Signed stories

A fantastic site with lots and lots of signed stories. I think these are brilliant for everyone to use in the classroom.

Click here

SEN Site

A very interesting site for SEN. Lots of lovely ideas. Please explore

Click here

Count the snowmen

Children to count and write the number in the box. Children could then sort from lowest to highest.



Click here

Relax Kids - advent calendar - free downloads

Relax kids advent calendar click here Just open the door and click on the picture underneith to get a free gift.

To find out more about Relax kids then click here

Interactive visual timetable - free download

I found this and thought it looked like a very useful resource

The Red Beast - book on anger

I saw a recommendation for this book on a teaching forum and thought I would add it to the HLTA bookshop. It looks perfect for explaining how anger makes us feel. I wish I had known about this book before today as I did a SEAL lesson on anger. It would have been perfect for that.

Click here

Another book on anger that looks interesting

Click here

A free online book, this seems to deal very well with anger

Letter mash

Love this, found it on the SEN teacher site. Great for pre-reading skills or scanning

Click here

Magnetic letters and phoneme frames

This idea came to me the other day when teaching my little SEN group phonics. 3 of my children constantly start from right to left when making words with magnetic letters. We use magnetic letters most days. I thought if I had a phoneme frame on the magnetic board it would be so much easier because then I could put a little mark in the first box for them to start their word. I had some laminated 3 box phoneme frames already so I carefully cut them out and stuck them with a tiny bit of bluetac in each corner, to the magnetic board. With a permanent marker I made a little star in the first box. Absolute success! They worked a treat! And the magnetism goes right through the phoneme frame so the letters still stick.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle

I read this book to 2 children with SEN the other day and it just reminded me of how much learning there is in this book. We were lucky because we had the story sack and I could really bring the book to life. I have collected some links together for this story.

Click here to buy the book (am sure most of you have it in school somewhere)

Click here for lots of craft activities

Lots of teaching ideas here and here

A fabulous animated video





And of course Sparklebox

Flash cards galore

I just found this fantastic site which would be ideal for children with EAL, SEN or Early years. You must explore!

Click here

Activities for Children with SEN to do independently

I saw someone using these with a child and thought they were a fab idea for children to work independently. There were several in a bag and the child can just pick up the bag and practise drawing once they have been shown what to do.

Click here

Numberline 0-10 for children with SEN

I have made this numberline to help children who do not recognise their numbers yet. I thought it might help them to understand the concept of numbers.

Number formation

Here are some number formation strips I have just made. You can print, laminate and use over and over again.

Click here

Letters and Sounds planning, week 5 for children with SEN

This is week five planning for my group. The children are excellent at reading the sounds now but not so good at writing them. I have put a huge emphasis this week on 'quickwrite'. The children need lots of practise at writing the sounds. We are also only learning 2 sounds this week. I will assess whether they can cope with anymore at the end of next week.

Week 5 Planning

Finger spelling

This is well worth a look at

Click here

CVC words

Use these to teach blending. Show the initial sound and then the medial sound and then the final sound. I find with SEN it is better usually to blend the first two sounds and then add the final sound until they get the idea of blending.

Letters and Sounds phase 2 planning, week 4 for children with SEN

This is for next week so I won't be posting anymore until next weekend. I am giving my group a break from learning new sounds this week. We are just playing lots of games, practising blending, segmenting and getting our grapheme/phoneme correspondances really fast.

Week four planning

Phonic game for group work

I saw this idea somewhere out on the internet and have used it for a long time. So thank you to the person who had the original idea.

You need a small bag or box
Some picture cards
2 or 3 small boxes with grapheme cards attached

This is a bit like a pass the parcel game and the children love it.

Put the pictures in the bag, and the boxes on the table or on the floor in the middle of the children. You then sing 'Bag of pictures, pass it round, pass it round, pass it round. Bag of pictures pass it round, what's in the bag?' (Sung to the tune of London Bridge is falling down)Who ever is holding the bag has to take out a picture and put it in the correct grapheme box.

I have tried other ways of using this lovely idea.

Bag of sounds pass it round etc and have a bag with grapheme cards in and pictures on the table.

Have also used 'Bag of words pass it round' 'what word is it?'

Young children love this game. They are all busy singing and eager for the bag to stop on them.

Letters and Sounds planning, phase 2 week 1 for children with SEN

I thought I would share my planning for Letters and Sounds phase 2. This planning is written for SEN children. I will add a week at a time. I think it's important to make the sessions fun, multisensory, visual and with lots to do. The sessions need to be pacey to keep interest. We like to sing songs and I find that really useful for keeping everyone on task. I have added hyperlinks in the planning to resources on this blog which I have made for this group.

Week One Planning

satpin game

Very simple game for SEN children or very young children. Children have a strip and coloured counters. Show the children an object and they have to cover the letter that the object begins with.