Early development

Sensory story: 'This is Me!'

Secondary

Communication and language

﻿Hello, my name is Emma and I am your teacher. Today, we are looking at the book, "This is Me!" For this lesson, you will need a book. This is to be used as an objective reference to cue your child into the fact that they are going to be looking at a book, reading a story. So it doesn't have to be the book that we are studying. It could be any book because it is an object of reference. A notepad and pen, or an iPad, something for you to record your observations of how your child reacts and responds to different stimuli; a mirror, preferably handheld, that will reflect the whole of your child's face; and then the following items are optional. So part of this lesson allows your child to create a self portrait. However, the lesson can be done without that activity. There are things happening on screen, animations, and we're talking about our own reflections in the mirror. So you can do this lesson without those activities running alongside. If you do want to do the portrait, then please choose resources that are accessible for your child. So if you are going to use the paint, for example, and you feel that finger painting or just making hand prints on the paper is better than a paint brush, please do. So we've got our paper and a pencil, some paint, preferably of your child's skin colour, some glue, some buttons, preferably your child's eye colour as these will represent the eyes. If you don't have buttons, then use small bits of paper. And again, if you've got a child that's likely to put those buttons in their mouth, paper might be preferable. And then finally some wool, again, close to your child's hair colour as possible. And you may need some scissors with which to cut that wool. Press pause while you get things ready. Let's get ready. Find a quiet space to work away from any distractions. Ensure that your learner is comfortable and that your resources are nearby. Press pause while you get things ready. It's time to look, listen, and learn. Today's story is "This is Me!" written by Charlotte Guillain, illustrated by Katriona Chapman and read with the permission of Collins/HarperCollins Children's Books. In this lesson, we are looking at the story "This is Me!" It's a picture book which follows a girl as she makes her self portrait. So that's exactly what we're going to do. We are going to make a self portrait during this lesson. Now, as I've said in the resource slide, if you don't have those resources, just follow along with the lesson anyway, because there's plenty for your learner to do. However, if you do want to create that self portrait as we're moving along, then please use the pause screens to do that. So each time it says, "Please pause the screen," then you can create that particular part of the portrait. If you are not doing that, then you can move straight on or possibly explore the picture that is on display if you would feel that it's appropriate for your child. So firstly, there are opportunities to help build anticipation for your learner throughout this story. So at the start of the story, the girl is looking in a mirror and the mirror is going to appear several times. I'll put a symbol of the mirror on the screen and I will say, "Look in the mirror, one, two, three," and that will be the cue for your learner to look in the mirror. Now, what I would ask you to do is that when I say, "Look in the mirror, one, two, three," you present the mirror on three. And then hopefully as the story goes on, your learner will know that that is the cue and will start to anticipate the presentation of the mirror. Now, during the first part of the story, there's opportunities for you to explore your child's reflection and to explore that mirror, so you can find the ideal position that your learner responds to that mirror, and you will know therefore where to put it when they are looking in terms of anticipating that mirror. So those opportunities are throughout the video. In addition, what I've tried to do is to put some highly contrasting visuals on the screen, which show the girl, or a version of the girl, drawing her own portrait. And this is so that your learner can track things on the screen and it's then repeated without any vocalisations. So the first time I will talk over it such as you know, "Oh, she's drawing her face and there's an eye." The second time it's presented, there's no vocalisations at all. There's no narration to allow your child to explore that by themselves or possibly show that they know what's going to appear next by looking at a certain part of the screen. If your child has a visual impairment or you don't feel that's appropriate, what you could do is to follow on the screen. So when the face shape appears, you could draw a circle with your child's finger on the screen itself, or you could do it on their own face, so draw on their own face and their eyes, for example. So as we work through the story, there are also different resources to explore if you're going to be making a self portrait. So to start with, she draws, and you can do that motion of drawing, or you can get a pencil with your learner and draw on the paper and see how they respond to that. Then we have some paint, and you could do that with a paint brush, or you could just tip it on the bit of paper and splash your learner's hand around, your child's hand around depending how they want to explore that. Then we have the eyes, which in the story she uses some brown buttons, but as I said in the introduction, if you'd prefer to use some cutout card or something like that because you feel it's safer, than do so. I would say make it raised a little though, because then this portrait can also be a tactile resource and you can feel the things on the page later on. And then finally, we've got our hair. So I don't have any wool, unfortunately, so I've just cut out lots of bits of paper for my hair. But if you have some wool, that's great. Similarly, this is my eye. They don't have to be, you know, brilliantly artistic. And then we glue that hair down. So the wool is quite nice, again, as it's something tactile to explore. And then finally we have our self portrait. This is mine, it's uncanny, I realise, but again, you can then use that to explore. You can help your learner to explore the different items on the page once you've made it and to look at it. So again, there are a number of different ways that you can do this lesson. You can just use the video and use the visuals and support your child to explore that. You can introduce that mirror and build up anticipation. Or you can add those additional resources and stimuli and allow your child to have some exploration within that. Example lesson. One, two, three, four, five. Hi. I'm really excited. Can you tell? I'm really excited today because I get to do some art. I love art. Today, I'm going to make a picture. It has a special name. It's called a self portrait. It's called a self portrait because it's of me. You could make your own self portrait, too, but yours will be of you. I got the idea from today's story, "This is Me!" In it, a girl makes her self portrait and shows us how she does it. Do you have your book with you ready to explore? And then we can get ready for our story. It's a girl and she is looking at something. I wonder what it is. It's a mirror. What can she see in the mirror? She can see herself. Beautiful. I have a mirror. In the mirror, I can see me. Look! Me! Do you have a mirror? I wonder who you can see in your mirror. Look in the mirror, one, two, three. What do you see? Explore the mirror with your adult. Look in the mirror, one, two, three. What do you see? You can pause the video while you complete your task and resume once you're finished. Who did you find in your mirror? Let's have a look at our story. The girl in our story is drawing. The girl is drawing her face. Round and round. Next, she draws some eyes. One eye, two eyes. And some eyebrows, and a nose, and a big smile. Let's watch the girl draw that again. Look in the mirror, one, two, three. What do you see? Explore drawing. Your adult can help you. Pause the video while you complete your task and resume once you've finished. I drew my picture. Would you like to see it? I wonder what the girl did next with her picture. Hmm. Let's have a look. Oh, look! The girl is painting her picture. The girl is painting her portrait. First, she uses the brown paint for the face. Then she uses the yellow paint for a hair clip. Let's watch the girl paint her portrait again. The girl used brown and yellow paint on her self portrait. I'm going to go and paint my self portrait now. Look in the mirror, one, two, three. What do you see? Explore painting. Your adult can help you to colour in your portrait. Pause the video while you complete your task and resume once you're finished. I finished painting. I think that the girl's picture is much better than mine. It's missing a few things though. I wonder what she did next. She is glueing something. Oh, I see. She is putting some eyes on her picture. Next, the girl adds some eyes. She uses brown buttons for her eyes. Let's watch her add them again. My eyes are green, so I am going to use some green buttons for my self portrait. What colour are your eyes? I know how you can find out. You can use a mirror. Look in the mirror, one, two, three. What do you see? What colour are your eyes? What are you going to use to make your eyes in your portrait? Your adult can help you. They can pause the video while you complete your task and resume once you've finished. Did you find your eyes in the mirror? What colour are your eyes? I've stuck my button eyes onto my self portrait. I wonder what comes next. Of course, the girl is sticking on some hair. Next, the girl adds some hair. She uses brown wool for her hair. She has added some hair. That looks really pretty. Let's watch her add it again. My hair is brown. I wonder what colour hair do you have? Do you have lots of hair like me, or do you have a little bit of hair? I know how you can find out. You could use a mirror. Look in the mirror, one, two, three. What do you see? What are you using for the hair on your portrait? Your adult can help you to explore that resource. Pause the video while you complete your task and resume once you've finished. Look, I stuck my hair onto my self portrait, and I think that it might be finished now. I am going to stick my self portrait on the wall. I wonder what the girl does with her self portrait. Let's have a look. Look! She's put hers on the wall, too. Look at that big smile. I think that she is very happy with her portrait. Look in the mirror, one, two, three. What do you see? What a beautiful self portrait. Let's watch her make it again. Explore your portrait. You can pause the video while you complete your task and resume once you've finished. I enjoyed that. It was a good book. It taught me how to do something. You could explore some more using your mirror or perhaps have another look at the pictures from this story. But for now, we are finished. Five, four, three, two, one. To make this lesson easier, print out photos of your child and use the relevant parts of these to make up the portrait. To make it harder, add additional resources for the mouth and nose or any hair decorations, hearing aids, or glasses you may use. You could also offer contrasting resources. For example, offering both yellow and brown wool for a dark-haired child, and then demonstrating dismissing the yellow and choosing the brown. This is about you demonstrating and not about choice-making. For some more ideas, explore photos of your child together. Talk about their features while exploring the resources. Put the completed portrait against a photo of your child and explore how they are alike. If you have photos or video of your child taking part in today's lesson that you'd like to share with us, please do. You can do so on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak. Illustrations on slides five, eight, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, and shown throughout the video are by Katriona Chapman from the book "This is Me!" written by Charlotte Guillain, read with permission from Collins/HarperCollins Children's Books. The animations on slides nine, 12, 15, 18, and 21 are by Emma Pemberton, the Oak National Academy.

Sensory story: 'This is Me!'

Sensory story: 'This is Me!'

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