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Original poster

Activities and discipline in your child's reception class

66 replies

emkana · 27/09/2005 09:17

From reading various threads I am amazed at the differences there seem to be in reception classes. For example somebody wrote that in their child's class there is a sun and a cloud and children's names get moved from one to the other if they misbehave. Or there is one class where children are only allowed play at midday if they have behaved "properly" up till then. Also there seem to be big differences and what children have learned so far - from bringing books home, having done various letters to learning key words...

well in my dd's class everything so far seems to have been about happy play . Focus was to get settled into routine and to get used to school. No discipline measures that I'm aware of. They will start with jolly phonics this week, they've started talking about the reading scheme (the one with Rosie and Sam) but have not had any books home yet.

I'd be interested to hear more about what goes in different schools. Would anybody like to tell me?

OP posts:
Caligula · 27/09/2005 13:55

Lots of stickers in my DS's reception. They would get a cardboard apple to sit on, and for every ten minutes they sat still and concentrated without fidgeting, getting up, falling off, wriggling around etc., they'd get a sticker on the apple. After 10, they'd be allowed to take their apple home to show their family how wonderful they were.

It became progressively more difficult to get stickers on the apple as the child got used to being a school environment.

Issymum · 27/09/2005 14:00

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request

Anchovy · 27/09/2005 14:07

I'm impressed at the amount of information you all manage to download/glean. DS has graduated from MI5 training at nursery school to being a fully fledged member of the French Resistance at big school. All I know for sure is:

  • you need to use the toilet necklace when you go to the toilet. Someone wore it home once.

  • you need to learn to kick a ball properly, not in a silly manner. You place it in front of you and kick it straight and quite hard. This is important.

  • sometimes they do dancing in a very very big room. DS can now hop round in circles (for which I understand he receives some kudos) in addition to just plain old straight line hopping.

  • they went and dug some things up in the garden. DS found a wood louse. He wished he had been the person who found a slug.

  • the teacher is quite generous with stickers, even for what I would recognise as "low levels of attainment".

  • letters, reading, libaray books, whatever.

Erm, that's it.

frogs · 27/09/2005 14:08

In his very first week in Reception ds and two of his little mates got kept behind in Assembly for a telling-off by the headteacher.

Apparently they were all pushing and flicking (?!) each other -- I think it was actually a case of them feeling small and nervous and expressing it by trying to show off and look tough. Anyway, he was suitably chastened, and we never had a repeat. Dd1, on the other hand, then in Y4, was mortified by the idea of her baby brother being kept behind in his very first week, so we heard all about it in gruesome detail.

Apart from that isolated incident it was all very sunny. He had the world's loveliest teacher, and quickly developed the most amazing crush on her. He used to cry at the weekend because he missed her.

Saxy · 27/09/2005 14:10

Issymum - you get ignored too!! In the other mothers defence, I don't expect them to gush all over me as I know they all see each other everyday and don't really know me from Adam, but........ If you could bottle that smile you'd be a millionaire!

Does anyone else feel that just when things were getting easier, they go and start reception and it all gets harder again. To think this is just the beginning.

Saxy · 27/09/2005 14:13

Anchovy
toilet necklace- class, love it!

Issymum · 27/09/2005 14:24

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This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request

binkie · 27/09/2005 14:25

(Can I just say I love Anchovy's ds. Haven't forgotten the cheery trousers that didn't want to go to school.)

Anchovy · 27/09/2005 14:38

Binkie . He's a funny little thing (and he's not 4 until next month!)

Marina · 27/09/2005 14:50

He does sound such a cutie Anchovy

Cam · 27/09/2005 15:09

Marina, I can't believe your ds is in Yr 2 already!

motherinferior · 27/09/2005 15:39

Oh, I've realised, that's why DD1 is covered in stickers. They had a 'parachute party' too, on Monday, for filling the 'pebble jar' (I think this is the receptacle labelled 'pobles').

And her school does mixed age classes - reception/year 1 - which I gather works well for younger brighter ones, not so well for older brighter ones.

Marina · 27/09/2005 15:39

He is doing homework three times a week Cam and informed me yesterday that it was a private and confidential document he was working on (= spelling sealion)

Cam · 27/09/2005 16:03

Love it

singersgirl · 27/09/2005 18:32

LOL Earlybird at your interrogation technique. Mine is similar.
"So what story did Miss X read you today?"
"I can't dinembrer"
"Was it "Mummy stuck a wombat up her nose?""
"No, silly, it was "The tiger who came to tea""
Etc.
More seriously, he hasn't done a single piece of artwork (apparently too busy with the construction toys) and whenever I ask whether they've done numbers/letters/reading he says "No, not really".
I get a bit jittery when I hear of all these children bringing home sounds and reading books.

roisin · 27/09/2005 18:45

Stickers ... ds1 was once distraught when a sticker blew off his jumper coming out of school, so I cut up some bits of paper and made him a "sticker book". Ever since (3 years ago now) the boys have put their stickers into their little notebooks, and they love looking back at them and remembering the good times!

Oh, and on Friday a yr11 (16 yo) top-set girl was being a pain in a lesson. I told her to settle down and get some work done; she asked me if she could have a sticker if she did so, and I agreed rather bemused. (I thought she was winding me up). But she did settle down, and at the end of the lesson she came up, showed me her work, and requested the sticker ...!

GordonBrownsNumberOneFan · 27/09/2005 19:37

Ds1 one was doing "amberlaise" this morning.

I'm stumped.

merrygoround · 27/09/2005 19:58

assembly?

bee3 · 27/09/2005 20:08

I bet you're right Merrygoround! My reception class always called them "dissemblies".....which was about right.

Gobbledigook · 27/09/2005 20:19

Roisin - you're joking?!?!

Good idea for the stickers - I always try to keep them because I never know when they might ask for them - I once put a jumper in the wash with one on and boy did I pay for it!!

bluebear · 27/09/2005 20:28

ds is on his second week of full days and is 'doing' one jolly phonic sound each day (there is a list on the classroom door so parents can help by letting them bring in things that start with the sound). He also brings home a 'sound' book on fridays which has all the sounds so far - he has to read the sounds several times over the weekend. He is already combining them to attempt to write ( wrote 'hous' under a drawing of a house this weekend - I am such a proud mummy).
They have done some number work but i don't know what (Just numbers Mummy..Durrrr)
Also lots of playing - trains, playmobil, construction toys
Singing (in the BIG hall mummy cos it sounds best in there).
Dance, Gym and some other type of activity (couldn't work that one out)
And plenty of colouring-in (one phonic picture each day, illustrating the action to go with the sound, and often other pictures, today we had a picture of 'my face' which was gorgeous but missing a nose.

bluebear · 27/09/2005 20:29

Oh, and stickers for everything it seems. Don't know what they do for naughtiness but ds said that his name was on the board today but it was for being busy and working hard.

roisin · 27/09/2005 20:30

No, I'm not joking. But I am still rather baffled by it!

Gobbledigook · 27/09/2005 20:31

LOL Bluebear!!

Tonight I sat down with ds1 and he wrote out s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k which are the letters he's done so far. I'm finding that whatever word I pick he can tell me what letter it begins with anyway. He then went on to write all the numbers 1 to 12 on about 10 pieces of paper (he's a numbers nut, not as keen on letters) and then drew a picture of himself hopping on one leg!! I was quite impressed because it's the first time I've seen him draw two eyes a nose and mouth on a face and each hand had 5 fingers. bless!

stitch · 27/09/2005 20:42

when i was teaching i found that the older ones loved the stickers, mainly coz most teachters didnt bother giving them to them thinking that at 15 and 16 they were too old for them.

i havent much idea of what happens in ds2's class. i know he went into the sad book. and had to go to the office when he was sick. but thats about it. he has just started getting readig n books home, but they have NO words in them. just pictures. i know he has been doing the number symbols, but only coz he recognised some of the numbers on the giant snakes and ladders in a&e.

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