Category: Hanga | Create

Music is our happy place

Yay! It’s Thursday again. This is Nevaeh’s happy day. After our morning routine in class, saying morena to Mrs Fearn and Go Noodle  Nevaeh has music with Marilyn. Nevaeh recognises tunes she has played before, and ones she has heard on other apps. She is playing these with Marilyn’s guidance. Nevaeh can add her own rhythmic sense to these songs.

Nevaeh played: Ode to Joy, Rain Rain go away. Twinkle and  Pepeha. She then improvised her own tunes. Marilyn echoed these to support Nevaeh’s attempts.

We are reminding Nevaeh to use her left hand, with her right hand. She is spreading her fingers on her right hand to play single notes.

There was no riding today because it was so wet.

After Andy’s visit on Tuesday, we are super happy with Nevaeh’s progress with her communication device. Nevaeh is stringing words together, mimicking those words on the device. She reacted positively when we modelled ‘I like’ after she had given us a hug. Nevaeh can find ‘finished’ on her board to tell us she wants to move on.  As her support, we must be consistent when Nevaeh is frustrated by insisting she uses her ‘words’, rather than anticipating what Nevaeh may like. You are amazing Nevaeh.

 

Term 4 updated

Lots has been happening in term 4 with Nevaeh being introduced to some new friends in class and also some new members of her team that have been coming to spend some time with us. Nevaeh has been excited to spend time with Sam in the pool and also at school, lots of stretching and movement and still loving the being in water at the pool. The sensory room has been Nevaeh’s goto happy place this term, needing some extra down time and sensory input. In class we have been continuing to try and work alongside what the class is doing. Nevaeh is still enjoying her ipad time and working hard on holding her pens and enjoying the poetry on a Friday.

Term 1 2024 Sensory room, new devices.

Nevaeh has settled back into school life really, well, she is enjoying Ruma Tui and making some new friends in there. 2024 has seen the new basketball court take shape and it is certainly a favourite spot for Nevaeh.

We are back at swimming this term also, Nevaeh always loves the the car ride into the pool and enjoys a swim in the town pool either with Sam or sometimes Mrs Hickford.

In the sensory room we have been working hard on Nevaeh’s language with some posting and sorting, using the red button for Nevaeh to use to repeat the colours or action.

Term 1 we have also had a new Ipad and Nevaehs “Quick Talker” we are still getting the hang of using the Quick Talker everyday and loving the new Ipad with some fun new apps.  Nevaeh is taking our poem drawing on Fridays to the next level with her initiating the pen holding on her own.

The Joy of Music and excitement of RDA

What a joy to hear Nevaeh singing. She has the first line of Pepeha off by heart, and enjoys Ode to Joy, and Don’t. Our music session with Marilyn was great with lots of playing single chords. Nevaeh was great at waiting for Marilyn to open the door after the previous student left before getting up form the chair. We waited quietly for five minutes. While we waited Nevaeh looked at the chords in her music book. The black and white key pattern entertained her.

RDA was a blast. Aunty came to help as a sidewalker. Nevaeh grinned from ear to ear as Lexi trotted along the grass. She bounced in time in the saddle. It took a couple of goes for Nevaeh to remember to lean back as we went down the hill. She immediately remembered leaning forward to go up.

There was a fantastic dismount in the arena at the end of our ride. Nevaeh remembered to lean over Lexi and took her foot out of the stirrup. She gave pulling her left foot out a really good try, but her shoes gripped the stirrup. We will work on prompting her by tapping behind the knee to encourage her to lift as well as pull backwards.

Sue was excited to hear Nevaeh’s beautiful singing. Sue was also taken by Nevaeh’s new shoes. Nevaeh has been stomping to ensure that her shoes light up. So cute!                                                                                                                                                           

Wow, go Nevaeh

What an exciting week! Nevaeh is finding her voice. During music on Thursday Nevaeh started singing along when Marilyn played ‘Pepeha’ by Six60. She is gaining confidence in leading some songs as Marilyn supports her.  Current favourites include Row, Row and Ode to Joy. It is lovely to hear the words so clearly.

She also spoke when the speaker disconnected unexpectedly. She uttered the phrase to express her surprise at the situation. Wow, it is so awesome to hear your voice again Nevaeh. Well done team, keep up all the hard work.

Lots of singing again today. Ed Sheeran is the flavour of today. What a wee gem you are. It is lovely to see you so happy.

Watch the Video Here

 

Fun Day Friday

What a happy little girl today. Nevaeh has enjoyed spending the day with Mrs Hickford. At mat time she is looking for her button to tell Mrs Fearn she is feeling good today. It would help if Mrs Hickford remembered to turn it on, but you showed lots of patience waiting.

There have been lots of music sessions. We have been over to play Pepeha on the school keyboard, we are getting good at this one, and some nursery rhymes.

In the class, we chose colours to draw to match our poem about a strutting peacock. Nevaeh is showing a preference for using red and yellow.  These have also appeared in her painting today. Painting is helping to develop Nevaeh’s fine motor skills. She can grip the brush but needs support to put adequate pressure on the paper. She enjoys reaching to the top right of the paper, but can work in the middle and bottom areas without guidance. It would be interesting to see what would happen if we did this activity

to music.

 

 

After counting the bears we matched big and little, and colour matched. The session ended with Nevaeh tipping the container. She was happy to get down on the floor and pick up spilt items. This surprised her classmate who commented that she followed the instruction and was a good girl.

 

 

 

 

 

Art

Tui have been exploring the mixing of primary colours. They have been mixing primary colours on the paper to develop their skills before attempting their final artwork. Nevaeh fully engaged in painting. She gripped the paintbrush, with Olivia’s help. Then Nevaeh dipped the brush in the wet paint before she placed the brush on the paper. Nevaeh was all smiles.

Painting is an extension of all the wonderful work that Nevaeh has been doing in poetry. It is exciting Nevaeh can sustain her concentration and participation in this activity. She is developing, and refining her fine motor skills. In response to Nevaeh’s interest, we will add painting to her kete.

Awesome effort Nevaeh

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The Joy of Music

Nevaeh has enjoyed her first music session after two weeks away. She was very responsive to Pepeha, by Six 60. Nevaeh loved the rhythmic flow. Here she is being guided by Marilyn. This was followed by a riotous version of Row Row. She was very excited. In her improvisation session, Nevaeh is showing us more and more that she can move her fingers independently, hitting a single note. She is also playing cluster notes and skip notes. Nevaeh is turning into quite the musician.

Fun Day Friday

It is wet, wet, wet. So, no opportunity to go outside and play today.

After  the morning Go Noodle it was poetry time. Nevaeh helped Olivia do a wonderful picture in blue. The poem today was The Robot. Nevaeh chose her own colours and

guided them on the page. She is loving her new crayons.

It was then off to the sensory room to complete some fine motor skills activities.

 

 

 

 

We went for a visit to the library in town and then wandered around the shops after morning tea. Nevaeh chose two Hairy Maclary books to read with Olivia. It was the first time she had chosen to sit in the round chairs in the middle of the space. There were two more books before heading out for a walk. She was really engaged in listening to the stories. We spent half an hour there.

We walked around the block. Halfway around the block Mrs Hickford’s phone started to ring. It was Ann letting us know that Courtney had arrived.

So it was a quick walk back to the car before heading back to school. It is awesome to see you getting yourself into the car, with little assistance. You have had a great day and it is not yet ended as we are going to play some music before we go home.