Early development

Sensory story: 'The Four Seasons'

Secondary

Communication and language

﻿Hello, my name is Emma and I am your teacher. Today, we are looking at story, The Four Seasons. For this lesson, you will need a book, as an object of reference, a notepad and pen or an iPad to record down your notes. You'll also need a rain hat, a sun hat, some ear muffs and a bobble hat or something similar to each of those. So, for example, I'm using a hood on my rain coat, you could use a sun cap, you could use a hat with included ear muffs or, and then for bobble hat, just a thick winter hat. Some water in a spray bottle. If you don't have a spray bottle, don't worry, you can just dip your hands into some water you've got in a cup. Some flowers or green leaves. Ideally your flowers could smell. If you don't have natural flowers and you're using paper flowers, just spray them with some perfume. A hot water bottle, something that's not too hot. Some fruit, some red and orange leaves. Again, these can be real leaves or paper leaves. A fan, either a paper one or an electronic one and an ice pack. If you feel that that's too cold, wrap it in a towel or you can use some ice. Press pause while you get things ready. Let's get ready. Find a quiet space to work, away from any distractions. Make sure that your learner is comfortable and your resources are nearby. Press pause while you get things ready. It's time to look, listen and learn. Today's story, is the Four Seasons written by Emma Pemberton. This lesson looks at the story, the Four Seasons and in doing so, we explore the different seasons. So, spring summer, autumn, winter. For each of those chosen a particular weather that's kind of indicative of that season, represents that season. So, for in spring, it's rainy, in summer, it's hot, in autumn, it's windy, in winter, it's cold. We then explore, sort of, type of head wear that you might wear to go out. So, in spring, I have the hood of my rain jacket because it keeps the rain off. In summer, I have a big floppy sun hat to keep the sun out of my eyes. In autumn, I have a hat that's a bit like a deer stalker hat. So, it's got built in ear muffs. You could easily use some earmuffs and that's to keep out the the wind. And in winter, I've got a big thick woolly, pompom bobble hat that goes on my head. Also, we're going to look at what happens to a tree in the garden during each of those seasons. So, in spring, the leaves are green and some flowers appear. In summer, we get fruit from our tree. In autumn, the leaves turn to red and start to fall off. And in winter, there are no leaves. The tree is bare. So, the way in which this story is set out is quite structured. So what, how it works best I would suggest, is that you have the resources for each season ready and you present them alongside the story. So, for example, with the weathers, in spring, it's quite, we, we are exploring rain. So, I have a spray bottle, which I will lift up and say, it's really rainy or something similar and start spraying that. If you could do something similar, don't worry about introducing this particular resource, unless you feel that you need to and spray around, so they have the feel of rain. Now, what I would say with this resource is, it's really good for anticipation but save that for when you're exploring later on. So, the way in which the lesson works is I've got this structured part, that sort of narration part and then there is the pause screen for you to explore each of the resources in detail or what you felt was a favoured resource. And at that point, for example, I would suggest using the spray bottle, for example, as something that you could use to build anticipation. So, you go one, two, three and then spray. And you're looking for the response. So, most children will sort of do that in response. And then it's the next reaction. So, do they giggle or are they a bit horrified? Do they seem to want more? And the next step on from that is, you know, if you're going one, two, three and spraying, are they already screwing up their eyes because they know that they're about to get sprayed with the water. Similarly, in autumn, we've got the fan for wind. And again, when I talk about it being windy, if you can just introduce that wind across your child, either face, the head or across the arms. And again, you could introduce anticipation when you are exploring this resource later on. So again, you have one, two, three and and present sort of a really flapping, which they may find funny in itself. You could expand this further and use an actual electric fan or even a hairdryer on the cool setting and turn it on at that point or again, take it further and introduce a switch and expect your learner to respond to the one, two, three and then they press the switch to create the wind. Summer and winter are slightly different. So, we've got a resource that we're going to touch, and there are a number of resources that are sensory stimuli within this story. And the way in which I would suggest that you introduce those to your learner is to use a simple cue and I will try and cue you into the queue, in the story. So, for example, in winter, it's cold and we're using an ice block to kind of represent that. You could wrap it in a towel, if you feel it's too cold. And what I would do with my learners is say touch, and I would touch them on their hand where, where they, all their fingers, whichever I felt was most appropriate. And then I would introduce the stimuli for them. Or alternatively, if they're unable to use their arms, I would touch it on their face but I would say touch and touch it to their face. So, when I'm talking about this, I will say, oh, touch and then you can, that's your cue to cue your learner in to touch. So, we've got our touch cues. We've got our look cues, which we can use to explore the flowers in spring and the leaves on the tree when they are, ooo green and red. And then we have fruit. Now, I'm using the fruit as a smell stimuli. You can use it as a taste stimuli but I would save that until further exploration. I've avoided using that in the story because I know there are a number of PMRD learners that are nil by mouth and can't even have, sort of, lip tastes and so it seems unfair to introduce that within the lesson. So again, if you talk about those items in the exploration part but just introduce them throughout the story, that's really, really helpful because it allows the learner to follow along with the story. Similarly, when it comes to our hats, my hats are made out of different materials. So, I've got a winter bobbly hat and I will talk about exploring the hat in the lesson. So you can, again, don't, we look at the hat and we'll touch the hat and then there'll be some sort of cue for us to put the hat on. So then, we'll all put our hat on and we can do that again together in the lesson. And again, sort of putting that hat on that you may well find that your learner builds up that anticipation. Again, at the end of the lesson, if you wanted to explore, in terms of contrasting resources, so if you felt that your child, for example, really disliked the bobble hat but quite liked the summer hats, when they put it on their head, you could go through that again and sort of, offer those as choices and note down the responses again. Example lesson. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Hi, today we are going to look at a story about the tree in my garden. We're going to explore how the tree changes through the year. What it looks like in spring, in summer, in autumn and in winter. And we're going to explore what the weather is like and what we need to wear on our heads. Let's start in spring. In spring, it can be quite rainy and wet. That's a lot of rain. I'm getting quite wet. What about you? Hmm, what can I do to stop getting wet? I know, I can up the hood on my rain coat to act like a rain hat. Do you have a rain hat? I wonder what your rain hat feels like. Does it sound funny? Like mine? Put on your rain hat and let's see if it keeps us dry from the rain. That's better. I didn't get as wet. Let's go and look at the tree. In spring, my tree has lots of green leaves. Look. You could also touch the leaves and see what they feel like. My tree in spring also has some really pretty flowers. Look. My flowers also have a beautiful smell. Do your flowers smell? Smell. They smell lovely. My tree in spring has green leaves and pretty flowers. Explore the spring trees stimulus and any other stimuli that you enjoyed such as the rain or the rain hat. Pause the video while you complete your task and then you can resume once you're finished. Did you enjoy exploring the tree in spring time? Did you get very wet? I got wet. I wonder what happens to our tree in summer. In summer, it is very hot. Touch. Hot. Whew, it's really hot. It's so hot. It's also very sunny. I need something to wear on my head to keep the sun from getting in my eyes. I know, I'll wear my sun hat. Do you have a sun hat? You might have a cap. Let's try on our sun hats. Are you ready? One, two, three. Mine is a floppy sun hat. Now, we are ready to go and see our tree. In summer, the tree has lots of fruit. Look. It's an apple. It came from my tree. My apple smells really nice. Do you have some fruit you can smell? Mm. In summer, it is really hot. And my tree has lots of fruit. Pause the video while you explore the summer tree stimulus. You can resume once you're finished. Did you enjoy exploring the fruit from the tree in summer? I really liked my apple. I wonder what happens to the tree next? In autumn, it's very windy. Can you feel the wind? The wind is really blowing my hair and it's making my ears sore. I wonder what I can wear to stop the wind from hurting my ears. I know. My hat for autumn. It has special bits, which cover my ears. Do you have some ear muffs or a hat that covers your ears? Shall we put them on? Ready. Let's put on our hats. One, two and there we go. I might start shouting because it's covering my ears. I wonder what's happened to the tree in autumn. Let's go and have a look. In autumn, the leaves on my tree go red. Look. I wonder if they feel the same? You feel your leaves. Touch. Oh, one of the leaves fell off while I was touching them. In autumn, the leaves can fall off the trees. Soon my tree won't have any leaves. Explore the autumn tree stimulus and anything else that you found fun and enjoyable, such as the wind. You can pause the video while you complete your task and resume once you're finished. What colour were the leaves on your tree? Mine were red and orange and then they started to fall off. They also sounded really funny when I stood on them. I wonder what happens to our tree in winter. In winter, it's really cold. Touch. Cold. Oooo. Ooo, I'm so cold. I wonder what I can wear to warm me up. Ooo. I know, my woolly hat. Do you have a woolly hat? Shall we put them on together? Are you ready? Let's put our hats on, one, two, three. Woo. My hat has a really big bobble. It's nice and soft. You touch your hat. Is your hat soft? Now I'm ready to go and see my tree. My tree looks very different. In winter, my tree has no leaves. Look. It's just a stick. Hmm. Do you have a tree that looks just like this? Where have all the leaves gone? I am going to touch my tree and see what it feels like. Very sticky. Explore the winter tree and other stimulus. Pause the video while you complete your task and then resume once you're finished, I was sad that my tree had lost all its leaves in winter but it's okay because I know that spring comes next and it gets it's leaves back. Did you like the story about the tree in my garden? I hope so. You could explore the tree again and follow what happens through the seasons but for now we're finished. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. To make this lesson easier, use a familiar resources or reduce the number of resources for each session. To make it harder, encourage persistence by sabotaging a resource your child is really interested in. You could do this by moving it slightly out of reach, adding a switch to activate it or hiding it under a cloth. More ideas. Explore other things you could add to the story that changed through the seasons. Some examples. Something to play with in each season. So, a kite during autumn or a water gun in summer. Or you could explore the different footwear you would wear for each season. For example, flip-flops in summer and wellies in spring. 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

Sensory story: 'The Four Seasons'

Sensory story: 'The Four Seasons'

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

Lesson slides

Lesson details

Key learning points

Equipment

Supervision

Licence

Lesson video

Worksheet