Class Blog for ARC

April/May

We hope you had a lovely Easster and enjoyed the half term with the sunny weather.

In the ARC we use a 'Totally Communication System'. This involves using visuals, symbols, Makaton, AAC devices, sound buttons, photographs and objects of reference. This enables the childreun to have the use and means of communtication in many different ways.

During activities we play games where the child needs to choose between a few items pointing to the correct visual/symbol of their choice. Once this is established, the child and adult plays with the choosen item (making a choice). When the game is coming to a natural end there are symbols for 'more or finished'. We use these and makaton to investigate whether the child is ready to finish or do more.

When we engage the children in group activities such as 'Fun with Food', the children have visuals to help explore their senses. This encourages the children to look, touch and if they want to taste the item of food. At the end of the session the children can both sign and point to the correct symbol to indicate whether the 'liked or didn't like' the food.

Our morning routine starts with a song to encourage and invite the children to come and sit down. At this point we using symbols and the AAC device to find out the day, weather and the season we are in. We also look at who is packed lunch/school dinners and how the children are feeling. Here the children can put their picture up onto a appropiate visual.

The children enjoy using different means of communication and this enables them and the adults that work with them to have a better understanding of their wants and needs.

March

We have had a busy March, preparing for Easter. The children enjoyed following visual instructions to help them create their Easter cards.

This term we have endeavoured to get outside as much as we could. We had a few outings during March. We have explored the local parks, both in Calstock and St Annes Chapel. The ARC children also got to visit a farm, where we saw chickens, sheep, lambs, piygmy goats and ponies.

As our term came to a close we finished off by making Chocolate Easter nests.

We wish everyone a Happy Easter and look forward to seeing everyone back for the Summer Term.

February

Group Work in the Arc

This term we have had a real focus on working together. In the ARC we try to make our group activities so appealing that they capture our children's attention and they choose to join the group.

We have a number of group activities where out focus is shared attention. We run 2 Attention Autism Sessions which is a Gina Davies Intervention that follows 4 stages. All of our ARC children now choose to join this group and in fact they all look forward to checking out stage 1 where they get to see what is in out bucket!

We run Fun with Food everyday. We look at a different food each day, describing the food through all of our senses. We use communication boards to encourage the children to describe the food.

We all like using the playground equipment on sunny days, especially the parachute! In the photo we are working together to try and keep the ball on the parachute.

Sometimes our ARC children are able to join their mainstream peers. Eddie had a great day with the Roman Soldier who came to visit the class. He worked as a team with the other children to form a barrier with his shield in a mock battle.

Sometimes group work just involves taking turns. The musical instruments are a really popular way of taking turns. Both Leo and Freddie love to ply the xylophone and it is an excellent opportunity to take model turn taking.

Happy New Year

Attention and Communication

Happy New Year.
We hope you had a lovely Christmas and New year. It is great to be back and continue our focus on language and Communication. By focusing on engaging the children in our group sessions, their attention to the activities can then extend to other activities. In the pictures you will see two activities 'Fun with Food' and 'Attention Autism'.

Fun with Food is an actiivty to help focus the children using their senses. The activity starts with a transition song:

Its time for fun with food
Its time for fun with food
Look, smell, touch and taste
its time for fun with food

The song helps transition the children into the activity in a fun way. Once seated the children are able to see the food presented and can choose to smell, touch and play. There is no emphasis on tasting the food, althought they are welcome to try some, as the focus is to increase their attention span. For children that struggle with different foods, this can also be a fun way to experience different food without the pressure to taste any of it. A word mat is also produced with symbols and pictures, here words can be introduced to describe the food.

Attention Autism is also an activity that focuses on maintaining the childrens attention. It is set up in 4 different stages:

Stage 1 - to help focus their attention on adult led, fun objects that often spin, wind or make a noise.
Stage 2 - to help sustain their attention also on an adult - led activity.
Stage 3 - where the children learn to shift their attention within a small group as they take turns in a game.
Stage 4 - children are given individual tasks to complete after a group demonstration, encouraging independence and the ability to transition between activities while maintaining engagement.

Currently we are up to Stage 3 and will soon be introducing Stage 4.

October

This October has been a busy month. Eddie enjoyed a day out at the Wild Wood where he visited the Saxon Village. Here he found out how they lived. We explored the different types of huts they lived in and tried out the wooden bed. It was not very comfy but the animal skins kept the Saxon's warm. The Saxon's had metal helmets and long tunics, using spears, axes and swords. The Spears were good for hunting, axes for wood and swords for fighting.

We were lucky to have a go at making flat bread and woodwork. The flat bread was delicious.

Wild Wood, also had a very tricky maze...we eventually found our way out. We had time at the end to visit the different animals including the bears. One was asleep in the tree.

Freddie enjoyed a special day at school, when the fire engine arrived for the children to take a look at and listen to fire people explain what they had to do in their job.

We have also been busy in class. Leo is showing one less from 5 as he joins in with the '5 Little Monkey's rhyme' (one of his favourites).

September

Welcome back!

Welcome back to another year of Learning at Copper Valley ARC. We said a sad goodbye to 3 of our Y6 pupils in July who are now all attending their secondary settings. We will miss them and wish them all the best. This term we are welcoming Rhys into our ARC. Rhys is transitionning at present and will build up gradually to full school days.

Our ARC has had a re-vamp over the holidays to make the setting more appropriate for our current cohort of learners, most of whom are pre-verbal. We hope you like the pictures. We are all enjoying our new space.

We have now split into 2 groups of learners. Our first group are working predominantley on communication; we are using a total communication approach, supporting spoken word with visuals and makaton. Our second group is accessing some National Curriculum content with a focus on individual interests and building up engagement.