Early development

Sensory story: Our holiday

Primary

Communication and language

﻿Hi, my name Charlotte, and I'm going to be the teacher, that's doing today's session with you. Today's session is all about holidays, and we're going to be reading a sensory story called 'Our Holiday'. Throughout the story, we're going to use different sensory resources that help to stimulate your child's senses. Your child may react to these in different ways, depending on their level of development. But don't worry if they're only noticing the stimuli, that's still great. Let's get on with the story. For the sensory story in this lesson, you will need, pictures of family members, including mum, dad, or siblings, or anybody else in your family. The sound of a car, shells, some sand, an ice cream or an ice cube and tray of water. Press pause now, whilst you get these things ready. Fab, now that you've got these things ready, it's time to get your work area ready. Find a quiet area to work in with your resources next to you and make sure your child is comfortable and ready to learn. This may mean, that your child is out of their wheelchair, if they're in a wheelchair, or they're in a comfortable position, on the floor or at the table. Please make sure your child knows, that you are going to start a new activity as well. Press pause now while she get things ready. It's time to look, listen, learn. Are you ready? Let's go, today's story is Our Holiday, written by me, Charlotte Blundell. Our Holiday, last week, I went on holiday with my family. At this point of the story, I'd like you to get the pictures of the family members, that your child may go on holiday with. This will help them connect those people, with the term family. I'm going to read that sentence again, and allow you to show those pictures, of the family to your child. Last week, I went on holiday with my family. Press pause now, so that you can pause the video to complete the task, and allow your child to explore the seven sensory stimuli that we've just shown you. Then once you finished, press resume so you can continue the story. I went with my mum, dad and sister. In this parts of the story, you can show your child the different family members that they may go with. I've said, mum, dad and sister. But if your child doesn't have a sister, you can replace this with brother or if you are their carers, then you could replace mum and dad with yourself. It totally depends on your child's family. And you can use anybody that they spend their time with. I'm going to read that sentence again, to allow you to add in those photographs, or those pictures of those people, that they may have gone home the holiday with. I went with my mum, dad, and sister. Press pause now so that you can pause the video to complete the task and allow your child to explore the seven sensory stimuli that we've just shown you. Then once you finished, press resume, so you can continue the story. We went to the seaside in our car. At this point to the story I'd like you to use the car sounds that you found. This may be on YouTube, it may be a toy that you already have, or it could be on any audio device. I'm getting mine from my mobile, and I am going play this when I say the word car. You may want to use it at a different time. It's totally dependent on when you two think is best in the story. We went to the seaside in our car. Now it's your turn, I'm going to say the sentence again, and you can play your sound. It's really good if you use the same sound every time you do this story so that your child becomes familiar with the sound and the association with the car. We went to the seaside in our car. Press pause now so that you can pause the video to complete the task and allow your child to explore the seven sensory stimuli like that we've just shown you. Then once you finished, press resume, so you can continue the story. At the seaside, we saw lots of shells. At this point to the story you can get, the different shells that you have in your house. I've got two different types here. One is a smooth one and one is Cress by Cuba. So they've got different textures and it's great for your child to be able to feel this. As we all know from the beach, some shells do have a sound to them. So it's great if you put your ear to them as well, even as it you're talking, it might amplify the sound for them. And it helps your child to understand the different acoustics of shells as well. While it's David's story again, I'm going to model what you could ask your child to do whilst you're reading the story. And then it's your turn. At the seaside, we saw lots of shells. What does the shell feel like? Now it's your turn, I'm going to read the sentence again, and then you can do it at the same time. At the seaside, we saw lots of shells. Press pause now so that you can pause the video to complete the task and allow your child to explore the seven sensory stimuli that we've just shown you. Then once you finished press resume so you can continue the story. We walked along the beach on the sand. At this point to the story, I'd like you to get your sand. Mine's in the top like this so that it doesn't cover a few bare, and it might be handy for you to do the same. Throughout this part of the story, I'd like you to allow your child to explore the sound. Whether that be you picking it apart at the top and dropping it over their hands, so that they can feel it. Whether you help them to draw things in it, like their initial, or explore the sand in different ways. By clumping it together, you could build something in it. Explore that sand so that your child understands how it feels. I'm going to read that sentence again for you and allow you to help your child feel that sand. We walked along the beach on the sand. Press pause now so that you can pause the video, to complete the task and allow your child to explore the seven sensory stimuli, that we've just shown you. Then once you're finished, press resume, so you can continue the story. We went to the shop and bought an ice cream. For this part of the story, you could get your ice cream or your ice cube. I've got one of these. Any brand of ice cream or lolly ice could do. And part of this is for your child to experience the taste of things. But also to feel the touch of it on their skin, so that they understand how cold differs to being hot. So first of all, I would keep it in the wrapper and I would press it against their skin, just so that they could feel how cold it was. And then if your child is allowed ice cream or lolly ices, then I'd allow them to taste it as well. I'm going to read that story to you again, and model what to do with them on the different parts of the body. And then I'd suggest allowing them to try it. We went to a shop and bought an ice cream. Does that feel cold? Now it's your turn. Press pause now so that you can pause the video to complete the task and allow your child to explore the seven sensory stimuli that we've just shown you. Then once you've finished, press resume, so you can continue the story. Then we played in the sea. Now it's time for your tray of water. So I've got mine just here, as you can see. And you can do some splashing in it. You could, if you had any small items, you could throw them in like you would into the sea and make it splash. You could allow your child to run their hands through it or put their foot into it. If you're able to put it onto the floor and your child's able to do that. Just so that they can experience what the water might feel like, if they were at the sea and what it might do, if you throw things into it. I'm going to read through that sentence and then model splashing through the water and put my hand in it, so that your child can see what to do. Then we played in the sea. Playing in the sea. Putting my hand in the sea. How does that feel? Now it's your turn. Press pause now so that you can pause the video to complete the task and allow your child to explore the seven sensory stimuli that we've just shown you. Then once you've finished, press resume, so you can continue the story. We had a really fun day. At this point, I'd just show a happy face or do a bit of a dance for fun. And just to show a bit of movement to add to that adjective, to show that that's the type of day that they had. We had a really fun day. Now it's your turn. Press pause now so that you can pause the video to complete the task and allow your child to explore the seven sensory stimuli that we've just shown you. Then once you finished, press resume, so you can continue the story. I'm now going to read the whole story for you so that you can put all of the sensory stimuli together for the whole of the story. Last week, I went on holiday with my family. I went with my mom, dad, and sister. We went to the seaside in our car. At the seaside, we saw lots of shells. We walked along the beach on the sand. We went to a shop and bought an ice cream. Then we played in the sea. We had a really fun day. Well today's story is now finished. That's the end of the session as well. And I hope your child is able to engage with the story and the different stimuli that we used. There are more ideas linked to the holidays coming up, and I hope you enjoyed the story and the weeks to come. Thank you for joining us. And I'll see you again soon, bye. As well as completing sensory story, another couple of times. You could also do different activities. You could make it easier by using single key words during the story, instead of the full sentences that I've used. And you could also include additional resources that could support your child's understanding at the key vocabulary. If you wanted to make it harder, after reading the story multiple times. Each time you use a resource, you could offer your child two different resources and get them to choose which one comes next. For example, if you were on this part of the story about the sea, you could offer your child, the shells or the water and ask them to choose which resource comes next. So more ideas include, reading more stories with your child about going on holiday, taking your child to the beach to make a real life connection to the story that referred today. And also listen to the song, Summer Holiday by Cliff Richards and The shadows. Well the videos by Oak National Academy teachers that might benefit your child include, The Speech and Language Videos, Sensory Inspiration Videos, Physical Therapy Videos, and Occupational Therapy Videos. Please share your work with Oak National. If you'd like to, you can share as the parent or carer, the work that your child has done on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, and you can do this by tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

Sensory story: Our holiday

Sensory story: Our holiday

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

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