Relaxation

Children with additional needs often have trouble relaxing or having down time so it's something I've always included in my timetable for 15 minutes after lunch. The students can read quietly or just lie on the bean bag while relaxing music plays in the background. Last year, I introduced story time twice a week were I or another adult read aloud and the students just had to listen. I didn't ask any questions or ask them to retell it because we do that in shared reading but it was difficult for many of the students to sit and listen without pictures or props to engage them. 

Part of the ENGAGE programme has several cards which promote relaxation and offer the students a chance to self regulate their emotions. So I introduced the 'feeling' cards this term and focused on the 'relaxing yoga' activity twice a week. The students responded to the change in routine quite well but it took 4 sessions to get them to relax their body and focus on their breathing. 

 

I will continue with this emotion task for another week and see if I can encourage all 6 boys to focus and relax.

Collaboration with Mainstream

Today, my Sommerville colleagues and I were discussing collaboration and we used google jam board to brainstorm what we thought it meant to us. It highlighted how big the concept of collaboration is and what is means to us all, yet I don't unpack it with the students but expect them to collaborate all the time!! 

As part of our learning through play focus, I am expecting the students to collaborate with each other and their main stream peers but do they understand why? When we start back next week, I am going to allocate some time and use jamboard with the students to discuss their understanding of what 'working together' actually means for them and why its so important for our games. Can they develop their self regulation skills if they can't collaborate effectively? 

I also need to allow time to have the same discussion with Jo, the mainstream teacher I am collaborating with. Does she share the same understanding of collaboration as I will be working closely with her to provide a play based learning programme for my students. 

Base line assessment

The Engage programme which I am focusing on sharing with my students this year uses an assessment to highlight the strengths and difficulties each student has before they take part in the games. It assess how frequently a student acts and how they behave using a scale ranging from never to almost always. 

I completed one for each student with the support of the Teacher Aides and we found that for most students, we put a S (sometimes) or A (almost always) for how the child behaves and how they act.

Hopefully by using the Engage games to develop the students self -regulation skills, in term 4 I will see an improvement in their frequency of the behaviours and how they act.