Class 10 are embracing our new cultures topic about ‘Africa.’ We have been learning all about the country and what it is like to live there. We made some African food and shared our curried mince, couscous and flatbread with everyone at the Food Market on ‘Wellness’ Day. The pupils worked off their treats by taking part in a dance workshop. We also did some taste testing of African fruits served with warmed honey and cinnamon. We designed some African pots using pastels and then made our creations out of clay. The pupils also painted African sunset pictures with wild animal silhouettes. A busy month for a hard working bunch of young people!
Class 10 have been investigating, experimenting and exploring this month. We have been continuing with our ‘Materials’ topic. The pupils had fun finding out what materials are waterproof and magnetic. They enjoyed working together, making predictions and recording their results in charts. In practical maths the pupils were set a challenge to create five palm trees of different heights using dough. They had to measure the palm trees using a variety of materials. They had to find the difference between the tallest and shortest tree.
Staff are proud of all our pupils performances at Banbridge Festival. Four of our pupils achieved highly commended medals for saying their poems. Well done!
Class 10 have had a ‘roarring’ October! We took part in the Dinosaur Maths Challenge. We went on a dinosaur trail finding jigsaw pieces. We made 2D and 3D dinosaur models including our very own ‘Jurassic Park.’ We sorted dinosaurs into carnivores, herbivores and omnivores in a Venn diagram. We also drew and measured a T-Rex footprint and compared it to the size of our own feet. We have started our new topic ‘Materials’ and have been sorting items into natural and manmade, including their properties. We have been learning about the wood and glass industry and all the products that can be made from them. In art, we made dream catchers using a variety of materials. We have also been learning about the artist Kandinsky and his work. We created our own autumn trees in his style. A productive month!
Welcome to the new school term! Class 10 are also delighted to welcome 2 new pupils to Donard School and three new pupils who have moved into Senior School. They have been getting to know each other and developing friendships. This ‘super’ bunch designed their own superheroes and thought about the type of qualities they wanted to bring to our school. We have embraced the new season with autumn inspired art and cookery. Class 10 also are part of the Eco Team. Autumn means it was time to harvest all of the produce that was planted in the spring term. Carrots, onions, beans, potatoes, berries and pears are some of the fruits and vegetables we managed to grow. The pupils also helped to plant anew hedge in the sensory garden. A great start to the new year!
We can’t believe that the school year has finished already. We had a busy year with lots of fun activities to engage in. We recently enjoyed a trip to Slieve Gullion but unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side. We didn't let it stop us though and had a great day finished off with lunch in Friar Tucks. We wish all of our pupils a happy and safe summer!
It’s hard to believe we’re approaching the last month this term, we have had a busy May and a fantastic 'Big Fun Week’ making lots of memories along the way.
We have been continuing with our topic ‘Earth and Space’. Experimenting with materials to make ‘fizzy planets and creating art work for our space display. We’ve also read and matched photobooks relating to Space and created a role-play rocket area. We had so much fun becoming astronauts on our interactive space mission to the moon.
‘Big Fun week’ was amazing and we had some fantastic experiences and opportunities to enjoy ourselves! We just need some sun now to bring in our ‘Summer’ topic in June.
We’ve come to the end of our topic ‘travel and transport’ and over the last few weeks have concentrated on learning about planes and airports. It was fun making paper planes and gliders and seeing how far we could get them to travel. Another favourite activity was exploring the contents of a suitcase.
Spring has sprung and we hope that everybody liked their flowers that we carefully arranged and wrapped.
More recently we’ve been enjoying the run up to Easter with lots of themed activities. We really enjoyed smashing eggs during Attention Autism to see what was inside. We also enjoyed decorating Easter eggs, making Easter buns and Easter egg rolling in Solitude. The Easter disco was super and we loved showing off some moves! We are proud to have taken part in a school Fair trade Food Festival...our class represented France and made lots of lovely French pastries.
We are looking forward to the nice weather that we’ve been promised and hope that everyone has a safe and fun Easter break.
We’ve had a busy month in Class 10. It is hard to believe it’s the end of March already. It’s time to get out and spruce up our outside area in preparation for some spring weather! We ‘ve been continuing with transport as a topic and developing links across the curriculum. Some of our pupils went on a trip on the train from Lurgan to Portadown. They thoroughly enjoyed it and represented our school so well when out and about. We are very proud of them.
We’ve been keeping fit with a weekly dance lesson and some of us have proved to be great movers!
Our focus in Numeracy over the next few weeks continues to be measure and we’ve been exploring this practically within the class. As well as measuring during work tasks, we’ve been relating it to important practical activities such as measuring the fairy liquid as we wash the dishes and noticing when the recycling bin is full and needing emptied.
We’ve also enjoyed experimenting with various ingredients that have a reaction when mixed. We worked as a group, taking turns to measure out what we needed to cause an explosion!!
February has been a short but busy month for class 10. We’ve been continuing with our Transport topic and have enjoyed integrating it across the curriculum. We’ve enjoyed the run up to Valentine’s day and had fun exploring the Valentine theme with our senses. We particularly enjoyed a Valentine theme sensory story, in which we explored lots of lovely pink props and tasted melted chocolate.
We celebrated a birthday this month as well and was lovely to gather round the table to eat some lovely cake!
Class 10 have been enjoying starting our new topic ‘Travel and Transport’. We have been exploring different methods of transport through pictures, sounds and objects.
In Numeracy, we are focusing on time and continuing to develop our number recognition and formation. We all concentrated so well during a clock match activity.
We have been continuing with our topic ‘Winter’ and have enjoyed creating ‘Winter art’ with ice cubes. One boy enjoyed creating beautiful art for our winter display. We’ve been lucky to have had a little bit of snow! Just enough to explore during sensory play!... Although some loved the fake stuff just as much!
We always enjoy cookery in class 10 and we particularly liked making and tasting potato and leek soup. We’ve all had a busy first month back after Christmas and we’re loving African drumming in our timetable each Wednesday!
We have been so busy in Class 10 this month. We’re coming to the end of our topic ‘World of Work’. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been learning new skills related to the laundrette; such as folding, hanging and pairing socks. We’ve also been exploring the work of Emergency Services and had a visit from the PSNI. We loved sitting in the police car and cell van and had fun taking turns to switch the siren on and off.
Autumn is nearing an end and before we embrace the Winter we are continuing to explore natural autumnal objects and autumnal colours during art and sensory group work.
We love to cook each Tuesday and have made pizza, crumble and cupcakes. We also celebrated a birthday early on this month-we all enjoyed cake, music and dancing!
We have been enjoying settling in to our new class, getting used to our new room and getting used to some new and some familiar faces!
We have loved being creative during art and exploring various mark making tools. Both on the page and on ourselves!
We have also been making the most of the dry weather in our outside area, participating in an outside sensory circuit.
We have been really good at turn taking, exploring various materials and games.
Of course with all this hard work, we’ve made time to relax with our footspas!
