What do your DCs do in Reception?

[geminigirl]

I have been idly reading through some of the recent posts regarding Primary School education (for some unrelated advice) and to be honest I'm a bit at the level that some Reception children are at and TBH feeling a bit cross now that DS spends apparently ALL of his time playing and making stuff (which never fails to turn me to mush ) while the rest of the country streaks ahead in literacy and numeracy. I was quite happy that he was learning how to play with other children, take turns, take part in school 'productions' (he was the Very Hungry Caterpillar ) but I'm now reading about children in Reception who are READING !!! DS can write his name (well I can recognise it anyway) and the reading in our house is always done by me or DH!!! What am I missing!! What are your children doing in Reception?

DD is in Reception and does phonics every day, guided reading, is heard read twice a week, does writing, numeracy and 'topic' work, making things, some PE twice a week... and lots of playing, running around outside and falling over, if the state of her knees is anything to go by. State primary OFSTED graded 3. She loves it and is learning loads.

To be honest I have been surprised by the amount of formal learning they are doing but she is thriving on it. Not as much art/music as I expected for Reception though.

I think the Early Years curriculum is focused on play now, isn't it? Maybe ask the teacher to clarify? Are you happy with the school in other respects? Is your DS happy there? Sorry lots of questions!

They play a lot, most of their learning is though play.
P.S. don't rely on your DS's interpretation of what he has been doing at school, you might only be getting a partial picture and he probably doesn't realise the education significance of the activities - the main this is that he is enjoying himself and the teachers are happy with his progress.

Year 1 tends to come as a bit of a shock to children as it can be a lot more formal.

DD was in reception last year and did the following:
PE 3 times per week
2 school productions - Xmas and end of year
jolly phonics every day
music 2 times per week - learning the recorder
brought home reading books 3 times per week and flashcards every day(I think this was from term 2 onwards)
library visit every week
topic work - e.g space and plants
writing every monday
She left reception on ORT level 5 (I think this is orange). I read with year one and most children left reception on level 1 or 2, but all have made good progress in year one.

Yes, he seems to love it, it's a fairly small rural school, the children are so mannerly, P7s hold doors open for you when leaving children into school, bigger children from P7 help the younger ones in Reception get their coats and hats on for breaktime, lots of art and crafts. I think I need to clarify what exactly I should be doing with Ds when he comes in from school to help him along the way. My main reason for looking through this topic was to look for advice on how to increase his self confidence. He was the only boy in reception until very recently and it seems that this has has a noticeable impact on how he interacts with boys. 3 boys have just joined the class and so far he's not been playing with them...always the girls. He's not too keen on the rough and tumble or risk taking that you might associate with young boys. I don't want him to be swinging form the rafters but wanted to know how to 'get him out of his shell'. He is a very chatty boy who interacts eagerly with adults and children but I think he rather overwhelms other children of his age with his over exuberance. I noticed on a couple of occasions that when he went into the classroom and greeted a couple of the other children very brightly by name they just looked at him. I've been trying not to let this get to be but am slowly accepting that he's not the confident wee boy he used to be.

Shanghaidiva, I completely agree...I was surprised and delighted by some of the stuff he came home and recited to me, never knowing that this was what he was doing. When I ask him what he did at school, the answer is always 'playing' !!!

I just typed a long reply and lost it .

Just wanted to respond to the bit about your son's social skills as it sounds just like my ds. Like yours, he seems less confident now than when he was younger. He is obsessed with topics (Dinos/Ancient Egypt) the 6 other boys in his class don't seem to be into, and the girls are certainly not! He likes to talk about his interests and I do think it can put other children off a bit.

Anyway, he has always seemed to enjoy playing with slightly older children in parks and lately tells me he has been playing with Y2/3 boys at lunchtimes as well. I know I've read posts from people on here who've said their ds didn't really get on well with their peers in R, but by Y1/1 the other children changed and seemed to get on their wavelength. I'm hoping that will be the case for my ds and thought it might apply to yours too.

It's horrid when you think they may not be happy/have freinds at school, isn't it?

There will be a range of achievment in every class. I'd expect if a child is not showing any signs of reading by now that they would be getting extra help. But bear in mind that children always go home saying "I played all day" when most likely half the day was spent doing adult-led activities.

"I can't remember", that's what my DDs did in YR and Y1. By Y2 they had progressed to "nothing".

Yesterday when I asked my Y6 if she'd done anything in school she said "Nope"

Our infants seems to do a fairly intensive phonics course right from September, whole class involved, constant repetition and reinforcement throughout the year. The brighter ones pick it up straight away as they are more hungry iyswim, the others generally get it by osmosis. DC#1 could read by Christmas, DC#2 by Easter, DC#3 is a v immature August boy so who knows.
I would question the teacher over the difference between the reception and pre-school syllabuses.

DD is in reception. She is on the more advanced end of the normal range (not a genius by any means but doing very well) ... at school she tells me she 'played tag with x' or 'I can't remember'

what actually happens is they do PE, go for welly walks, phonics every day I think (though she has progressed beyond what they are teaching it is still reinforcing), group reading once a week, I think they are listened to as well as often as will allow but its not noted in her book. She brings home a reading book every day which she chooses (blue band), a sharing book every day which she chooses for us to read together / me to read depending on how tired, and once a week her group reading book is changed so she can also read that at home.

She is writing lots - a 'full page' but tbh its all over the place, big letters etc so in reality 2/3 sentences eg - about the holidays:
I went to the natroo histree moosem. I saw a dodo. I saw an oostric.
enter a picture of her and a picture of a dodo (both look similar, dodo has beak and claws)

she is always drawing pictures / making things. I would say please don't worry - they all get there. As long as he is happy!

Name changed as probably rather identifiable to DSs teacher!
DSs class have finished phase 3 phonics. They can count forwards and backwards in 1s and 2s to 20, fill in number patterns e.g. 5,6,7,?,9,?, simple adding/subtracting.
Science they do little experiments e.g. DS was telling me when we baked a cake that is an irreversible reaction.
Fridays they work outside e.g. planting seeds, looking for bugs, whatever the weather.
I asked him to write a sentence in his home school book about his holiday and he wrote
"played wii. I played on my scootur in the garden. I ate octopus for tee. I went to Chestur zoo. I red the sines. I got a toi from the zoo." I did have to ask him what goes at the end of a sentence and he went back and added the full stops - big round coloured in circles, not little dots. He does get odd letters back to front e.g. g and p

Ds only ever tells me what he did at lunchtime/playtime or if someone's been naughty (usually him) He's a very young reception.

He reads once a week, I know. They've been doing doubling, because he's singing a song about it. He does PE twice a week because he comes home with his stuff on backwards and inside out. But that's about it that I know. But when I saw the stuff he'd done at parents' evening it was loads.

He hates writing, but is actually getting very good at it. That's down to the school. He's a good reader-about ORT level 6 I think, and he has improved at school, but he could read before he went.

Could you go in to snoop around help on one day to see for yourself? Our reception class is always very grateful for any parent coming in to help. I also found it a good way to get a feel of what DD's day was organised and the teacher was also forthcoming in explaining how things were set up too.

They do an awful lot of playing and hurrah for that. DD is always coming home clutching paintings and drawings and stories she's written. They play outside a lot, go swimming, do PE, topic work, home corner, role play, projects, nature walks, write letters and take them to the postbox and on and on and on.

In terms of academic ability I'm sure there's a lot of difference in ability purely because 4 and 5 year olds are vastly different child to child. DD is a free reader so picks her own books and brings them home. She has been reading fluently since Christmas but is still only 4. Her best friend is 5 and can just about read his name and recognise most letters. Both normal and it'll even out eventually. They do lots of phonics based stuff and I know in terms of numeracy they do addition, subtraction, sequences and the odd bit of very basic multiplication and division.

I think it's important to focus on the social side of things, the sharing and the skills needed to be away from your parents for a large chunk of the day. But a nod to learning is necessary because otherwise the leap to y1 is a bit much. But learning through play is very much the order of the day.

Well it seems that indeed they have been doing phonics aplenty, we had a little brainstorming today during a nature walk where I interrogated gently quizzed him about what letter or sound everything began wiith, we did counting, up to 100 and down from 20, tried a bit of addition, didn't get very far, he can recognise all letters and numbers but so far we haven't given the reading a try. I will definately have a word with the teacher and see what we can do at home to try to develop the most important aspects of DSs educational development.

dd does swimming once a week, library visit each week to choose a book for us to read, maths every day currently doing adding and subtracting numbers upto 10, reading group 4 days a week at their own level reading RWI books and heard reading, project work 1 day a week with other years, playdough/painting/craft a lot, plays outside every day, have themes currently money so they buy from a shop and work out change upto 10p. school play at xmas, mothers day show, playing with all infants so mixing for social skills, encouraged to go out in weekly assembly to collect certificates for housepoints/read out their work.

they are taught letters, blending sounds, whole word regognition, numbers and adding etc. In my sons class many were reading really well towards the end of the year. Some were on free reading! they were doing lot's of play and creativity too.

If you want to help look at CVC word blending. Words like toy, his, cat etc

Having seen all the stuff in her work books at parents evening, she can do a hell of a lot more than they are teaching/asking of her.
But she doesn't know that because she can't quantify her learning goals.

She isn't bored, but she isn't stretched by any means.
Somedays she is very excited and sings me a song they learnt.
Most days they did nuffink.

If I ask, I discover what she ate. I never know what she learnt, but truth be told, I don't think she has actually learnt very much! If she is shown a technique to do something (like use a number line) then I do see her improve in say, speed of addition, but she could do it anyway on her fingers before hand.