What do they do in Reception?

[RueDeWakening]

Hi,

I'm genuinely curious - what do the kids do in reception? Free play vs formal stuff, writing, reading, PE etc? My DD just says that she can't remember what she's done , occasionally we get things like "played with the trains", or today she "writed footsteps and chair in my special book for doing writing and drawing". Yesterday she said that the French puppets were there but nobody played with them, later she thought she might have said bonjour to them (is she learning French, then?!). We always find out what she's had for lunch though :o

We've got a meeting with the teacher in a couple of weeks, and I'm not so desperate to find out now that I'll ask, but was just curious. Can anyone enlighten me?

My DS isn't doing phonics yet .

The teacher does write the days 'timetable' on the board. So far this week they've learnt about parts of the body, used the counting blocks, made a collage out of autumn leaves and put things in sequence.

He gets to choose his reading book every week. It's whatever he fancies from the library.

He will happily sit with you at home having a close shared interaction... he is getting your full attention enjoying an activity ...a bit different expecting him to sit as part of a group of other 30 children with lots of distractions around him where he has to share the teacher's attention with the rest of the class

and if it isn't a whole hour why call it a literacy hour ?

DD tells me bugger all..... except today, she told me they had been singing "YMCA" (and then proceeded to sing it all bloody night)

Well I know dd is doing phonics because we get a lot of "where is dddddddd-dolly?" or "can I have a bbbbbbb-banana?" .

Also activities tend to be set out in the morning when we drop off so I always have a quick look. Yesterday they were making their names out of plasticine. Today there were shapes on the table with blank paper and pencils so I think they were drawing round them, also saw a picture dd had drawn of what she would like to see if she looks out the window (flowers). There was another activity where they had to put in order pictures of people from baby stage to old age. Also loads of play activities, messy play, wet sand, bubbles etc. It seems to be loads of really fun activities but you can see that it is becoming more structured and leading somewhere now, rather than the free play of nursery.

If it wasn't for all the politics I would love to be an Early Years Teacher. I love that age group.

Oh and she gets a reading book every night and homework on a Friday!!!? . Homework at age 5!

DD has just started too, just gone fulltime (today actually) ....

she generally tells me she 'can't remember' in such a tone that clearly says 'I can't be bothered to tell you!'

what I have managed to work out so far:

PE on a monday morning
Welly walk on a thursday morning

they haven't started phonics yet (in 2 weeks I think after a parent meeting thingy) but not bothered as DD reading pink / red books already

she has been on a laptop and the interactive whiteboard

they do carpet time and have either a song / story every day

they have a topic per half term - at the moment 'once upon a time'

they do some essential lifeskills stuff... this half term is 'team working'

They have obviously started to introduce word type stuff as she said they sang the alphabet

they have a snack time - milk & fruit

outdoor play has all sorts of stuff, sandpit , tricycles the lot

they get to bring home 2 books a day, a reading one (for if they can / want to try) and a sharing one for parent to read to them.

We get a round up letter in the workbook every friday. It recaps what they did that week, outlines what's coming up the next week and asks us to do things like provide photos, pictures, collect things to support work they'll do the following week.

It obv takes time for teachers to do, but I think it's a great tool. Helps with prompting questions about their day too.

We also get a word book to practice the word they're learning, and we've had 3 picture books from the Oxford tree.