Autism Awareness Week March 2017
The children of Etz Chaim celebrated Autism Awareness Week with planned activities in their classroom as this was an important opportunity to raise awareness of Autism and to further celebrate and appreciate all aspects of uniqueness both in our school community and beyond.
Year 1 had a circle time to discussed that everyone is different. The children all spoke about their likes and dislikes and that it is ok if they are different from each other. They also discussed how everyone can appear different for example some children have brown hair while others have blonde hair.
Year 2 watched a video called 'Amazing Things Happen' which explained autism in a child friendly way. They explored and discussed their differences how these make us special and how thinking and seeing the world differently can make amazing things happen.
Year 3 watched a fantastic video about Autism. This was followed by discussion about how each of us is different. We also looked at a piece of poetry written by someone with Autism, and looked for rhyming patterns.
In Year 4 we talked about being unique and how we are all different and special. The children played a game where they got into different groups according to their hair colour, eye colour and favourite foods and discussed the fact that although they are unique they also have lots in common with others and fall into different groups. They also watched a video with a girl called Rosie talking about her Autism and why she is different and special.
One of the children in Year 5 prepared a short power point presentation to explain a little bit about autism and how he experiences the world around him. The children followed this with an insight to how it might feel with sensory overload. For example, they tried to write their times tables to the accompaniment of a loud dripping tap, fingers drumming a cup, noise from a TV, the cat going through the cat flap and the ticking of the clock. They were ‘background’ noises but amplified. The children then discussed what it might be like standing on a crowded and noisy platform at the station and how it might be experienced by someone with autism. This led to a piece of writing.