Category: Literacy and Communication

Developing literacy and communication is a central focus of our school’s work.  We aim to enable all of our pupils to be effective communicators at their own individual level, starting with a positive and consistent affirmation.  With the support of Speech and Language therapists, we baseline our pupils skills using APEC bands and use targets to guide our focus on communication development.  We use an inclusive communication approach; our youngsters are supported through accessible low/high tech communication strategies and resources such as Eye Gaze, PODD and PIXON boards.  It is vital that our school community can communicate with one another, therefore Makaton is our chosen additional language.  We have a clear focus on developing literacy for all pupils.  Each BGE class plans a book study each term.  We have a focus on functional and environmental print.  Senior phase pupils are encouraged to generalise their literacy skills into work placements and through leadership roles.  Literacy and communication skills are required across all areas of the curriculum, therefore we practice and apply skills throughout the school day in many contexts and encourage the same within the home.

Technology With Room 11

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Technology is fun!

All children in Room 11 have been participating in language and numeracy lessons and have been encouraged to use technology. Some children in our class use switch to operate a range of educational programmes, some use touch screen to navigate pages and the other ones are really good at using eye gaze to wider their experiences and develop communication skills.

We all like our sessions as they are fun!

 

Poetry Inspired Art in Room 13

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One of the pupils in Room 13 found a poem, The Owl, by Alfred Lord Tennyson. As he was reading it and showing interest, the class followed up with some additional learning around owls. They have used mixed media to create some lovely art work. This has included natural materials and textures such as bark.

A Surprise For Room 8

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Follow us, Room 8, into an amazing journey through our world of rights along with Handa, from “Handa’s surprise” by Eileen Browne.

In the story, Handa, a girl from Kenya, took a surprise bowl of fruits on a journey to her friend Akeyo. Different animals pinched the fruits without Handa’s permission. There were many interesting animals and fruits to find out about, making the journey really fun. As Handa’s journey was about to end, a goat bumped into a tangerine tree, and filled up her empty bowl with tangerines. When she arrived at Akeyo’s village, that was a happy surprise for both Handa and Akeyo. Handa was amazed by the loss of the other fruits, and the presence of tangerines. There was a happy ending because Akeyo’s favourite fruit is tangerine and Handa brought them to him.

What made this story so wonderful was the beautiful describing words. It also introduced the theme of friendship and its importance, which is another positive asset to this story. The surprise at the end of the story added a comical twist that brought the happiness.

Altogether, this was a really engaging and entertaining book that was wonderful to listen to and made us smile. Furthermore, the book has given us the opportunity to learn about children’s rights, to explore and taste the fruits from Handa’s basket, and to speak about our uniqueness and importance.

However, our journey is not finished yet, so be ready for other adventures along with Handa and her friend, Akeyo.

Enjoying a Visiting Storyteller in Room 12

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Room 12 enjoyed a visit from multi-sensory storyteller, Ailie, of Flotsam and Jetsam. The story she shared with us was about a cat going to see a giant. As you can see from our faces, we were all entertained by the story and the range of props that supported our understanding and enjoyment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Choosing Books: Room 15 Visit Waterstones

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Room 15 pupils enjoyed a bus trip to Waterstones in the Bon Accord Centre.  We all had fun choosing a book.  We looked carefully at the different books before deciding which one we wanted.  Some of us chose ‘Ten Little Bookworms’ and some of us chose ‘Minifigure Mayhem’.  We are all looking forward to reading our books at home.

‘Mouse Paint’: Colour Mixing in Room 14

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Room 14 enjoyed listening to and watching the story ‘Mouse Paint’ by Ellen Walsh.  We then enjoyed a variety of activities exploring colour mixing.

Exploring the Colour Monster with Room 2

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The pupils in Room 2 have been working extremely hard on their book study of ‘The Colour Monster’. The poor Colour Monster is all mixed up, his colours are all over the place and therefore his feelings are too.

We explored each colour and feeling by initially doing Sensology work exploring objects of each colour and listening to pieces of music, mainly classical, which helped create the appropriate atmosphere. After this we did a BIG art session for each colour and feeling which was so much fun!

When we explored yellow and happiness, we used our favourite art techniques. We rolled balls down ramps, crinkled cellophane, used the salad spinners, shook pasta in a metal tin, painted with beads – each child used their favourite technique before happily exploring those of their friends. There were SO many smiles in class!

Blue brought the feeling of sadness and we did watery art. We were all amazed to listen to, feel and look at what happened when we blew straws into bubbly water! We also sprayed paint from bottles and made incredible marble prints.

During our angry, red session we made lots and lots of noise! We stamped our feet in the paint as hard as we could and banged on drums and cymbals…paint went flying everywhere!

As we discovered about black and fear, we made ‘scary’ creatures scurry over our bodies before dipping their feet in black paint and make them scurry over our paper! Some pupils were mesmerised while we dropped the heavy, clanking chain onto the floor after dipping it in paint and there was some amazing requesting for ‘more’.

There was a lovely, gentle atmosphere in class when we explored green and calm. We made balloons fall from a height and beautiful patterns from gymnastics ribbons made beautiful marks on our paper. A definite highlight was waving the big green cloth to create a textured collage; we started off by waving it gently although many pupils communicated that they liked it going fast fast fast!

We are very proud of our pupils for their fantastic engagement and new learning from this project. We will check back in with the last little bit of our Colour Monster book study work before the end of term!

Colourful Fun In Rooms 6 & 7

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Rooms 6 & 7 have been having lots of fun exploring Our Colourful World through both our play and work.  We have enjoyed participating in a range of colour matching and sorting activities and enjoyed using the Interactive Board for some tasks.  We have also managed to find lots of different colours through our play.  We’ve even been using our Pixon boards to choose and chat about colours!

World Book Day In Room 10

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On World Book Day the children from Class 10 brought in books from home, looked again at some of our class books and took the opportunity to spend time enjoying some of the books they had taken out of the local library. We had the chance to share some of our favourite books from home which we all enjoyed.