Activities and discipline in your child's reception class

[emkana]

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?

That's great GDG. Well done your ds1!

The next stage is for him to identify the sounds at the end and middle of words as well as the beginning.

Am I allowed to 'crash' a Reception thread with a Year 1 story? (I will anyway..)

All I got frm DS1 (just into Yr 1) was "we did Independent Learning today Mummy - but don't worry, it's just a posh word for playing"

PMSL!!!

Roisin - might just try it tomorrow, not in a pushy way, just to see if he can do it at all. Might do 'cat' begins with 'c' and see if he can tell me it ends in 't'.

This is so great seeing them learn things. However, I can't wait till I'm doing juicy physics A level homework!

lol Mo2

Not quite sure what dd is really up to in her class. The highlight for her is always whether she was able to play in the play house. We've got a list of the children in her class (only 11 at the moment) and it really helps get information out of her if you can use names. Today she got a "golden certificate" for being willing to try new things, and was called out at the special golden assembly (in front of the whole infant section). All she told me is that she sat on a bench so that her legs didn't get tired! It was ds (in yr2) who provided all the details - he himself has never been the golden boy, which doesn't seem to bother him any. Last year he had a special chart just for him (tantrum problems) with the reward of going into the relaxation room (they have a special needs unit). Don't think there is a sun/cloud thing, but if you are bad your name goes up on the board, as opposed to the sticker chart. It all seems to work fairly well, and dd is deciding that really school is not so bad. ds now just says airily "it was fine" or "it was lovely", although we do have discussions about whether how this year's teacher ranks compared with the last two (he was almost in the crush zone with his yr1 teacher)

when my dh was a kid his teacher had a flower patch and a vegetable patch, if you were good you got to be in the flower patch and if you were naughty you were in the veg patch, he loved this teacher (and I suspect he still has a thing for her)I am a teacher now and can't see this being acceptable nowadays but his eyes mist over at the memory of being transfered over to the flower patch (v briefly I suspect)

finn2 veg patch - would be totally non-pc nowadays wouldn't it?

at dds' school they have a collective marble jar for good and bad behaviour. it's all very communal and pc. the whole class contributes and gets a treat if it's filled. my dds age 5 and 4 love it. there is also a "special mention" tree on the reception wall - if you are very helpful you get a "leaf" with what you did.

my reception age children are totally in favour of rules and regulations. we have introduced more at home because they love "house rules" - especially telling visitors what are the house rules.

dd2 age 4 is exceptionally informative. I know not only exactly what they do at school but all about her teacher's home life and family too. Unfortunately I suspect this means the teacher knows far too much about our home life too

Fennel, I have long espoused the view that it is better to debrief the teacher/childminder in advance - ie 'if she mentions daddy went away last night, he's actually at a conference, really'.

MI - i tend to pin my hopes on the assumption that the teacher won't actually believe stories like "mummy shouted and screamed and jumped up and down in anger because daddy threw the vegetable water away instead of making gravy with it".

it may be true but doesn't sound likely, to the outside listener, I suspect.

I am amazed at how much you know goes on in your child's class. I hardly know anything! It is such a scrum by the door in the morning that I tend to hold back so have not spoken to teacher about anything yet.

Although she had a book bag and reading book since day 1 - which I was surprised about. But don't think I have got the systemf or changing books quite right yet, as we currently have 4 books sitting on the shelf to read and they keep sending more home!!!!! lol

There's the sticker thing, but I wish they would colour code them or something as DS2 has speech difficulties and we can never discover what he got the stickers for. They have homework now, identifying / writing 'sounds' (letters to you and I!), at the moment one at a time. No books, tho, which seems slightly to miss the point?

DS1 in Yr1 gets homework (writing words that are phonetically correct, eg log, unseen with me reading them aloud), they also get the stickers and there's a flower with a number of petals, the whole class earns these petals with good behaviour and they get a disco (I suspect a cd ) when the flower is complete.

They also have friends, which are stuffed toys in big bags they take home for a weekend if they are good, they have to get an adult to write about the weekend in the friend's diary. Samuel brought one home (a stuffed chicken called Henrietta) twice, Stirling is unlikely to get it as his Teacher clearly dislikes him (he won't look at people while he talks, has hearing pronblems, unclear speech and waners whilst talking.. this appears to irritate her. He has noticed this, unfortunately).

Each week we get a newsletter with their targets in writing, maths and Welsh on for us to help. Only I can't speak a word of Welsh so it's maningless to me.

At the last school, Samuel didn't get books until after Christmas, some kids didn't even by the time Samuel left in June. There were stickers but kids like Sam with Sn were removed from the scheme as it 'taught them to be good for the wrong reasons (he has AS FFS!), Samuel also had a 'report' book where they wrote out his misdemeanors in front of the class each day.

Fennel, I think we may be moving towards house rules too, which secretly delights me.

Tried to CAT you a while back, btw, but it was blocked.

Fennel- watch the marble jar- I know a teacher who did that with a glass jam jar, put the marble in too hard, jar smashed over classroom / kids. After several near- accidents the Head had to ask him to stop using the technique.

my CAT shouldn't be blocked, someone got through this week on it.

was it anything interesting?

dd2 age 4 even wants me to write her a list of "Future rules". i.e. "When I am 6 I will eat my crusts."

i think we have been watching too much Supernanny. she likes House Rules too.

Lol "future rules". When I am six is such a magical phrase isn't it! My dd tells me frequently all about things she has planned for the future (like how she is going to have a big house with rooms for all of us when she is grown up!)