Pintrest

I had a quick look at my traffic sources and saw that a few people had 'pinned' me on pintrest...I am going to confess that I only have a very basic understanding of pintrest and am still getting into it but I suppose it's worth a look - here are a few decent pintrest sites I have found for you guys...

Wendy Smith - just a few pins so far but it looks promising http://pinterest.com/wendy612/tasks-galore-work-tubs/

MaryLea Burkhalter - Absolutely brilliant pintrest page with loads of SEN stuff on it - http://pinterest.com/marylea/education/

Amanda Winn - http://pinterest.com/abr020/school-ideas/

Cassandra Viater - Some nice worksheets here to use for literacy and maths -  http://pinterest.com/cviater/literacy-and-math/

Lyndsey Tyler - Some great maths and English idea that are a bit different from the boring usual stuff here - http://pinterest.com/lyndseytyler/school-inspiration/

Delmma Vazquez - Some really great TEACCH and motor skills ideas here - http://pinterest.com/dva1111/home-therapy/


Love this idea for a quiet book as well - http://servingpinklemonade.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/quiet-book.html

I will keep scouting pintrest and maybe even get myself an account - really great ideas coming from this!

Enjoy...more to come soon :)

Fancy a trip to ikea?

I really love Ikea...

...I very often go round imagining that each of the rooms are in my house and I play out little scenes in my head...what would I be doing if that was my house? How cool would it be to have a circular bed? or I might do the 'look at me I live in a swanky New York apartment' routine (then I have to come back down to earth and think...I am so not that cool)

But on a different note! While I was walking around today I found a few things that may be really useful for school - either in a PMLD class as part of a sensory diet or for my SLD group in different subject areas. Have a look - Ikea is really great because everything is so cheap!

1. Awesome rainbow curtain - it does look really flimsy but the strips are made out of quite a thick plastic which looks and feels quite durable so if you use it with quite active and unpredictable students the strips probably wont snap...handy!

2. Leaf canopy - I absolutely love this... I used this in my class for a whole term - I had it over the board and created a mini rainforest display when we were focusing on 'animals' as our theme and I used it the term after for the English story 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' for our theme of 'food and drink'. Really useful and it is great for hanging bits and bobs from the inside to create a giant mobile!

3. Night time bed canopy - again a really useful piece of equipment for hanging interesting objects to create a visually interesting display piece - BUT I have seen some really interesting sensory booths using this before...attach this to portable display board to create a sensory booth and fill it with exciting objects to explore - this would be really handy if you are focusing on 'space' as a theme and the sensory booth idea is fantastic for PMLD!

4. Material bed canopies - here are 3 different types - different sizes and different designs - these are great for projecting onto in a dark room or projecting on from the inside with an array of different sensory lights such as light star ships (see http://www.multi-sensory-room.co.uk/ for ideas). This creates fantastic mini sensory rooms or areas for students. Also it could be used to create a role play area for classrooms - get your students designing decorations for the outsides.

5. Wall lights - Really cheap and great for a range of different activities - it could be used for Science, R.E. English, etc etc etc... They come in a few different designs and would be great for small projects or to add to a wall display.

6. These are great...You will find these in the kids section holding a range of different soft toys...I used a green one and turned it into a giant caterpillar when we looked at 'the very hungry caterpillar' for our 'food and drink' theme. I stuck a symbols of the the days of the week on the side of each compartment and the caterpillar 'ate' the different foods as we went though the story. Very cheap as well!

7. 1, 2, 3 collapsible containers - great for maths - enough said really...ordering numbers? counting out? Doesn't matter if these get thrown the length of the room...they aren't going to hurt anyone...excellent!

8. Film reel - These are great for sequencing activities - especially if you are sequencing English text pictures - you will find these in the photo/art/frames section. 

9. Air cushion -  These are really fun and great for smaller students (primary?) they are not a bean bag - they are filled with air like an air bed - I only saw these 2 designs but there may be different ones too!

Hope this gives you some ideas - there are probably loads more bits and bobs you could pick up from Ikea - feel free to comment and add what you have found!

Enjoy!

Olympics Theme Work

It's an Olympic half term!!! I know a lot of people have been working on Olympic activities for some time now but we are just taking the one half term so I thought I would just share with you my plans and resources...

We have planned to split the half term into 5 separate weeks focusing on one country from each continent that is prominent within games each week.
Week 1: Greece (obviously)
Week 2: USA (they normally win loads of medals!)
Week 3: Africa (I am aware it's not a country but it leaves us the option to focus on either Egypt or South Africa or elsewhere, whatever is most appropriate)
Week 4: Russia (we have grouped Russia with Asia...again I know it isn't but we really wanted a cold country for comparison and we spent a whole half term looking at China in January so Asia has been done to death really in my class!)
Week 5: Australia (because we plan to have a massive beach barbeque for lunch one day out on the playground...get in!)

I will keep you informed of what I have planned each week :) but to keep you going here is a selection of resources I have found useful!

Rescources:
The TES have some really great 'Olympics' resources for SEN and they can be found here: http://www.tes.co.uk/taxonomySearchResults.aspx?keywords=olympics&parametrics=52004

But also I have found a few bits that have been really useful with my guys:
Olympics information booklet: http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Olympic-Information-Book-6225529/
Olympic flags: http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Olympic-Country-Flags-6225527/
Olympics key facts: http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Olympics-Key-Facts-6225530/
2012 Olympic games timeline: http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/The-2012-Olympic-Games-Timeline-6225531/

I have also managed to add a couple of resource that may be useful for anyone planning to cover...
Olympic addition and subtraction in their maths:
http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Olympics-Add-and-Take-away-scenarios-6256378/

Greek food tasting:
http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Greek-food-chatter-mat-and-description-worksheet-6256116/

Hope this is a starting point for all your olympic activities...

Jessie's Fund and Music Therapy

What an awesome start to the half term...we have a creative golden day coming up (for which the theme is 'the circus') and for this my class have had the opportunity to take part in some music therapy which has been run by Jessie's fund which is a UK based Charity primarily concerned with providing music therapy for children who are seriously ill or have disabilities.

At this point I just want to say...THEY ARE AMAZING! We've had 2 guys come in and they have worked with my class for 3 days this week and the kids have loved it, we have 2 more sessions coming up. Most of my students don't get access to a taught music lesson which is a shame but this has unearthed some real talent!

We have been making our own music by exploring sounds and looking at speed and noises which are loud and quiet and we have also been practicing a song, which all students can play along to when we perform it for an audience. The song related to the theme of the circus and has some great lyrics to it which go something like 'jump acrobat jump, here he goes flying through the air'.

Have a look at the web site - http://www.jessiesfund.org.uk/

I hear they have a lot of experience working with students who have autism as well as students with challenging behaviors and physical disabilities. Really worth getting in touch with if your are interested in music therapy work. I would highly recommend the two guys working with us (sorry but their names have slipped my mind!)

Happy reading :)

Food and Drunk!

Our theme for the last half term has been food and drink and it has been really great! But it hasn't half done me in!! There have been more than a few evenings I have resorted to a bottle of beer!

It was that half term where you are constantly chasing your tail and you never feel like you have caught up with the constantly increasing pile of work on your desk! But it is all good fun...theres been new IEP's,   reports, B2 updating from start to finish as well as a mound of planning, reviewing targets, school celebrations and all the rest!

Aside from this we have managed to produce some really wonderful work! I will try and add some pictures over the next few days or at the start of next week. Our English text was 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' which is a classic so we managed to visit the local butterfly farm...winner! And our wider world and PSHE focus was healthy eating where we made a giant eat well plate display which was good fun and we visited a local farm where we were able to track where food comes from - we saw the animals in the field, the production unit and then made out own meatballs! A really relaxed but informative day!

I will add some recent display pictures next week and hopefully may have made a start on some 'Olympics' work to post as well!

Enjoy!