The Sensory Stop

I never throw away bubble wrap as it can be used in so many sensory activities. You can paint straight onto it , wrap it round a rolling pin to do some popping rolling pin painting or you can simply just pop it !. Last week during Art class were making firework paintings. As an introduction to the lesson the students used the iPad to generate fireworks images and sounds. Then we had our own little fireworks show using party poppers. We put all the party poppers in a metal tin and used a really bright torch in the dark to look in it. This is really visually effective as the light bounces off the bottom on the tin and encourages the student to look in. After the firework show we moved onto the bubble wrap.....my favourite part of the activity as it got some really great reactions from the students, such as giggles,  stilling, eyes widening with smiles, one student even kept asking for more turns. I masking taped a large space on the classroom floor with bubble wrap and then we...

'Once Upon a Touch' is a lovely massage story book for children by Mary Atkinson and Sandra Hooper.  I ordered a copy of this book when I discovered it by accident searching on the internet. It only took two days to arrive once I had placed my order. Having read through it I can't wait to get to work to try out some of the lovely stories with my students with PMLD. The book is spiral bound and gives details of how to use the book, the benefits of massage, suggested guidelines and then how to do the ten massage strokes that form the basis of the massage stories. Massage stories included Traditional Tales such as 'Cinderella' and 'Little Red Riding Hood', Seasonal Strokes such as the 'Pancake Song' and 'Countdown to Christmas', In your Imagination which includes stories such as 'Can you Hear the Music' and 'The Circus Comes to Town'. There is also a selection of stories titled 'Adding a Personal Touch' and this in...