General, Sen, Aynsley School

Aynsley School is a school for children with Moderate Learning Difficulties. The Lower School consists of 31 children ranging from Nursery to Year 6. These children formed the working groups who used the Elmo Visualiser during the Spring term. In lower school, we teach using a thematic approach to deliver all lessons. Our theme this term has been China. The Elmo was used cross curricula with fantastic results. Literacy The Elmo enabled us to make little books into big books so that shared reading could be done using books that would normally not have been included in our planning.

Modelling of letter formation was also done on a large scale for the whole class. The letter formation was videoed using the Elmo and played back so the children could copy it.

Numeracy Counting with small objects took on a whole new dimension with the Elmo as little bugs became huge monsters on the screen and the children screamed with delight as they counted them !

We also encouraged the children to bring a watch in from home to place under the Elmo so that they could study its moving hands in our Time topic.

Themed Work Our themed work covers all other subjects in the curriculum. We used the Elmo to help with our Chinese calligraphy.

The children studied this ancient art on a day out to the Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester and then followed it up back at school by the more able children writing Chinese symbols on a small scale using the Elmo whilst the less able in the class watched the correct formation on the large screen.

In our History lesson, the children looked at tiny Chinese artefacts using the Elmo and its ability to view objects from many directions. They were fascinated by the detail they could see. This was reflected in their own drawings. In Geography, we used the Elmo to focus in on areas of a world map to find China and surrounding Countries. The Elmo was a fantastic tool which enabled large scale images to be shown effortlessly. In ICT we taught the basic use of Elmo to all children. They responded with enthusiasm and skill. They were all able to zoom in and out, auto focus and switch between applications.

**************************************************************** Throughout this term, we have encouraged children to bring things in from home or to look for things outside which they would like to view using the Elmo. This proved very popular and the items brought in ranged from a piece of dirt to an ancient coin. We were amazed at how the skilled the children became with Elmo and how they used it independently with such care. They understood its role within the classroom and often suggested how it could be used during a lesson. All children were very eager to show their own work at the end of the lesson under the Elmo which is fantastic for raising not only the standard

of work produced, but also their confidence and their speaking and listening skills.

WE LOVE ELMO !!!!!!!

Mr Crook & Miss Pendleton