Starting Reception - what actual 'work' to expect

[MumBoyGirl]

My DS starts reception in September. I have no idea what actual work - reading writing maths science etc - to expect though.
I have looked over the EYFS targets and having glanced at a few threads here realise my reasonably bright boy may be battling to catch up with those who already appear to be reading and writing stories (mine writes his name and can copy letters but is not reading or writing in sentences!!).

So my question is...I know there is a lot of play based generic learning, but is there actually much firmament teaching/learning? I have no idea what to expect..? Please educate be on what to expect...

Formal teaching....no idea what firmament teaching us??! Sorry.

mine writes his name and can copy letters

He is doing very well. Please relax. It's all fun in Reception. He will be fine. I'd concentrate on the practical stuff like opening his lunch or eating with cutlery or dressing himself if I were you!

That's exactly what I have done...practical life skills ! I know done children do more 'academic stuff' -and that's absolutely fine...in fact my DS positively loves doing 'adding up' but I was just pretty amazed to come across do many threads of patents with pre school kids on reading scheme books already. I guess it was the style and formality of the books that surprised me not the reading itself. It just made me wonder what actually lay ahead in reception...

He's doing better than my twins. Neither can write, but they can undress/dress themselves, use a knife and fork, wipe their bums, button/zip their coats and we're working on putting their shoes on the right feet every time.

I figure the teacher is there to teach them everything else, but knowing the practical stuff is a big help in reception.

My DD is coming to the end of her reception year. At the start of the year she could recognise her name and write about half of it but that was it. Now she knows all the letters, can read simple stories and can write some easy words. She's also done some basic adding and subtracting though mainly just counting. She's also learnt about various topics like the life cycle of a butterfly. Oh, and learnt Spanish and Chinese! (a few words ).

But mainly she has played. Most of the day seems to involve 'choose time' which seems to consist of doing various activities in the classroom, some of which are learning disguised as fun, but most of which are just fun (dressing up, jigsaws etc). She even has a nap in the quiet corner when she fancies it.

PolyesterBride - that exactly what I was after. Thanks got taking the time... Will put the academic hot-housing on hold! ;-)'

I help out in reception, and I would say 80% could not write their name at the beginning, or knew all their letters
The do phonics and numeracy every day, but short bursts and lots of practical fun.
Then loads of focused play, based on whatever this weeks theme is - so they have had a role play restaurant, a vets, currently a pirate ship etc. They will have things like menus you can write on/read, or a message in a bottle you can write, so integrating writing and reading into the play. But very free to choose, like polyester says.

It is a lovely fun year. I would say though, try to do their phonics/reading book at least 3x per week once you get it (well, I didn't do it at all in sept oct)

they don't really do any work initially. the first 6 weeks seem to be settling, playing, learning general skills, making friends, helping build confidence etc and phonics, then after October half term they tend to start doing more. Depending on the school they may start bringing home reading books in Octoberish, or some schools wait until January, others later, some phase it in depending on how many phonics the child is confident with before they send them home with a book. forming letters and writing increases during the year. Some schools send home a phonics exercise book or some worksheets about a sound but I wouldn't think you would get them until at least a month into term.

I wouldn't worry - he is bright so he will do well regardless of his starting level and to be honest he sounds right where he should be for starting. There really aren't many children who are writing stories before starting school. quite a few by the end of reception but that is very different to at the beginning of it.

DD1 could just about write her name and we had listened to some of the jolly phonics songs.

Now she can write well (her writing is better than dh's!), read basic stories, write sentences, add and subtract up to about 20. And yes to learning about butterflies! And the seaside and Judaism and lots of praying (Catholic school!). They've learnt about making safe choices during sex education week (they taught them general body parts and being safe, saying no etc. No sperm mentioned in reception!).

But mostly she's learned confidence. A year ago she barely spoke to strangers. Now she will answer questions and make social chit chat clearly and confidently. I'm amazed at the change in her.

DD could write and read her name, well 2x 4 letters. She knew the alphabet but names, not sounds and not all letters came up in the right order. She could count to 10 and 20 with difficulties.

The school did phonics from the second week on, 4 letters a week. They also had to practice writing the letters at the weekend as the school teaches cursive straight from Reception. After they had the 26 sounds done they got books. Some children 2-3 could read a bit but the majority couldn't.

Maths - I think it was more about counting and getting the idea of numbers. Proper work only started in Y1.

Ds2 can barely write his name. Zero interest in letter formation or phonics. Am a bit worried. But don't want to push him so much that he hates it.
Yet is very numerate and is putting 6 and 3 together to get 63. And can add and take away into the low 20's. So knows thta 17-4=13.
We are still working on bottom wiping.
I am a bit worried about him. Ds1 was much more advanced than he is. I just don't want him to get there, struggle and thus hate it.

oh and don't worry about it being formal learning yet - my daughter came home in tears many times in the first 6 weeks because she thought school involved sitting at tables and doing work (like in story books) and she wasn't doing any proper work - she was VERY put out about it.

Periwinkle - it is exactly that that I am concerned about! I am totally chilled about him starting reception...i suspect he's a child who's sort of cut out for school. I can see disappointment coming if the teacher doesn't give him 'proper work' as he sees it...he enjoys 'doing sums', writing in notebooks (he can't read so not real words obviously!) and learning things. He'll be pretty unimpressed if he's just allowed to play. I am coming to see that actually Y1 may be more up his street...more structured. But we'll see...we are both looking forward to the coming adventure!

Oh and Oblomov...cracking the bottom wiping has just hit the top of my 'to do' list!!

ah well yes perhaps prepare him a little bit for them not doing formal work just yet. we had so much upset. She came out of the settling in session confused because there had only been 2 tables in the classroom and not enough chairs, she couldn't understand it. she was upset they didn't have drawers in reception, upset there were no reading books straight away and so on. her expectations just weren't met bless her. she ended up settling and seems to have enjoyed the year but I think she will like yr1 better in many ways. she gets very upset about people not concentrating and messing around too which whilst it isn't encouraged in reception isn't stamped on in the way I think she expected it would be. She just wants to study (odd child). my daughter only missed the cutoff to be in the year above by a matter of hours (literally) and I think she would have been better had she been at school a year earlier in terms of her expectations but then she wouldn't have had the confidence then.
he will be fine.

My dgs will go into YrR in September.He writes his name but with the d's the wrong way round (Ebwarb)He can read simple cvc words and some easy blend words ec skip, step, mint and can recognise all the letters and give the phonics sounds with the actions [what is that called?].
He can count up to 20 and do very simple one digit addition [number bonds to 10].
He can more or less dress himself [shoes sometimes wrong feet] and see to himself at the toilet.
He can only draw tractors!

Hi my DD goes to reception in 2014. She was born in May 2010 so there will be children in her class who are 8 months ahead of her in terms of development. She goes to nursery 3 days and we read, draw etc. every day. But my understanding is that it all balances out at about 6 or 7. I wouldn't stress or compare with any other child especially the older ones.

I have DS1 just finishing reception and DS2 starting in Sept.
I think reception has been an extraordinarily clever set up. They appear to have got them to do a fair amount of "work" without the children even realising. I think the intake at reception is spread across a huge ability range in all areas-reflecting to some degree the significance of age differences at 4/5 years but also the wide differences in emotional development at at any particular age in young children. They have also cleverly increased the amount of structured work through the year so that slowly they are becoming more year 1 like.
Looking forward to starting all over again with my super keen DS2 who has been horribly jealous of his older brother all year.
I am anticipating a shock to the system for DS1 though as he enters year 1... he is doing extremely well but likes to do things his own way...