P5 T/McM
Hello, welcome to the class page for P5 Thompson/ McManus
In this room we hold the belief that children won't learn from people they don't like. That is why our primary focus is to build relationships with the children in our class, we spend as much quality time with them as possible and we learn what motivates and inspires them. Then we work on learning.
In planning learning activities we work collaboratively with parents- we listen to the information that parents share with us and the areas that parents feel are priorities as we want to make sure that everything we are teaching can be applied to help the children in our class live a happier and more independent life outside of school.
A huge focus in our classroom is communication, that is why we adapt a "total communication approach." The total communication approach means we use a combination of methods so that the children in our class can communicate in the way that is most meaningful to them. Some of the strategies we use to try and improve communication are; intensive interaction, attention autism, objects/pictures/symbols of reference, makaton, PECs, talkabout books and visual timetables/ job aids to name a few.
Our class team feel very privileged to be entrusted with your children and in our class you can be sure that the needs of your child will always come first.
Our class
March highlights: We continued our "pets" topic this month looking at animal homes. We worked really hard to decorate our own kennels and then bought the animal we wanted to put inside at our "pet shop" role play. We also made "bug hotels" in outdoor learning. This month we also enjoyed a trip to the park, it was very wet but the children didn't mind one bit! !
February highlights: Our class celebrated Valentines day by making cards and "love bug" biscuits to give to the people we love. We also made love potions in outdoor learning and had a love themed messy play day. Our topic this month is "pets" as part of this topic we have been learning how to care for animals; everybody enjoyed our vet role play were we had to wash, feed, brush and play with the animals at each station.
January highlights: Our topic this month is Winter. We have been exploring freezing & melting, how to keep warm in the cold and making snowmen in art. In our independence lessons we have been learning how to make cheese toasties, we have been buttering the bread and cutting the cheese by ourselves.
December highlights: This month has been all about Christmas.... we wanted to make presents for our parents so we have been working hard to make snowy jar ornaments, Christmas cards and peppermint bark. Our parents were all so pleased to receive their Christmas presents. We also loved walking around Donaghadee to spot Christmas lights and our Christmas themed messy play.
November highlights: This month our theme has been "the Gingerbread Man" we have absolutely loved exploring this sensory story, the children's favourite part was pressing the sound buttons to make the gingerbread man say "Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!" To conclude our topic we turned our class into a bakery for the day; the children followed visual instructions to measure out the ingredients needed, mixed them altogether, rolled the dough, cut the dough and put it in the oven to cook. The next day, when the gingerbread men were cool the kids used writing icing and jelly tots to decorate their cookies and if they wanted they ate them for snack! The children even helped do the dishes after!
October highlights: We started our month with a trip to the forest to look at the seasonal changes of Autumn and collect natural objects for our classroom. We have enjoyed learning all about Autumn and exploring some spooky sensory trays & activities in the run up to Halloween.
September highlights: We have had a wonderful September in our classroom, in this slideshow you will see pictures of some of the ways we communciate with each other in our room, some pictures of the children having fun and three of my favourite September memories. The first is our blackberry week; we went on a blackberry foraging trip and when we came back to school we worked together to make jam that we later used in our "making toast" independence lesson. The second is our messy play day, the kids had a ball getting the paint between their toes!! And my third favourite memory is our space sensory story..... the kid's faces tell you all you need to know! What an excellent start to the year in P5 Thompson/McManus.
