Katie's Class
Welcome to Katie’s Class!
Meet our wonderful team…
We are a specialist sensory ASD unit with a big heart!
In order to reach our full potential we benefit from a play-based curriculum which integrates the use of total communication, intensive interaction, sensory stories, sensory diets, signing, and kinaesthetic approaches to learning.
We learn best through a mixture of adult-led and child-initiated activities that support our multisensory needs, motor skills, social skills, communication and independence.
We love to explore our environment in many different multisensory ways; we enjoy swimming, Rebound therapy, Sensory baking, Forest School, outdoor play, going for community walks and getting out and about on our sunshine mini bus.
Take a look inside our classroom
Within our sensory based ASD provision we have a large main area which is set up with a range of sensory equipment to encourage the children to access self regulation strategies throughout the day. We also participate in play based learning activities within this space and use our 4 ‘breakout rooms’ within the provision for small groups and 1:1 interactions. We have a sensory diet room, small kitchen where we have breakfast and prepare meals, chill-out room for relaxation and the workroom for SALT interventions and work tasks.
We were so pleased & honoured to receive this letter from Her Majesty.
Summer 2022 - this term our topic is Magical Make Believe!
Summer term 1 week 6 - We’ve had a wonderful week celebrating the Queen’s Jubilee with baking, party time, crafts and games. We made cards for the queen and sent them to her in the post!
Summer term 1: week 5 - We enjoyed splashing in the water, playing water games and building a big hotel this week in Forest School. We also made superfood smoothies in our sensory cooking session.
Summer term week 4 - We read the story ‘Superworm’ by Julia Donaldson and explored different worm-like textures such as as spaghetti. We dug for worms, made spaghetti mark making pictures & made a wormery!
We love our new sensory playground!
Summer tern - week 3: This week we recognised the celebration of Eid with some Islamic celebration music and arts and crafts.
Summer term: week 2 - This week we explored the magical powers of superheroes including speed, vision, strength and rescue. We had a wonderful time celebrating International Dance day with Emma from a splatter dance! We explored our topic story, Supertato, through dance and movement!
Summer term 2022 -week 1: This week we have enjoyed getting back into our school routine. We read the story Supertato and made potato scallop pizzas. We also celebrated Earth Day & St George’s day.
Happy New Year!
Spring 2022 - our topic this term is
‘What is it made of and what does it do?’
Spring term 2 week 6: This week we have been celebrating Easter. We made cards for our families, baked hot crossed buns, played feed the bunny and went on an egg hunt in forest school. We’ve had so much fun. We hope everyone has a wonderful Easter break!
Spring term week 5&6: Sensory stories in the park - we loved taking our sensory story props to the park and enjoying some literacy in the sunshine!
Happy Mother’s Day to the wonderful mother’s of Katie’s Class children!
Spring term 2: week 5 - This week we have been making presents and cards for Mother’s Day. We read 2 stories about mums - ‘How to Raise a mom’ and ‘Mum’s handbag’.
Red Nose Day 18th March 2022
Happy St. Patrick’s Day 17th March 2022 - Today we read a multi-sensory poem about why some people celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. We made shamrock collages using different textured paper and scooped gold coins in the green river water tray.
Spring term 2: week 4 - This week is the Hindu festival of colour - Holi (18th March). We are celebrating with lots of colourful activities, music & dancing!
Happy World Book Day 2022! We dressed as book characters and enjoyed some stories with multi-sensory props, Makaton signs and songs.
Spring term 2: weeks 2 & 3 - We have been learning about the life cycle of plants. We read Jack & the beanstalk and planted our own seed to grow into beautiful flowers.
Pancakes! Pancakes!
Spring term 2: week 1 - This week we have been celebrating ‘Love your pet’ day! We made cards for our pets and for our school therapy dog, Dougie. We also explored making marks with gross motor movements.
Happy Valentine’s Day 2022
Happy Chinese New Year - Year of the Tiger 2022!
Spring term 1: Week 5 - We continued exploring space this week. We have enjoyed reading ‘My sister is an alien’ and ‘There’s an alien in my book’. We made a cardboard box rocket which we have used to act out stories and role play. We also smashed chalk onto black paper with hammers to make galaxy pictures.
Spring term 1: week 4 - This week we have been exploring materials through stories about space. We read ‘Whatever next’ and used everyday materials such as a cardboard box, wellies and a colander as space equipment. We also made some sandwiches to take to the moon!
Sensory baking weeks 1-3: we’ve made pizza, cakes and cheese on toast this term so far. We’ve been practising cutting and spreading skills.
Spring term 1: Week 3 - This week we have continued to investigate weather & seasons. We explored materials for clothing appropriate for each weather/seasonal situation and went on a hunt for things related to winter during our community walk.
Spring term 1: week 2 - This week we begun our new topic by exploring weather and seasons. We learned some Makaton signs for common weather patterns, sang weather songs, and explored weather themed sensory bottles/trays.
Spring term 1: week 1 - Welcome back and happy new year to you all! This week we have been so happy to re-establish our school routine and be reunited with our friends! We made new year crafts and cakes and enjoyed contributing to some splat art in Attention Autism!
Merry Christmas from Katie’s Class!
Come & see our fun, learning journey as we soar to success this upcoming year!
Autumn term 2021 - Our topic this term is Celebrations!
Autumn term 2: week 7 - This week we had lots of fun with Christmas activities, made Christmas dinner, received messages from Santa & our Christmas party!
Autumn term 2: week 6 - We are getting into the Christmas spirit this week. We made mince pies, Christmas cards and crafts!
Autumn term 2: week 5 - This week we have been exploring the signs of winter. We read a story about how the season changes, made and hung bird feeders, sent letters to Lapland to Santa, made cinnamon buns, painted snowflakes and counted with snowballs.
Autumn term 2: week 4 - This week we have been learning about the celebration of Thanksgiving. Through a sensory story and play based activities we explored things that we were thankful for and explored some ways that others celebrate this tradition. We made a turkey stew in sensory baking and practiced our kitchen safety with some chopping skills.
Autumn term 2: week 3 - This week we have been learning about Children In Need with Pudsey bear! We made read the story Pudsey’s great fundraiser, then we made our own Pudsey posters, party hats & biscuits.
Autumn term 2: week 2 - This week we are marking Remembrance Day through poetry, artwork and visiting the war memorial in our local community.
Autumn term 2: week 1 - This week we are busy celebrating Bonfire Night & Diwali. We had a virtual bonfire & firework display on Monday and took a train ride to India on Thursday through our sensory stories. We also made our own vegetable curry and watched fireworks from the playground!
Autumn term 1: week 8 - Happy Halloween from us all! This week we have read spooky stories, experimented with neon artwork under a UV light, explored ghoulish messy play and made our own pumpkin pie!
Autumn term 1: week 7 - This week we explored colours and emotions through the sensory story ‘My many coloured days’ and made some autumnal prints using leaf stamps.
Sensory cooking: This week we made pesto pasta! We used our senses to explore the textures, smells and tastes of the ingredients.
Autumn term 1: week 6 - This week we read the story ‘Augustus’ smile’ about a tiger who lost his smile. We explored materials related to the story and found things that made us smile.
Sensory baking: This week we had lots of messy fun making cheese cake!
We went Pumpkin Picking! We had a great time picking lovely pumpkins for our autumnal play and learning!
Autumn term 1: week 5 - This week we have been looking at the special people in our lives. We made family shortbread cookies, looked at photos of our families and read the story of Stickman by Julia Donaldson.
Autumn term 1: Week 4 - We’ve been celebrating the Chinese Moon Festival this week. We sang songs about the moon phases, tasted Chinese food, made moon rock cakes and made tinfoil moon prints!
Autumn term 1: week 3. This week we have been celebrating some special birthdays within our class. We explored a birthday theme sensory bin, had a sensory story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s birthday party and baked some birthday cake!
This week was Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) We celebrated with apples & honey to mark a sweet new year!
Autumn term 1: Weeks 1&2 - We have been having lots of messy fun getting settled back into school life!
We are a musical bunch!
We love finding opportunities for play and learning in our local community.
Welcome to Purple Frogs 1 2020-2021
Summer term 2021 - Our topic this term is 'Our Wonderful World'
We love spending time with Dougie, our therapy dog. We’ve been learning how to look after him.
Summer 2, week 5&6: We are heading under the sea with The Jolly Olly Octopus!
Summer 2, week 4: This week we have been learning about penguins through songs, counting games & sensory exploration.
Summer 2, week 3: Our story this week is ‘We’re going on a lion hunt’. We explored wet and rough textures, and made sand art.
SENSORY BAKING - we explored how heat melted chocolate when we made cornflake cakes this week.
Father’s Day 20th June: We’ve been making special treats for the wonderful men in our lives.
SENSORY MATHS: We love exploring numbers, space, shape & measures through our senses!
Summer 2; week 2: Our theme is ‘the desert’. We’ve had fun exploring sand and food. We have been reading Handa’s Surprise!
SENSORY BAKING - we made elephant shortbread biscuits
Summer 2 week 1: We’re exploring the theme ‘Jungle’ this week with the sensory massage and song ‘walking through the jungle’. What animals did we see?
SENSORY BAKING - Banana bread
Summer 1 Week 7: We have been exploring ‘rainforest’ through the story of Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson
SENSORY BAKING - We made Gruffalo Crumble Flapjacks!
Summer 1 Week 6: Woodlands: we’ve been exploring the story of The Gruffalo
Summer 1 Week 4-5: Bugs & pond life. We have been exploring mini beasts and learning about the life cycle of a frog.
SENSORY BAKING : We made dinosaur fossil shortbread cookies & dinosaur poop chocolate brownies! Yum!
Summer1 Week 1-3: We learned about Dinosaurs through stories ‘going on a Dino hunt’ and ‘The dinosaur that pooped a planet’. We used dinosaurs in our messy, sensory play and maths to compare numbers and size.
