Reception: "find yourself something to do"

[Yvonne99]

Do reception teachers have time to play with and integrate kids?
My daughter started reception in September, outstanding catholic school, lovely teacher. Unfortunately she does not seem to have many friends, she had not known anyone before started . She is shy and stubborn. She is a watcher and if she decides she does not like someone she will not play. The teacher seems to say: "find yourself something to do" quite often and that leaves my daughter on her own. They have some activity areas and the most popular ones ( eg home corner) have limited amount of kids that can play there and my daughter complains she never gets there.
At the beginning of the school year I thought it's normal but by now I thought it would change.
She started wetting herself, wants to take teddy to school ( they are not allowed), does not want to go.
What's your opinion? Shall I go and speak to teh teacher? Thank you.

Yes, do speak to the teacher and tell her about the wetting herself. How are you with the other school mums? Invite some round for tea.

I find quite a few mums very friendly and we chat a lot. My daughter is brilliant in 1:1 contact, so when we invite her school friends or she goes shomewhere she enjoys it.
She gets lost in a bigger group... it might be caused by her hearing problem ( glue are, one ear) confirmed two years ago and under observation since then. The teatcher said she did not notice any problems with her hearing :(

At this time of year indoor playgrounds are popular. If you get on with the other mums why not arrange a big indoor playground playdate and have a look at what goes on?

I know what is going on ( been at few birthdays in a softplay): my daughter plays with one or two persons 40% of time, plays on her own 40%, complains that nobody wants to play with her/sits by me 20% of time

If I was her teacher I would certainly want you to speak to me so we could sort things out

I would definitely arrange a time to talk to the teacher, but without making a big deal of it by letting my DD know the reason I was doing this. At my DD's school, they have ideas like playground buddies, arranged big games like stuck-in-the-mud, special playground 'clubs' for children finding it hard to integrate etc plus she can keep an eye on particular areas of difficulty like the home corner (in DD's classroom, it's the dollshouse which is monopolised by two girls). The wetting and the teddy thing would make me want to escalate my concerns, and since you say the teacher is lovely, hopefully she'll have some ideas to help.