This Month at Andover JP has been very busy and exciting!
A group of us went to Southampton to go strawberry picking at the beginning of the month. It was a fantastic day, the members loved walking around the fields choosing their strawberries, socialising with people and looking around the garden centre and farm shop. We Played games on our way to Pickwell’s Farm, such as eye spy and 5 things we can see, smell and touch.
A few members went on a shopping trip to Newbury Shopping Centre. We all had a fantastic time! In the morning, we went straight to the brand-new Primark, which a few of the members were very excited about. We had a look around several different shops, went on a walk and then sat down at Coffee NO.1 for a drink before we headed back to JP.
We also took another trip to Southampton to The Orange Room nightclub. Eastleigh and Basingstoke JP met us down there. Everyone had a boogie and sing along, it was a great atmosphere and we cannot wait till next time.
We have been on several food shopping trips each week to collect ingredients for Wendy’s cooking sessions on a Friday, so that the members can all help each other prepare their lunch. The members enjoy going out each week, purchasing their own items as well as resources for our activity days.
We also took a trip to Porton Down Aquatics for the morning, the members loved seeing all the fish and looking around the aquatics centre.
We took a trip to Riverbourne Farm in Salisbury. The members enjoyed going out in the community, looking around at all the animals and talking to each other about it in the café before we left.
The members loved Wendy’s cooking sessions on a Friday. Everyone takes part and helps each other prepare and cut all the ingredients up while also learning Makaton signs to match the individual food items. It is always fantastic! The members help clean up after they have enjoyed eating there freshy cooked lunch and dessert and the Fridays have been ending with different interactive games, bingo and news at 3:00 to have a conversation about everybody’s weekends coming up.
Dinners that we have cooked this month included:
Fish finger sandwich
Chicken and chorizo pasta
Katsu chicken noodles
Spaghetti bolognaises
At JP we had a free choice theme week at the end of the month; on Monday we based our theme on pickled onions in the morning session!
The members enjoyed making felt plushie onion badges in the craft room in the morning,
Learnt some facts on pickled onions and enjoyed tasting and smelling a jar and rating how much they enjoyed them!
The members have been enjoying crafting collages of the seaside and holiday memories, discussing different stories.
Megan and Laura have been running there ‘BEATS’ dance session every week, which is an exciting part of everybody’s week. Laura and Megan have started a new session this month called ‘Education Hour’, which includes problem solving, maths and English!
The members have loved it! We will continue to do this every week; we all help each other and completely different questions!
At JP we have been learning our Makaton signs every Friday with Wendy during our lunches!
Lyn has also been running sessions where we pass inflatable beach balls to each other and everybody takes a turn in choosing a colour and then learning the sign to match, everybody loves it! As a team we have also decided to start an activity called ‘Makaton signs of the week’. We are going to have a board in the hallway which has 2 different images of signs to learn, we will swap the images on the board every week!
The gardens at JP are looking absolutely beautiful at the moment. The members and Mel have been working so hard at keeping everything watered and planting lots of flowers in the back garden. Our veggie patch is looking amazing! as well as all the lovely bedding flowers that are out the front and back gardens. Last week we cut some of our sweet pea plants that the members potted and used them for our centre piece for our lunch on a Friday!
We had a Teddy Bear’s Picnic Tea Party, which was a lovely day. In the morning, the members helped Wendy bake a Victoria Spounge and ‘JP’ Bear Cookies to take home!
Everybody helped makes bear shaped jam sandwiches, biscuits and teddy bear crafts such as badges and headbands to wear in the afternoon. In the morning of the Teddy Bear’s Picnic, a group went shopping to buy a selection of nibbles and snacks for the party, while some were still at JP helping Phoebe and Tracy to make fresh lemonade! We made some craft lemon bunting to match the lemon theme!
The members helped squeeze the lemons, pour the water and sugar, until the taste was perfect. They enjoyed mixing the ingredients and stirring the lemonade, we then put it in the fridge to chill and enjoyed serving glasses of our homemade lemonade at the tea party!
We have never tried this before, so we were all very excited, it was so good we will definitely be doing this activity again throughout the summer.
In the afternoon the members enjoyed nursery rhymes, picnic food, music, dancing and a special surprise from a HUGE teddy bear!
