Welcome to Zebra Class.

Zebra Class follow the Sparkle Curriculum. We are part of South America team and each child has a diagnosis of ASD and follows the TEACCH approach in class.  Each child has personalised targets which they are working towards through a range of play and sensory activities each day.

• We use our hydrotherapy pool to develop our water confidence and swimming skills each week.
• We participate in rebound therapy weekly to develop our physical skills as well as our listening and attention skills.
• We use the school bus weekly to explore our community.
• We enjoy outside play with the other classes in school.

We look forward to showing you some of the activities we will be completing during this term.

Key dates: -

Swimming- Wednesday & alternate Thursdays- Swim kit needed

Bus- Thursday AM

Rebound- Wednesday PM - long sleeves needed

Thank you,

Zebra staff.

The staff in Zebra class are-

Rachel- teacher

Sarah- teacher

Jo- HLTA

Vicky- Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 

Samantha

Louisa

Caitlin

Chelsea- Monday, Thursday, Friday 

Kyra- Speech and Language Therapy Assistant

Zebra Topic Web - Spring Term 2025

Thursday 9th January 

Rebound- Physical development 

A busy day today for zebras enjoyed our Thursday rebound session. Lots of smiles and giggles on our first rebound session of the year. 

Wednesday 8th January 

Antarctica winter themed assembly 

Today we enjoyed a messy Antarctic themed assembly outside relating to our winter topic. Children explored the ice outside and some children even loved making snow angels in the flour! We all came back inside after to warm up and have a snack after a busy morning. 

Tuesday 7th January 

Reading

Today all children were fully engaged exploring their favourite story books, developing their fine motor skills by turning the pages of the books independently. 

Monday 6th January 

Maths 

A lovely first day back for all the children, starting the week exploring the colour purple in maths. All children enjoyed improving their fine motor skills by painting with purple paint, gluing and sticking with purple pom-poms and drawing with purple crayons and pencils. Lovely pictures zebras!

Friday 20th December

Meeting Santa

The children had a very exciting visit from a very special visitor Santa. We all hope you have an amazing Christmas and stay safe, see all of zebras back on Monday 6th January. 

Wednesday 18th December 

Christmas Dinner

All children enjoyed Christmas dinner together!

Tuesday 17th December 

Christmas Party

A lovely Christmas filled day today for Zebras, making Christmas cards on the morning. Developing our fine motor skills by finger painting with our favourite colours. On the afternoon a special visitor, Gav the Dj man, visited our party and played our favourite songs. We danced at the party, played pass the parcel, won lots of prizes and ate party food! 

Monday 16th December 

Maths- Learning about colours
A very busy day today, learning all about colour, we all listened to a colour song and explored our favourite colours. We then explored outside and found different colour sponges in the water, this was so fun and messy! The children then showed interest in finding the coloured bears in the shredded paper, after being so busy outside some children used their fine motor skills to pick coloured buttons to glue on our rainbows. 

Friday 13th December

Understanding the world- A visit to see the Christmas lights

Zebras enjoyed a bus trip to tees bay retail park to explore the Christmas lights in the range. 

Thursday 12th December 

Christmas Performance

Some pictures of the lovely zebras today wearing their Christmas jumpers. All Children were fabulous in the Christmas performance, singing and dancing to “Santa Claus is coming to town”. Very brave in front of all the parents, well done zebra class. 

Tuesday 10th December 

Expressive Arts and Design- Christmas Crafts 

Today we have been very busy in zebra class getting in the Christmas spirit. We practiced our fine motor skills to make lots of messy Christmas themed crafts, Christmas calanders, Christmas cards and winter pictures. We can not wait to bring them home for you all to see! 

Friday 6th December 

Christmas Activity Afternoon

All Children enjoyed a sensory Christmas afternoon: walking in cold ice, sensory snow exploration and lots of other Christmas sensory activities. So many smiles and so much fun getting messy! 

Thursday 6th December 

Understanding the world-Trip to the park 

Today all Zebras enjoyed a walk to Bishop Cuthbert park and Hartfields Cafe. All children enjoyed improving their gross motor skills by climbing and running around the park. We finished our trip in the cafe, sharing biscuits and a drink with our friends. 
 

Wednesday 5th December

Attention Autism

Today, all children were fully engaged in attention autism. All children explored bubbles, feathers, flashing spinning lights and balls. Good sitting and attention skills Zebras!

Tuesday 3rd December 

Maths

Today, we went outside to investigate Maths. We explored some colour, our pouring skills, our matching skills and our sorting skills. It was very cold and a bit messy but we all had a fantastic time.

  Monday 25th November

  Expressive Arts and Design- Music

Today, we had a music session in school. We do this regularly in Zebra class. We used the musical instruments to make some sounds and we played some music alongside to accompany us. We enjoyed making lots of noise and we had lots of fun sharing the instruments. We used our voices to sing along too.

   Monday 18th November

Knowledge and Understanding of the World- Computing

Today, we practised our turn-taking and communication skills by sharing some cause and effect toys. We all had a great time and we each got to choose our favourite toy. We enjoyed the noises and the lights and we practised choosing the toy we wanted. 

Friday 15th November 

PSHE/Anti Bullying Week

This week, we have been celebrating Anti Bullying Week and how it is ok to be different. Children and staff came into school wearing odd socks on Monday and Wednesday. We also enjoyed activities linked to this theme. Here are some pictures of us in action. 

Tuesday 12th November 

Literacy- Reading

Today, we went outside to read and explore some texts together. We absolutely loved it. We all chose a different text and had a cosy time reading on our cushions. We enjoyed turning the pages, looking at the pictures and listening to our adult read the words to us. We are already looking forward to next time.

Friday 8th November

 Knowledge and Understanding The World- Remembrance Day

This week in Zebra Class, we have been learning about Remembrance Day. On Thursday, we headed to the Headland on the bus and looked around the War Memorial in Redheugh Gardens. It is dedicated to Hartlepool civilians and servicemen who lost their lives in the First and Second World War. During the afternoon, we used potatoes to print our very own poppy pictures - we needed to use our fine motor skills to manipulate the potatoes and press down. On Friday, we completed another art activity and painted our hands to look like poppies to make Remembrance pictures. They looked fantastic! Some of us enjoyed the sensory tactile feeling on the paint on our hands more than others. 

Wednesday 6th November 

PSHE/Understanding the world-

Assembly/Food Tasting

Today, it was our Wednesday assembly. We learnt the Makaton signs for lots of different types of food and then we tried to cut them up and taste them. Some of the vegetables we liked very much and some, we did not like at all!

We all had a lot of fun being together.

Thursday 24th October

Understanding the World- 

A trip to Tweddle's Farm

Today, we visited Tweddle's Farm.We had a lovely time. The weather was very sunny and we were able to play outside on the swings. We also visited lots of animals. We saw the rabbits, guinea pigs and were followed around on our walk by a baby goat!

 Tuesday 22nd October

  PSHE/Literacy-Share A Story

Then, later in the afternoon, we had invited parents into the classroom to "Share a Story." We shared the sensory story "We are Going on a Leaf Hunt" with our parents and went outside to collect some leaves. We then created some artwork and had some cake! Everyone had a great time. Thank you to our parents for visiting! 

Tuesday 22nd October

   Expressive Arts and Design- Liz Million

We have had a really busy day today! This morning we had a visit from an author- Liz Million. She was fantastic and taught us how to draw cats. We all tried really hard and produced some lovely work.

  Thursday 17th October

  Autumn Sensory Walk

This afternoon, we went outside and explored our Autumn Sensory Walk. We all got very messy and enjoyed ourselves very much. We enjoyed the colours and the textures of the different sensory experiences. Luckily, we all had our waterproofs on. When we came back inside (and got cleaned up!) we made some pictures with the leaves we had played in.

Wednesday 9th October

Literacy

Over this half term, Spot Goes To The Circus has been one of our class stories. The children have enjoyed exploring different props and completing related activities. Using materials, we made clown hats and we completed colour matching activities. 

Tuesday 8th October

Literacy-Mark Making

Look at us practising our mark making skills! Some of us used different grasps like palmer and pincer grip to hold the chalk. We made different movements to make the marks like linear, shapes, swirls and squiggles. This also helps to develop our hand eye coordination. 

Thursday 3rd October

Understanding The World- Headland

Today, we spent the morning at the Headland. We took in the fresh sea air and had a nice long walk around the prom. 

Wednesday 25th September

Physical Development-Rebound Therapy

Zebras have really enjoyed our rebound session today. This helps us to develop balance and the coordination of our motor skills. It also helps us to develop  our proprioception, knowing where our body is and how it needs to be positioned to be able to jump, be in the air and land back on the trampoline. We also really like putting the sensory lights on and listening to some music, helping us to unwind and relax after a busy day at school!

 Thursday 19th September-

Knowledge and Understanding of the World- Beach

What a fantastic day we had! We hopped onto the bus and visited the beach. To start off, we enjoyed a calm, relaxing walk around Northgare. The children had fun exploring using their senses pouring sand, listening to the waves, looking for shells and rocks. It was lots of fun being outside enjoying the fresh sea air.

Wednesday 18th September

Physical Development- Hydrotherapy

This morning, Zebras have really enjoyed the hydrotherapy pool. We listened to relaxing music, played with the toys and explored different movements in the water. Our new children's confidence in the pool is growing already, we are so proud of them! Here are some pictures of us in action.

Tuesday 10th September

Understanding The World and Communication and Language

Today, we got very messy! We made some egg free chocolate chip cookies. Taking turns, we explored all the different ingredients (some of our children liked it more than others!) using our senses. Some of our children enjoyed watching the ingredients falling like the flour, others liked tactile exploration mixing the ingredients together and using fine motor skills to shape the cookies. Whilst some really liked using their taste to explore the ingredients (I bet you can guess who!). We had a lovely time and the cookies tasted delicious, we shared them for our snack. 

Thursday 5th September

Physical Development and Exploring the World

Today, we left the classroom and headed out to explore our community. We went to Ward Jackson Park. The children enjoyed seeing the ducks and being out in the fresh air. Enjoying our first week back together.