In Beaver Class, we follow a bespoke curriculum that is designed for our individual learners. It offers a sensory diet and is in line with the EYFS Statutory Framework. The EYFS curriculum includes the prime areas: Communication and Language, Physical Development, and Personal, Social and Emotional Development and the specific areas: Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World, and Expressive Arts and Design.
Our curriculum design includes Attention Autism, the Curiosity Approach, high-quality interactions using Intensive Interaction, the ShREC approach, the PACE approach, Speech and Language support, SCARF PSHE, sensory circuits focusing on the vestibular and proprioceptive systems, and Jabadao.
We use a total communication approach to support our learners. This includes Makaton, core boards, visual supports using photographs or Widget symbols, talking tins, and the spoken word. We extend our vocabulary using the Word of the Week approach through circle time, Attention Autism, and learning opportunities throughout the day.
Every week, a reading book matched to our phonics learning and a reading-for-pleasure book from the school library will be sent home.
Our PE day is Friday.
Autumn 1
Word of the Week this term: I want, I like, I don't like, help, it, more, and different.
During Autumn 1, our focus has been on autumn and animals. We have been using our senses to observe the changes around us from summer to autumn. We have created our own nature catchers to share our observations of autumn.
We have used natural resources that we found on the playground and in the forest area to develop our mark-making skills. We helped create a range of mud paints with different consistencies and explored our preferences. We started mark making using our whole arm and, over the term, have been exploring using our lower arm with greater control. We have also used natural resources to help us create our playdough autumnal animals and develop our fine motor skills.
We have been focusing on Phase 1 phonics. We have been learning to hear and discriminate between different sounds in our environment and when using musical instruments. We have enjoyed singing nursery rhymes and learning to clap and stamp in time with the rhythm.
We have learnt about farm animals and harvest. We have explored which foods are collected during harvest, how food is collected from farms, and that animals and people share the food that is harvested. We have learnt the Makaton signs for different farm animals and used them while singing Old MacDonald Had a Farm.
We have been minibeast explorers in our autumn sensory tray. We have been finding and matching minibeasts in the tray, while adults have modelled describing the minibeasts using core boards.
We have been learning to recognise how our facial expressions and body language change depending on how we are feeling. We have used the mirrors in the sensory room to help us recognise our own facial expressions and learn the names of different features on our faces. We have been working on matching our facial expressions to feeling visuals. We will apply this knowledge to the Zones of Regulation later in the term.
Our Autumn Term Focus
In Otter Class, the beginning of the year will focus on relationships, routines, communication, independence and wellbeing. We will take time to understand each child's individual needs, interests and strengths so that learning can be personalised and purposeful.
Children will be supported through consistent routines, visual resources, sensory approaches and carefully planned provision where appropriate. We will celebrate each child's achievements and work closely with families and professionals to ensure that children feel safe, valued, included and ready to learn.
Our Reception children will be focusing on building secure relationships, developing confidence and becoming familiar with the routines of school. Through play, exploration and carefully planned adult-led activities, children will develop their communication, independence and early learning skills in a safe and nurturing environment.
In Year 1, children will build on the foundations developed in Reception and continue to develop their independence, communication and learning behaviours. Our curriculum will provide a balance of direct teaching, continuous provision and personalised support, with opportunities for children to explore, play and apply their learning at their own pace.
A typical day in Beaver Class
We start the day with morning activities focused on developing our fine motor skills. We have daily exercise, which includes the alerting and organising stages of a sensory circuit, followed by stillness activities focused on the calming stage of the sensory circuit. This helps us to be ready to learn.
We then move into our phonics lesson, rhyme time, dough disco, and circle time before starting our Good Learning activities and Speech and Language packs. We develop our life skills while preparing our snack, and then we go out to play. During play, we take part in lots of activities that help us build experience of different play schemas and develop new skills.We come together for a story and Drawing Club before our next Good Learning session. At the end of a busy morning, we wash our hands and have lunch.
After lunch, we take part in Jabadao to help us be ready to learn in the afternoon. We then move into our maths lesson and activities before our afternoon Good Learning session. We finish the day with our singing and signing session and a story.
A typical day in Otter Class:
We start our day with a group dough disco where we work on our fine motor skills, following songs to complete different actions. Then we move into our phonics lesson where we focus on learning a new sound and practicing to read words through segmenting and blending..
After phonics the children have time to complete different activities that have been set out for that day. While the children are accessing the activities They will be completing speech and language, letter formation and a range of different English activities in small groups or 1:1 with an adult.
We then come back together for Tac Pac time where the children learn what different sensory experiences they enjoy and learn to communicate this to the adults. Once this has finished, we prepare our snack for the day where the children are encouraged to learn different skills to prepare their own snack.
After this it is time for our sensory story where the children learn our story or text through engaging in different sensory experiences as the story is being told. The children are encouraged to join in with the story and remember the key parts.
After a break outside we come back to complete our maths lesson and some maths activities before lunch time.
In the afternoon, we complete another phonics lesson where we focus on writing sounds we have learnt and putting them into words.
We then start to look at our key question for the term where the children are able to choose different activities that explore our key question. The children are able to follow what interests them about our learning. The activities are planned out so the children are exposed to the full wider curriculum.
At the end of the day we get our bags ready for home time and read a story together.
