Autumn is definitely here – time for some nice autumnal stories. Tim Hopgood’s It Was A Cold, Dark Night is perfect for turning into a sensory story to mark the beginning of the new season.
The story starts off with the wind blowing. You could use a fan, or a wind whistle like the one made by Acme:
An ordinary whistle also works well – blow gently, with increasing and decreasing force.
If you are sharing the story with children who enjoy visual props there are lots of nice cuddly hedgehog toys and puppets available online. This hedgehog shaped brush is also fun:
But any scrubbing brush would do from a tactile point of view:
I would use a different fabric drawstring bag (or something similar) for each of the animal homes. Inside you can have story props to represent the different animals and birds. Choose these according to what your learners would enjoy the best.
Tactile props could be:
- pom poms or cotton wool balls for the rabbits (to represent their fluffy tails)
- a dress-up fox’s tail for the fox (widely available to buy online)
- feathers for the owls (it is best not to pick up feathers because of health risks at the moment – but they can be bought online)
As you read the story pause at each animal home and encourage the children (if they are able) to put their hands in the bags and feel the props.
Other ideas:
- You could try an owl soft toy that makes hooting noises. (The children will be intrigued if you keep it in the bag and let them hear it before you bring it out.)
- Owl call whistles can also be bought online.
- Some wind-up flying bats can be fun.
- Finger puppet bats are easy to find, or simply make your own little puppets from card or felt shapes taped to a stick.
It might be a nice project to collect autumn leaves with your learners for the ending of the story. Everybody can help to cover the hedgehog with the leaves.
Some children would also enjoy leaf confetti – cut or tear simple leaf shapes from tissue paper and then let these fall gently over the hedgehog (and the children) at the end.
Buy It Was A Cold Dark Night from our bookshop. When you buy books from us you are guaranteed the warm glow of knowing that all profits will go towards researching and creating books and stories for children with additional needs.
Remember – not all of my props recommendations are toys! The props I suggest should not be used by children unsupervised.