When it was World Book Day a few years ago, I wanted the children to have spent time already exploring a story, so that when there was a change to their routine for the events, they were familiar with some of the aspects (such as all the adults dressing as pirates!)
We choose Portside Pirates by Oliver Seaworthy, a brilliant Barefoot Books edition, where there are plenty of Youtube videos with singing to accompany the story.
When I begin planning a sensory story, I often shorten the book, so that we can spend longer exploring each aspect, but limit the session to around 20 minutes. For this story, I chose 5 key aspects, enough so that the story flowed, you can see the pages below. I created a powerpoint with the pages, inserted the songs and music from the story and used CommunicateInPrint to make visual resources for the children.
Some of the sensory stories I create, have much more of a static element, where we are all seated and exploring different tactile experiences, this was very different. The classroom was changed into a pirates heaven. I created an island from boxes, yellow fabrics and a large umbrella and added a few parrots. We used a parachute as the centre point for the main repetition of the story 'oh we go this way, that way, forwards backwards etc......' and we returned to this at points during the session. We have treasure chests full of treasure to explore, a plank and fans amongst other things, and of course, enough props and costumes for everyone! (Most of these were just strips of fabric for bandanas and eye patches, very cheap!).
We combined two classes for the session, and so there were 16 children and 8 adults, a very busy class. We did the session each Wednesday morning for 8 weeks, and as the children became familiar with the story, they took more of a lead in finding the correct props for the elements and using symbols to create extended sentences about what they were doing or what they needed. For the very sensory children in the class, they had the chance to explore for an extended period, and we gently encouraged them try new things. One session, the children from the PMLD class also joined us, all four of the children were in wheelchairs and were able to enjoy spending time with their peers in the lessons, they came every week after that!
For children with SEN, I often hear that they are not interested in books. I can very well understand this, when you think of it, it is something that doesn't give very much tactile feedback (the paper of the book), they have to 'sit and listen' and get asked to focus for an extend period. I find that to create a love of stories, the best way is to provide opportunities for children to experience it firsthand. After a few weeks, the children would often be found running around the playground recreating the story of Portside Pirates, repeating key refrains and searching for props that they could use.
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