What is your child learning/doing in Reception at the moment? Thread 2

[wheelsonthebus]

My dd - who could read a bit before starting reception - has gone 'back to basics', to the extent that her classes involve how to pronounce letters (ie 'p' sounds like puh and the sound involves blowing air out of your mouth onto your finger. 'a' sounds like the 'a' in ant which crawls up your arm). I am a bit bemused as to why children are being taught actions to go with sounds. Why not just 'a is for apple' without all the pics of a child crunching into one?
I am sure other reception classes are onto more advanced things than this. What is your child doing in reception at the moment?

DS is learning to write cursive letters (he was very impressed today that I knew what they all were) but other than that I have no idea. Oh, except that when they do games everyone says "Oooh la la!", apparently, and that this is the new Funniest Thing Ever (I feel for their teachers, I really do).

Yes I think Pointy has a erm point. I'd like to see a bit more communication about what they're going to learn and how - otherwise how are we supposed to help them at home?

Our reception class haven't started jolly phonics yet. They are playing and getting to know each other I think.

DD learned to read basic books at nursery but I doubt she will get a reading book at school for some time.

Professorlayton...the oooh la la sounds like "french beans"..there is some game to do with different types of beans in reception I think.

We don't start letter sounds until after half term. We consolidate pre reading skills until this point - rhyming, alliteration etc - because we have assessed that for our children they read MUCH better if we make sure they are brilliant at these skills first. We do start number work almost immediately though.

The Bean Game

Jelly Bean - wibbly wobble
Broad bean - arms out to the side with slow and heavy movements
French Bean - stand with hands on hips and say 'o la la' - or call out Un, Deux,Trois
Jumping bean - jump up and down.
Runner bean - running on spot.
Baked bean - lying on floor flat out fanning self as if sunbathing.
Butter bean - skating and slipping about.
Tins of beans - roll
Chilli beans - shiver
string beans - long thin stretch up

"But why can't a child work out what 'p' sounds like by looking at a picture of a pear? what's all this blowing air on yr finger lark?"

I'm told it is multisensory learning and all the rage. Visual learning (looking at the letter), auditory learning (hearing the sound) and kinaesthetic learning (doing the action) all blended together. So you see, hear and do, all at the same time, and that helps you remember. Especially if you are a child who needs to "do" things to remember, not just be told them.

DD2 has finally started Reception today. She sorted all the red animals out of the box, for the teacher whose name she can't remember. And she rode on the bikes a lot. She'd like to go back tomorrow, if that's OK .

I'm not sure how you can work out the sound of anything from a picture. Pictures don't actually make any sounds do they?

Sararah
We don't start letter sounds until after half term. We consolidate pre reading skills until this point - rhyming, alliteration etc - because we have assessed that for our children they read MUCH better if we make sure they are brilliant at these skills first. We do start number work almost immediately though.

I assume you mean nursery rhymes, word games, action songs, telling stories with repetitive "choruses", and predictable structure, (the three billy goats gruff, going on a bear-hunt), looking at picture books, "holding the book the right way up", making up stories, drawing pictures for stories, etc.
Have none of your children done ANY of this stuff at home ?

Dd is doing jolly phonics and seems happy enough with that. She's known the letters and sounds for a long time but I was expecting them to do them over again in reception. She's not reading really yet (just a few words) so the pace for literacy will probably suit her.

The maths seems incredibly basic though - the objective is 1-10 and 1 plus and 1 minus - and that's it for the whole year! That just seems wierdly slow to me compared to the literacy objectives.

My DD got homework in the second week
She's learning the words i, a ,dog ,play and can

They've started with phonics, but there's still a lot of messy play, crafty stuff and games/songs. They're getting 'homework' already - we have a book a week to read with them and write comments on a reading card. DS is a fluent reader already, the little smart arse, but is absolutely loving the social side of things and is full of stories about school every evening, so all good.

To be honest, I just want him to enjoy this year, make friends and get into a good routine. I will start thinking about the curriculum and what he's learning academically next year...

Seems there is a lot of variation. DS is in his third wek and, from what I can make out, they are doing much of what choccyp1g said.

Lots of rhyming, number games etc, and lots of water play (hence he is soaked every day!)

DS is May born and, despite my efforts, has never much enjoyed looking at books or any attempts to learn letters. He loves hearing stories but made up ones rather than froma book! I have noticed though that he is much more keen to try writing letters and he has become a book demon since the very first day.

For me, this is progress that I am very happy with!

Still mainly sitting here at the moment

Has also been stopped from buying fruit at the school tuckshop because he had some fruit in his bag for lunch

(you couldn't make it up really could you? I mean 2 a day or the opportunity to learn some 'shopping' skills obviously count for nothing)

we did do a letter today but couldn't follow which one

we have also been talking about how to draw the teachers attention to the fact that you are receiving unwelcome physical 'attention' from your peers and that 'thumping' them is perhaps not the best policy!

Sarasarah and Mrz can you tell me a little more about differentiation and how this might work in reception? I'd be interested in what teachers do with the quite significant number (judging by this thread although I'm sure us clever Mumsnetters are not representative!! ) of kids who can read already when the whole class work is say pre-reading skills.

And what would they do with a child who can count to 100 and do basic arithmetic if the rest are learning counting to 10.

Genuine question as I can't see how it works and how you ensure that all the children move on whatever their level.

Ours have been learning to write the letters in a weird joined up sort of script .You have to start every letter on the line and finish each one with a flick.So for example to write a P you need 5 strokes instead of 3.DD can't do it yet.Why is it so important for them to be writing cursive from the outset ?

DD2 is a late August baby as in in her third week in reception. As far as i can gather, she hasn't even started any formal reading or writing, bringing homw books that we read to her at home (like going on a bear hunt etc)
TBH, she is not nearly ready to take in much at the moment as her concentration span is VERY short but i so know that some of the older and more able kids are being taken forward alot quicker.
I am more than happy for this, DD1 is very academic so I share your frustrations when they are ready to learn but are sidelined.
DD2 is mightily disappointed that three weeks in she still can't read and write, but she is sailing away with her french lessons and has become a whizz on the computer, now able to play independently on CBEEBIES website for hours at a time
This being my second experience with reception, with 2 children at totally different starting points, I now appreciate that it is not all about reading and writing, but being taught to enjoy learning all sorts of new skills.

Smithagain - that explains a lot, thanks

mrsz - yes, pictures don't make sounds, but most five year olds can recognise a pear and can associate a pear with the sound 'puh' (in the same way that if you ask most children for a word beginning with the sound 'a', they will say apple. That's the way generations learned to read. Multi sensory learning sounds fancy, but is it truly necessary/more effective?)

I think children find the jolly phonic actions fun and therefore remember the sounds more than they would with just a picture.

Wheels, the picture of the candle, and the action of using p to blow out the candle teaches them the correct pronounciation (sp) of the sound. p is a short sound, with no "schwa" after it. That means, it should not be "puh" (ie. no extra sound after the "p"). In order to be able to blend sounds together, it really is important that the sound is pronounced correctly.

Children learn in different ways - some are visual learners, some need to "do" (kinaesthetic), some are auditory learners. Using a system which uses pictures, actions and sounds together gives children more chance of learning the sound (or concept), no matter what their learning style. If you simply showed them a picture, it is likely that those children who learn by doing, would struggle to learn.

Meant to say - most children learn in a mixture of ways.

By wheelsonthebus children will only associate the sound /p/ with a picture of a pear if they are taught to do so. When speaking (natural process ) we do not distinguish the separate sounds in words in the way we do when we learn to read and spell, which is a synthetic process.

Just for the record we don't teach children to say puh as this makes blending difficult.

DD1 begins her first full day tomorrow. So far she has been playing and learning how to get a pudding with her dinner. Poor love, the dinner ladies have been asking her whether she wanted a "dessert" and she had no idea what they were talking about! Now that she has established how to get her jelly and custard, the next step is to get her to reduce her collection of school library books - 9 and counting in her book bag....

My ds who was not even close to reading when he started reception learnt through Jolly Phonics system and he now 8 is a totally independent reader, top of his class, reading famous five and that sort of thing and has been for a couple of years!

My dd who has started reception this September and can read reasonably well is doing jolly phonics too and really enjoying it. The system works really well. It is made fun for the children, there are songs and books and posters that you can buy to support the system and I am pleased that they still use it.

They learn really quickly and have fun whilst doing so.

from the jolly learning website -

"Each sound has an action which helps children remember the letter(s) that represent it. As a child progresses you can point to the letters and see how quickly they can do the action and say the sound. One letter sound can be taught each day. As a child becomes more confident, the actions are no longer necessary."

so if your child is a bight spark they won't need the action, for the rest of us they will still be signing in yr2!

TamTam I have used Jolly Phonics to teach reception children for 14/15 years and it is very very unusual for a child to use the actions even half way through the year.