Music With Emmeline – Friday 1st May

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Here are today’s musical activities from Emmeline.

Musical Story – Rumble in the Jungle 

Today’s musical story is going to be ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ by Giles Andreae and David Wojtowycz. All of their books lend to becoming music very easily because of their rhyming, rhythmic patterns.

Here is a jungle soundscape from YouTube for you to listen to after hearing the story if you would like to. Can you hear or see any of the animals from the story in the soundscape? Which animal is your favourite?

https://youtu.be/qy-tPpdVdh0

Make Your Own Kind of Music – The Whole Song 

Let’s try and put the whole song together today! Good luck and we can’t wait to sing this with you when we are all back together at Makaton Choir!

Secondary Update

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School closure activities for Room 15 – Week Four

Thanks to Amanda for sharing her activities this week! Below are some ideas for families wanting to do “school” activities with their children – if any of these ideas look good to you, give them a go! Equally, if this isn’t what your child is needing just now please don’t put pressure on yourself or them to complete this. It’s also great to take more time on a previous week’s activities if your child is benefiting from those. Let me know if you have any particular learning requests for future weeks.

This week has LOTS of ideas – please don’t worry about fitting everything in, please do what works for you and your child.

Literacy – Theme park

This is an activity we do in class to work on communication skills without even realising it! You’ll need our theme park PowerPoint (https://bit.ly/2S8rOUR – please download for best use) and you might want to add to the experience with props at home – maybe a water spray for the water slide, use a garden swing for the pirate ship, you could even create your own rides – bubble boat ride? You choose! A wee video with how to do this activity is here https://bit.ly/3ax4IgP How does this build communication skills? We can talk about:

· I like it!

· I don’t like it!

· Scary! / I’m scared!

· Exciting! / I’m excited!

· Faster!

· Slow down!

· Help!!!

· Let’s do it again! / Do it again?

· Do something different?

· More?

· What’s next?

· You choose a ride.

· Oops! You’re wet!

· Finished?

And many more!

Please remember that as we model with our child’s communication device (e.g. PODD, PIXON, TouchChat) that the device should not be taken away from the child.

 

Numeracy and mathematics – Applying money skills

For those who have been learning to recognise a coin, we’re going to apply that skill in two ways this week.

First – sorting. You’ll need two places to sort coins into, it might be two boxes, it might be two sheets of paper on a table or the floor, or it might be two cereal bowls – absolutely anything! More confident learners might work with lots of different coins, those building their confidence might work with two different coins to sort. Ask your child to sort the coins – the one they have been learning to recognise into one container, the other coin(s) into the other – you will probably need to show them what to do the first few times. Some learners who are not yet working at the level of recognising a coin might still choose to do this activity looking at “same” and “different”.

Second – add coin skills to the theme park activity (see literacy, above). Each ride costs the coin your child has been learning to recognise. Provide your child with a container (purse, food tub, envelope, anything!) with several coins. If your child has become very confident with recognising a coin you could put lots of different coins into the container, if your child is still learning to recognise their coin then perhaps just a few of the coin they are learning to recognise and a few of a very different looking coin. Ask your child to find the coin they are working on each time they want to access a theme park “ride”. If you’re wanting to expand this, you could have items for sale at the theme park – snacks, bubbles, light up toys – or you could add additional rides (there are some great videos online, just check them first so you know what to expect and there isn’t anything too scary!).

Alternative option (for learners not using coins): Let’s build a tower

Use any items you have at home for this – they don’t have to be building blocks! Using different items helps us to understand shapes and their properties – brick shapes are useful for towers, balls are not! We might count how many bricks we have, we might focus only on communicating “more” or “all gone” when it falls down.

 

Health and wellbeing – body parts & self-care

Body parts – https://bit.ly/3cM9h8G will take you to some of the songs we use to practice finding body parts. Can you find the body parts mentioned in the song? Can you use your communication system to label body parts?

Self-care – What makes you happy? During a stressful time such as this, it’s even more important that we look after ourselves. Can we share with others what we would like to do? Can we communicate how we feel afterwards?

For physical movement this week, you might want to try some yoga (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzw-Oir8UPw – this one continues our theme park theme for this week).

 

Social studies – weather record or job role play

Weather – we looked at the weather in weeks one and two – let’s link it to our work on the season by keeping a note of the weather for a longer period (it can be more than a week if you’d like) to help us build our understanding of a season as a longer unit of time. You might record the weather with symbols, sensory resources (e.g. smooth / shiny materials for sunny, cotton wool clouds, sponge for rain, folded paper fan for wind) or with photographs of yourself in the different weathers. A simple chart and symbols can be found here: https://bit.ly/3aKT5Dr Can you use your communication device to share what the weather is today? Where is the sun? How long is the sun in the sky for?

Job role play – as part of our ASDAN work we have explored lots of different jobs through role play. I’m sharing with families some resources for role-playing a dentist, but you might prefer to role play a job that a friend or family member does (or has done in the past). Some learners will be learning what a dentist does, others might explore sensory resources such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, mouthwash (if they won’t swallow it!), or mirrors to look at their teeth. Through this we get to experience different roles people in our communities have and how they can help us. Resources: dentist PowerPoint (download for best use) here: https://bit.ly/3bQUzwU and Makaton signs about the dentist here: https://bit.ly/2Y62t1z

 

Technology – cooking!

It’s been a while since we did any food technology, so this week I’m sharing a few ideas for easy recipes to try at home. These are symbol supported recipes – no quantities are mentioned, just the

actions, but I promise you can’t go too wrong! Your child might focus on one part of this activity – perhaps washing their hands, perhaps wearing an apron, perhaps mixing skills or knife skills, perhaps safety. If your child will get more from the activity by focussing on one element, please do spend time on that!

(I’m sharing several recipes so you can choose (or your child can choose) which one looks best, you don’t have to do all of them!)

Recipes: Coleslaw: https://bit.ly/35d9m2D Guacamole: https://bit.ly/2Y2RJ49 Strawberry smoothie: https://bit.ly/3bGQQ51 Vegetable wedges: https://bit.ly/2KyI8Ka

 

Science – spring “treasure” hunt

Can you find each item from the worksheet (https://bit.ly/3aKUfPj )? For any you might not be able to find in or around your homes, fear not – I’ve put together a document with pictures of each item (https://bit.ly/2Y8tAcb ). Equally you might have toy animals at home or perhaps you could use your art work this week?

 

Sensory play – flower ice

Freeze some flowers in ice and enjoy melting the ice together to get to the flowers and splashing in the water once the ice has melted!

 

Expressive Arts

Can you sing / sign along to “Bring Me Sunshine”? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmOPSpIDIKY&list=PLjT4XhijakZjgDSblHxgYBiN4R9V2BZnA&index=6&t=0s Can you dance along? Can you add your own music?

Spring art – can you choose one of the projects on the worksheet (https://bit.ly/3bFA3PR) to try at home? (If you don’t have any paints at home, you might want to try an online recipe for making your own, or you can leave this option out)

 

RME

Ramadan has recently started, so let’s explore things with links to Ramadan.

An interactive colouring activity can be found by logging in to TwinklGo (https://www.twinkl.co.uk/go/sign-in ) and using the code PU7192.

Muslims often break their fast by eating dates – can you try a date (or other dried fruit such as raisins if you don’t have dates). Do you like it? Can you share the fruit out to your family?

(Note for health needs – dates are very healthy in many ways, but for anyone watching blood sugar you might want to check how dates fit into your diet plan!)

 

Sensory Story

In other news, one of our pupils has been having fun at home with his brother, making Sensory Stories. Here is one that they have given permission for us to share:

http://pamis.org.uk/news/news/a-visit-to-the-zoo-by-shehzad-ahmad-to-share-with-his-brother-waleed/

It’s lovely to see how creative everyone is being and the different ways we’re finding to pass time and have fun!

Music With Emmeline – Thursday 30th April

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Here are today’s musical activities from Emmeline.

Familiar Song: Bingo was his Name

This week’s familiar song is going to be Bingo was his Name. Do you have an instrument at home that you can play for each letter of Bingo’s name we lose as the song progresses? Or maybe you could blink your eyes, clap your hands or pat your knees instead.

Make your Own Kind of Music: Part 4 – Verse 3

We will now learn the third part of Make Your Own Kind of Music before we put the whole song together. It is a short part but with a slightly different tune to the other two previous parts. Here are the words;

So if you cannot take my hand,
And if you must be goin’
I will understand.

Music With Emmeline – Wednesday 29th April

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Here are today’s musical activities from Emmeline.

A Rainy Day Soundscape 

 

 Today we are going to be playing a rainy day soundscape. We have provided this picture as a visual stimulus for this rainy day but perhaps you would like to use your imagination to think of your own rainy day or remember one. Do you have a bubble tube or rain-stick at home you could watch or use when listening to the rainy music.

Please relax, listen to the music, look at the picture, imagine the rain and take deep breaths. Perhaps there are more rainy/ water sounds you can find at home that you would like to use and play along with the music.

Make your Own Kind of Music: Part 3 – Verse 2

It’s time to learn the next part of Make Your Own Kind of music today. You can always try and sing/ sign along with the Paloma Faith version of the song to practise at home. Here are the words for the second part;

You’re gonna be Known-in’
The loneliest kind of lonely,
It may be rough goin’
Just to do your things
The hardest thing to do.

Music With Emmeline – Tuesday 28th April

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Here are today’s musical activities from Emmeline.

Musical Activity: The Clap Game

This week’s musical activity is the clap game. Can you clap your hands at the same time as Emmeline. This is a game of concentration! Once you have tried clapping along with Emmeline can you copy someone at home or can they copy you! Keeping a steady beat is tricky enough but it is very difficult to concentrate and clap at the same time as your partner if they are trying to catch you out!

Make your Own Kind of Music: Part 1  – Verse 1

We are going to learn the first part of Make Your Own Kind of music today. The words are;

Nobody can tell you,
There’s only one song worth singing.
They might try and sell you,
Cause it hangs them up,
To see someone like you.

Expressive Arts – Week Beginning 27th April

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Our Expressive Arts team have been busy creating more videos for you to enjoy at home throughout the week.

They include an art activity from Diane for you to copy, drumming from Keith and a trash band video from Keith and Emmeline.   There is also information about Sam’s online dance classes.

Once again, if you would like to share any of your photos and videos with our school community, please send them to us via your child’s class teacher, the school Facebook Messenger page or email them to:
Amy Dunnett (Principal Teacher Primary)
adunnett@aberdeencity.gov.uk

Dance: Online Classes

Sam is holding two online dance classes this week on Wednesday 29th April and Friday 1st May at 1pm.

Both of these classes will be taking place through his YouTube channel.  More information will be posted soon but you can subscribe to his channel by following the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWqBDh0VNpocZvdW29VlfPg/

Art: Sun Catchers

Fingers crossed the sun comes back soon and you can show off your wonderful designs!

Drumming: Session 5 – Orchard Brae Favourites

Trash Band: Session 3 – We Are The Trash Band

Primary Department Activities – Week Beginning 27th April

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Here are some fun activities for you to try at home this week.

Remember, we’re always delighted to see what you’ve been doing so please, feel free to share you photos and videos with us either through the school Facebook messenger page, your child’s class teacher or email adunnett@aberdeencity.gov.uk

 

Story Of The Week: The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

This week’s story is a wonderful shimmering underwater adventure – The Rainbow Fish.  Troughout this story, the Rainbow Fish gradually realises the importance of friendship and sharing!

Using the link below you can watch and listen to the story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifXlc0QI2kY

The book study below has some great activities for you to try at home based on the story.

Links and additional documents to support the activities can be found below:

Activity 1: Fish Outlines

Activity 3: Aquarium Sensory Bag

Activity 5: Fishy Biscuit Recipe

This recipe can also be found at https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easiest-ever-biscuits

Other Activity Ideas:

Science: Rainbow Experiments

In keeping with our Story of the Week, The Rainbow Fish, why don’t you have a go at some more of our Rainbow inspired science activities?

 

Learning Grid: Life Skills

Here is a learning grid for Life Skills.  It contains 16 activity ideas for you to help develop and promote your child’s independence in a range of household and life skills tasks.

These activities are only suggestions and we would recommend that, where appropriate, you adapt these activities to meet your child’s ability level.

 

Learning Grid: Get Active!

Here is a learning grid for Getting Active!  It contains 16 activity ideas for you to help promote physical activity both in and out of the home on a daily basis.

These activity are only suggestions and we would recommend completing one activity each day.  However, we would love to see what other creative ways you and your family are using to Get Active daily!

Links to YouTube Channels and websites can be found below.

Oti Mabuse Official YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/mosetsanagape

Joe Wicks – Body Coach YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/thebodycoach1

Cosmic Kids Yoga: https://www.cosmickids.com/

Cosmic Kids Yoga YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga

Learning Station YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLearningStation

Bumble Bee Physio: https://www.facebook.com/bumblebeephysio/

Music With Emmeline – Monday 27th April

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Here are today’s musical activities from Emmeline.

Vocal Warm–Up: The Big Yawn 

This week’s vocal warm-up is the perfect one for a sleepy Monday morning! We want you to have some big stretches, yawns and sighs but very vocal ones. Not only are you warming your voice up with this warm up but your body too!

Make Your Own Kind of Music: Part 1 – Chorus 

I think we have exhausted our Scottish repertoire and we would now like to start teaching one of the songs that was recently voted for in our Makaton Choir Suggestions box. It is ‘Make Your Own Kind of Music’ by Paloma Faith. Not only is it a beautiful song but we are certainly all making our own sorts of music at the moment so it is the ideal song to be learning. We are going to start today by learning the chorus;

But you gotta make your own kind of music
Sing your own special song
Make your own kind of music
Even if nobody else sings along!

Busy, Busy, Busy

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We are missing seeing all our pupils every day and we love to see what you’ve been up to.  Here are a few photos that have been shared with us.

If you have anything you would like to share please email: adunnett@aberdeencity.gov.uk or send them to us via the school Facebook Messenger or your child’s class teacher.

We look forward to seeing all your activities and adventures!

Rainbows

The rainbow has become a significant symbol  during this uncertain time and many people have been making rainbows to display in their windows and share with their community. Some of our pupils have been busy making their own rainbows to share.

Rock Painting

Have you seen any painted rocks when you’ve been out on a walk?  Here are some that were found by our pupils as well as some they and their families have painted.

Getting Crafty

Some pupils have been very busy and had a go at making things at home although we’re not too sure if the baking was a success!

Having Fun In The Sun

We’ve been so lucky to have had lots of lovely sunny days.  Have a look at some of the fun things our pupils and their families got up to enjoying their time outside.

Secondary Update

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We hope that you are all able to enjoy some of the lovely weather we’ve been having. We’ve enjoyed hearing from you through replies to our e-mails. Please keep replying and do get in touch if there is anything further we can do to support.

Some ideas that have been shared with classes may be of interest to other families. Have a look below:

 

Making Natural Paints (Room 16)

Step 1 – collect items when out on a walk, in the garden or in the kitchen

Step 2  – make the paints

Step 3  – paint!

There are several websites with different ideas for what to use.  These are the websites Jenny looked at for inspiration:

Twinkl – mud paint https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-26921-mud-paint-recipe-outdoor-activity

Activity Village – https://www.activityvillage.co.uk/painting-with-natural-paints

Recycle Nation  – https://recyclenation.com/2015/04/how-to-make-dyes-paints-from-plants/

Jenny had a trial run with her kids yesterday.  They think they added too much water.  So they collected up loads of old calpol syringes from the kitchen drawer and had fun in the garden (remember to take in the washing first!).  If you use less water, you can paint with a brush, like water colours.  It was great fun, very sensory (smell, touch, sound, physical) and as it had 3 steps, it became a project to revisit throughout the day. Best of all it was free and used what they had in the house and what they found on their walk.  You can also use food colouring if you prefer.

As with any painting activity, be aware that this may stain fabrics.

 

Ideas from Room 15

Below are some ideas for families wanting to do “school” activities with their children – if any of these ideas look good to you, give them a go!  Equally, if this isn’t what your child is needing just now please don’t put pressure on yourself or them to complete this.  Let me know if you have any particular learning requests for future weeks.

Information about how to do each activity is underneath.

 

 Literacy – Let’s share our likes and dislikes.

There are lots of ways to talk about what we like or don’t like – perhaps the most useful is for us to frequently share both likes and dislikes (some of our learners worry about sharing dislikes, so it helps to see us talking about likes and dislikes).  Please use the child’s communication system (e.g. PODD, PIXON, TouchChat).

One way to share likes, dislikes (and everything in-between) is a talking mat inspired activity.  I’ve popped together a video for how you might do this (https://bit.ly/2VmeRIS ), and if you’re keen, this could go towards your ASDAN Transition Challenge Citizenship unit, if you want to send a photo and/or a wee sentence I’ll pop it into your evidence folder.

 

Numeracy and mathematics – Applying money skills.

We’ve been looking at recognising one coin – let’s continue to apply that skill (and maybe refresh our memories after a wee holiday!).  I’ve shared with our class a symbol food shopping list for learners to use (and a template you could use them on can be found here: https://bit.ly/3bk3CGy ), but you can use whatever resources you have at home – perhaps packaging to recreate a food shop, maybe books to make a book shop, clothes to make a clothes store or toys to make a toy shop.

When your child has found the items on their list, ask them to pay for it with the coin they have been working to recognise.  Don’t worry if your child “buys” an expensive item with a 1p coin, it’s the skill rather than the realism that matters!

 

Alternative option (for learners not using coins): Play music and dance with your child.  Pause at different points and ask your child “More?  Or Finished?” (encouraging signing, use of communication device or personal signifiers as your child requires).

 

Bonus Easter activity – if you haven’t already, you might want to try an egg hunt.  You could give clues with directional language (up, down, left, right, near, far), talk about the colour of eggs, how big they are, how many there are – there’s lots of maths hiding in an egg hunt!

 

Health and wellbeing –can you try two different activities and show which you liked the most?  Ideas could include listening to music, watching a movie, playing a ball game, playing a card or board game – you choose! This could link to your ASDAN recreation work if you’re very keen – a photo and/or wee sentence about what you’ve done could be added to your evidence folder if you’d like to share one.

 

Physical activity – quite a few of our class enjoy Kidz Bop, so I’m sharing a video here you might want to dance along to together (and there are many more on their channel if you’re interested in more).  You might try to copy the moves or enjoy freestyle dance – enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiXCxfWWwPo

 

Social studies – I’m not suggesting anything for this week, as if you’re doing the shopping role play above you’re already learning about how shops provide us with what we need in our daily lives.

 

Technology – Can you activate your preferred choice from the song PowerPoint from before the holidays (you can find it here if you need – https://bit.ly/2wU3yyr ) yourself?  (With physical help as required).  Can you tap a touch screen or click a mouse positioned over your chosen song?  This can contribute to your ASDAN ICT work if you’re super keen – take a photo and/or write a wee sentence about what you have done and we’ll pop it in your folder.

 

Science – Spring sensory profile.

We’ve looked at some of the features of spring already (weather and flowers), let’s build our understanding of the season with more sensory work.

What can you see?  (The sun?  Flowers?  Leaves coming out on the trees?)  What can you feel? (The breeze?  Lighter clothing with warmer weather?  The warmth of the sun?)  What can you hear? (Birds or other animals?)  What can you smell?  (Flowers?  Spring foods?)  What can you taste?  (Spring foods might include carrots, mint, lettuce greens, peas.)

 

Expressive arts – Can you sing / sign along to “Try Everything”?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBzYZE80pfY&list=PLjT4XhijakZjgDSblHxgYBiN4R9V2BZnA&index=27&t=0s Can you dance to the music?

 

Additional suggestion – Let’s “try everything” with an art version of Simon Says!  (This might get messy depending on the activity you choose!)

Choose any art activity that engages and you have the resources for.  Using your child’s communication system (being mindful to not take it from them!), take turns to give a simple instruction – e.g. if I was painting I might instruct a colour or where to paint (or both!).  If your child is less familiar with the instruction, you might start with a small range of instructions to keep it simple.  It might be one or both of you that creates their own piece of art, but whoever is taking part MUST “try everything” that is instructed with the communication system.  Once understanding is evident, you might have some fun with silly instructions!

 

RME – sharing.

Using a preferred toy or resource of your child’s, take turns using it to encourage your child to understand how to share.  (If your child is very new to learning how to share, please start with something they can happily part with for a short time so that sharing does not become a negative experience.)