey bear and did finger painting to design a new bandana for Pudsey. We also wore Pudsey clothes and joined in with some Pudsey dancing. It has been lots of fun.

Snow day!

We were very excited to see the huge snowflakes falling today. We wrapped up warm and went outside to look at the snow and feel the snowflakes fall on us.

Module 2 has been a lot of fun learning about celebrations and preparing for Christmas. The Module has ended with a wonderful Nativity production for Phase 1 with Koala Class taking part as fantastic reindeers. We were so proud of them all for going on the stage and doing their dance. We have also had Christmas jumper day in support of a children's charity and Christmas dinner day. The children had a sensory 'Christmas Story' which included knitted characters. 

 We hope you all have a lovely Christmas and enjoy the festivities.

Welcome to Koala Class and a brand new academic year.

This term our IB Transdisciplinary theme is 'Who We Are'.

Our Central Idea that we are following is 'Our different experiences can make us unique and special.'

The children in Koala Class are all brand new to our school and have settled in really well. They have had time to explore the classroom and outside areas and get used to the staff and other children they are meeting. We are all very proud of how well they have joined the school and how settled they have been.

We have begun the term with a story 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?' and the children have listened to a sensory story and created a paper plate bear and coloured paper chains. Alongside the story, our main focus is communication. We have been supporting the children to communicate with us and to follow our directions using signs, gestures, flashcards and words. 

It has been an exciting and very happy start to the school year. Well done Koalas.

Koala Class have settled very well into school life and have had a fun packed half term. We continued with our theme 'Who We Are' and explored our senses. We were able to smell, taste, feel, see and listen to different sounds so that we could use and understand the senses. We linked lots of sensory experiences for the children through our tuff tray displays. It has been fascinating to watch the children inquire into how the things felt, looked, tasted or smelt. They could also listen to the sounds they made as they explored the differing textures. We have begun to observe the new Season and have linked Autumnal resources to our senses work. 

Stefan our librarian and Jack our music specialist have both visited us each week to support our love of reading and music talents. The children have benefited from meeting these expert teachers and developing new skills.

Half term has arrived so we would like to wish you all a happy two week break and look forward to seeing you all when we return.