Spring Term 1 in Acorn Class

We have new interactive displays to use and help us in our classroom.

A self-esteem mirror, or affirmation stations, this is a positive affirmation tool to help everyone to build confidence, self-worth, and emotional regulation. Mrs McBarron modelled how to use it. Lots of new emotive language for us to learn.

Mrs Lamb modelled how to use the Feelings Mirror, this is to help us to understand our emotions. We looked at our own facial expressions, this will develop self-awareness, empathy, and our emotional regulation skills.

Topic work, Capital Life – we were learning about how Paris is the Capital of France. We looked at all the different landmarks of France and made a postcard to our families. We made a a French man with a beret, echarpes (scarf) and a baguette. It was tricky to cut out but we worked hard using our fine motor skills.

Italian themed Attention Everyone.

We outlined the map of Italy with pasta shapes, made pizzas and dropped ice-creams to make ice-cream splats. It really was so much fun, Grazie mille!!!!

We used all of our cutting and peelings skills we have learnt and made our very own pizza, kneading the dough and rolling it out. We added delicious toppings—Linking this to our Topic Capital life, What Italy is known for.

Continuing with our Topic work – Capital Life, we used our DT skills to produce a 3D model of the landmarks of London. It took a lot of resilience because there was a lot of detail to colour and cut out, lots of fine-motor skills practice.

We looked at Spain and learnt the capital Madrid, we talked about the foods and the landmarks. We made a Catalonia man.

For Children’s Mental Health week we discussed the importance of self-care and being kind to ourselves as well as each other. We discussed our “happy place” and how this can help us when we have yucky feelings.

We looked at the culture of China and completed a Chinese dragon puzzle. In the afternoon we celebrated this special day by having a Chinese banquet and we listened authentic Chinese music.

We talked about the importance of looking after ourselves and keeping safe online. We learn “Buddy’s song” which helped us to remember the rules of online safety.

NSPCC Number Day. Lots of number activities in Acorn class, to celebrate this special day. We used counting in number in our Yoga lesson, focussing on our deep breathing to help us with our self- regulation. Number songs were used to support in our movement breaks.

Shrove Tuesday, we enjoyed making and tasting different toppings on our pancakes.

In Science we looked at the properties of different materials and did a material hunt. We had to sort and identify their properties and if they were man made or natural.

In acorn we continued to do our daily sensory diet. It is very important as it helps to reduce anxiety improve our concentration and focus and regulates our strong emotions. We always feel more calm and alert after each session.

Paper crumple – toss we crumpled up scrap paper into balls, tossed it into the bin, and we noticed the sound texture change.

Blowing bubbles- we used a straw to blow bubbles in water to make slow steady bubbles an we watched how they moved and were created. We had to control our breathing

Button count- we search for small buttons in a shallow tray of dry pasta we times ourselves each day and we all improved our times. We had to concentrate and use our fine motor skills.

Crawling under table- we crawled under the table slowly like a tunnel explorer special awareness and co-ordination

Humming challenge – we hummed our favourite song softly while sitting we could feel the vibrations in our mouths and chest.

Modelling dough press – we rolled squished and flattened dough developing our fine motor skills.

Obstacle course – we used a straw to blow a ball of tissue paper, around an obstacle course, we had to control our breathing sometimes hard breaths sometimes soft breaths it was great fun.

We enjoyed showing and developing our skills. We completed lots of different activities lots of tolerance and resilience needed. We worked together as a team and our teachers were so proud of our behaviour and achievements. A successful morning out.