Video: Sensory stories

﻿Hello everybody, my name's Emma, and welcome to today's lesson. I'm looking forward to today's session and I hope you are too. I can't wait to get started. But before we do, just a quick reminder, we here at Oak, are here to support any approaches that you might already be using and any work you might have already been set. We know this lesson, is going out to so many different children and families. So, if you're not sure or have any questions, please do contact your child's school or usual speech and language therapy team. In today's session, I'll be talking about sensory stories. Together, we'll do some thinking about how sensory stories can help you to develop your understanding of language. Then, I'm going to show you a sensory story, that would help you to be able to create sensory stories at home. I'll also be sharing some tips for adults, so that they can help you in creating more sensory stories for you at home. So, for today's lesson, all your need is your favourite book. Adults, you'll need the downloadable resource that's available on the Oak website with this lesson. So, before we begin make sure you're in a quiet place where you won't be disturbed for the lesson. Turn off any distractions or notifications that you might have running on your device, and then, make sure you and your adult are seated comfortably. When you're ready, let's begin. Okay, let's start by doing some talking and thinking about sensory stories. Sensory stories tell a story using words and multisensory activities. They can involve all or some of the child's senses but the great thing about them, is they're super fun and motivating. They're a fantastic way to reinforce words and help children to learn and understand. They're also great for working on things like early attention, and we actually covered sensory stories in Module One. We're going to recap it today, because it's important we think about how sensory stories are also helpful for learning language. So, language sticks when we hear it lots of times, we practise using it lots, and we use it in different places. It can also really help if we use language with different people, and get lots of positive and interesting feedback when we're using it. I'm going to show you a sensory story now. So, pause the video to get yourself ready, adjust the volume, so it's just right, and then when you're ready, let's begin. The sensory story I'm going to show you today is called, "We're Going on a Bear Hunt". "We're Going on a Bear Hunt", is written by Michael Rosen and it's illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. It's with special thanks to Walker Books that I'm going to show you the sensory story today. The purpose of this activity is to show you at home, how language can be brought to life through sensory stories. And to give you some ideas of how different sensory experiences can be worked into some of your favourite stories at home. Okay, let's begin. "We're going on a bear hunt. "We're going to catch a big one. "What a beautiful day. "We're not scared. "Ooh, what's that? "Long wavy glass. "We can't go over it. "We can't go under it. "Oh, no, we have to go through it. "Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish." Okay. "We're going on a bear hunt. "We're going to catch a big one. "What a beautiful day. "We're not scared. "Uuh, what's that? "A deep cold river. "Oooh, no, we can't go over it. "We can't go under it. "Oh, no, we've got to go through it. "Splash, splash, splash, splash, splash, splash, "splash, splash, splash." Okay. "We're going on a bear hunt. "We're going to catch a big one. "What a beautiful day. "We're not scared. "Oh, what's that? "It's thick oozy mad. "Oh, no, we can't go over it. "We can't go under it. "We're going to have to go through it. "Oh, no, thick oozy mad. "Squish, squish, squish, squish, squish, squish, "squish, squish, squish. "Oh, no." Okay. Clean, clean, clean, clean, clean, clean. Okay. Are we ready? "We're going on a bear hunt. "We're going to catch a big one. "What a beautiful day. "We're not scared. "Oh, what's that? "It's a big dark green forest. "We can't go over it. "We can't go under it. "We've got to go through it. "Oooh. "Stumble, stumble, trip, stumble, stumble, trip, "stumble, stumble, trip." Oh, Okay. "We're going on a bear hunt. "We're going to catch a big one. "What a beautiful day. "We're not scared. "Uh oh, what's that? "It looks like a swirling, whirling snowstorm" "We can't go over it. "We can't go under it. "We've got to go through it." Are we ready? Okay. Are we ready? "We're going on a bear hunt. "We're going to catch a big one. "What a beautiful day. "We're not scared. "Uh, Oh, a cave. "A gloomy narrow cave. "Oh, we can't go over it. "We can't go under it. "We're going to have to go through it. "Tiptoe, tiptoe, tiptoe. "What's that? "Oooh, I can see one shiny wet nose. "Two fairly ears. "Two big googly eyes. "It's a bear. "Oh, quick, we've got to run out. "Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run. "Shut the door. "Oh, we made it home." Well done, everyone. Sensory stories are really quite easy to make at home. All you need to do, is choose your favourite story or theme together. But remember, this doesn't have to be a book. We can make up our own stories or even talk about personal events like shopping, getting dressed, or a trip to the beach. The first step to creating your sensory story is to summarise your story or theme into short interesting sentences. Keep the sentences nice and simple. Now, we've got our sentences, we need to focus on our keywords. We need to use our imagination to bring these key words to life and plan sensory activities that pair with these words. Remember though, not everything has to be literal. Rain could be the noise of your fingers. Pattering on a table or a water spray, or even just water in a cup with you wiggling your fingers to create a noise. Now, it's time to start creating a sensory story for home. Children, it's time to choose your favourite story or theme. Adults, use the steps we just talked through to plan some sensory activities. All of the information I shared is in the downloadable resource to help you. So, tell your story, but lots of sensory experiences to really bring the language to life. Be ready to tell your sensory stories several times. Reinforcement really helps to embed language, so, we can't hear it too much. With each time you tell it aim to be consistent with the same sensory experiences, but you can build these up over time and increase more sensory activities. This would increase the duration of the activity and also be helping the child to extend their attention. When you're telling the sensory story, keep your enthusiasm up and draw the child in by saying their name, if you need to. You could also encourage the child to retell you the story. This doesn't need to be spoken or with words, they could retell the story by using the sensory activities. So, continue to use the downloadable resource to help you plan sensory stories at home. Record and reflect on how your child is able to engage with these sensory activities and what they really loved. Also, keep track of the words that you're bringing to life and try and generalise these across your day to day with the child, so that they're hearing and seeing and understanding the words in lots of different contexts. Well, that brings us to the end of today's lesson, but a really big well done on all the fantastic attention and thinking that you gave the sensory story I showed you. I hope you have lots of fun with your sensory stories at home. If you'd like, take a picture of some of your sensory story activities, and show this to your teacher at school. so that they can see the lovely progress that you're making with your words. You could also send this picture to @OakNational on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, so I can see your wonderful progress too. Well, all that's left for me to say is thank you, but take care and enjoy the rest of your learning. Bye bye.

Worksheet: Sensory stories

Completed: Sensory stories

Sensory Stories tell a story using words and multi sensory activities.

They involve some or all of children's senses.
They are fun and motivating activity. 

They reinforce words to help children learn 
and understand. 


Sensory stories

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