New To Reception! Help Please!

[Guest]

Hi everyone,

 

I have been teaching for a few years now but been in juniors. I did a 6 week teaching post in reception but just followed their set routine previously. I have asked to change to reception as I really want to be there. But I feel a bit lost and am worried about next year, I just don't want to look like I know nothing with the other reception teacher and nursery teachers!

 

What do you do in your 'average' day - I know that most days aren't average but want to get a feel of what others do.

 

Thank you so much in advance!

[Guest]

1 focus activity and the rest of the day freeflow play. simple.

[Guest]

the year evolves and my timetables change weekly so very difficult to say! but in the first term I concentrate upon:

 

getting to know each other, working in pairs, working as a team etc, we learn the class rules, classroom routines and behaviour expectations.

 

Last year I began with complete free flow play all day with short carpet sessions twice a day but I am not going to do this this year because the children did not know how to respect the equipment or tidy it up in each area. So I am starting the year with a much more structured rotation of play where me and my TA model play and expectations in each area of the classroom for the first couple of weeks when they are part time in order that by week 3 or 4 we can allow them a complete free rein for their CI time.

 

Gradually more formal structured activities start to appear firstly with daily phonics by about week 5 and then after half term in October we have daily phonics and add in daily guided reading and numeracy (previous to that our numeracy is daily whole class songs, rhymes and games)

 

By the end of the year (and there will be early years teachers out there who won't like this!) our mornings are structured with daily numeracy, 3X weekly writing sessions, daily guided reading and daily phonics that pretty much takes up the whole morning and then in the afternoon all children have child initiated time all afternoon and my TA and I don't have focus groups, we support play and observe the children. The main topic of our term is generated from the children's ideas and the afternoon activities we brainstorm with the children on a Thursday what they would like to do the following week and that forms the basis of my planning. In the afternoons I have a system called the busy board which is a selection of activities or areas for children to choose from (covering all 6 areas of the EYFS) although the children can and do venture away from the suggestions on offer but it does give support for those who would wander aimlessly. I do put out challenges for the children which I expect all children to achieve by the end of the week.

 

For literacy/writing this year I have done the storymaking project with the children and this has been hugely successful which I will continue in September (daily whole class storytelling which leads to writing see pie corbett) Each term I have taken a story with a repetitive structure and taught it to the children by heart and they have then used the structure to make up their own stories. I have picked a story that fits in with the overall theme of the term the children have loved it!

 

Every reception class is run differently and you will have to find the way that works for you, your children and your school. As a C of E school my children are expected to go to assembly daily from about week 4, they are expected out at playtimes with the other children again by about week 4 and when they start phonics it has to be at a set time in the morning as we set through the school up to Y4. My mornings therefore are very fractured and extended freeflow play just wouldn't work very well which is why the afternoon with a clear run of 2 hours 15 works better.I moved to reception this year from Y2 but have taught in reception before about 6 years ago (things have changed quite a lot though!)and you need to be kind to yourself that you cannot possibly know everything straight away and this next academic year will be a steep learning curve. Your best bible is probably the letters and sounds document along with the eyfs framework. I have also found the 'little books' very useful for ideas (featherstone books) eg 'little book of tuff spot activities' Lurking on here and searching older posts has been invaluable too.

 

Hope that helps!

Good luck

deb

[Guest]

the year evolves and my timetables change weekly so very difficult to say! but in the first term I concentrate upon:

 

getting to know each other, working in pairs, working as a team etc, we learn the class rules, classroom routines and behaviour expectations.

 

Last year I began with complete free flow play all day with short carpet sessions twice a day but I am not going to do this this year because the children did not know how to respect the equipment or tidy it up in each area. So I am starting the year with a much more structured rotation of play where me and my TA model play and expectations in each area of the classroom for the first couple of weeks when they are part time in order that by week 3 or 4 we can allow them a complete free rein for their CI time.

 

Gradually more formal structured activities start to appear firstly with daily phonics by about week 5 and then after half term in October we have daily phonics and add in daily guided reading and numeracy (previous to that our numeracy is daily whole class songs, rhymes and games)

 

By the end of the year (and there will be early years teachers out there who won't like this!) our mornings are structured with daily numeracy, 3X weekly writing sessions, daily guided reading and daily phonics that pretty much takes up the whole morning and then in the afternoon all children have child initiated time all afternoon and my TA and I don't have focus groups, we support play and observe the children. The main topic of our term is generated from the children's ideas and the afternoon activities we brainstorm with the children on a Thursday what they would like to do the following week and that forms the basis of my planning. In the afternoons I have a system called the busy board which is a selection of activities or areas for children to choose from (covering all 6 areas of the EYFS) although the children can and do venture away from the suggestions on offer but it does give support for those who would wander aimlessly. I do put out challenges for the children which I expect all children to achieve by the end of the week.

 

For literacy/writing this year I have done the storymaking project with the children and this has been hugely successful which I will continue in September (daily whole class storytelling which leads to writing see pie corbett) Each term I have taken a story with a repetitive structure and taught it to the children by heart and they have then used the structure to make up their own stories. I have picked a story that fits in with the overall theme of the term the children have loved it!

 

Every reception class is run differently and you will have to find the way that works for you, your children and your school. As a C of E school my children are expected to go to assembly daily from about week 4, they are expected out at playtimes with the other children again by about week 4 and when they start phonics it has to be at a set time in the morning as we set through the school up to Y4. My mornings therefore are very fractured and extended freeflow play just wouldn't work very well which is why the afternoon with a clear run of 2 hours 15 works better.I moved to reception this year from Y2 but have taught in reception before about 6 years ago (things have changed quite a lot though!)and you need to be kind to yourself that you cannot possibly know everything straight away and this next academic year will be a steep learning curve. Your best bible is probably the letters and sounds document along with the eyfs framework. I have also found the 'little books' very useful for ideas (featherstone books) eg 'little book of tuff spot activities' Lurking on here and searching older posts has been invaluable too.

 

Hope that helps!

Good luck

deb

 

 

WOW! What can I say other than thank you! That is of huge help! I will be spending the whole summer reading up I think just so I feel more confident but this is brill. Thank you again

[AnonyMouse_36922]

WOW! What can I say other than thank you! That is of huge help! I will be spending the whole summer reading up I think just so I feel more confident but this is brill. Thank you again

 

Hi Debs,

 

Do you just follow pie corbett for cll? I have done the little red hen in the past and thought it was fantastic. I'm also an NQT too and trying to gain as many ideas as possible. I have a full intake of 30 children so I'm going to have my hands full!!

 

Hx

[Guest]

Hi yes I do follow Pie corbett for my cll pretty much apart from phonics which is separate. I focus on 1 story for about 4 weeks and go through the story making process with each one- imitation, innovation and invention. For the other 2 weeks in the term i tend to do other things like non fiction, recounts or poetry. From experience each story has about 4 weeks mileage. I attended a 2 day early years storymaking course earlier on in the year and from that I have had the confidence to make storymaking intrinsic to the way that I teach-I love it and so do the children and my whole classroom is set up to support this with a storymaking area, a storytelling chair and role play which is linked to the story etc The fact that by the end of the year I had children who chose in their CI time to go and write a story that they knew by heart (3 sheets of A4!) shows me how successful it is. I was also able this year to give every single child the point in EYFSP relating to 'able to retell a familiar story' I started like you with the little red hen which led to ben ten makes cupcakes and then I did Gingerbread man, Nat Fantastic, Handa's surprise and recently 3 clever rainbow fish (which I wrote)

Deb

[Guest]

the year evolves and my timetables change weekly so very difficult to say! but in the first term I concentrate upon:

 

getting to know each other, working in pairs, working as a team etc, we learn the class rules, classroom routines and behaviour expectations.

 

Last year I began with complete free flow play all day with short carpet sessions twice a day but I am not going to do this this year because the children did not know how to respect the equipment or tidy it up in each area. So I am starting the year with a much more structured rotation of play where me and my TA model play and expectations in each area of the classroom for the first couple of weeks when they are part time in order that by week 3 or 4 we can allow them a complete free rein for their CI time.

 

Gradually more formal structured activities start to appear firstly with daily phonics by about week 5 and then after half term in October we have daily phonics and add in daily guided reading and numeracy (previous to that our numeracy is daily whole class songs, rhymes and games)

 

By the end of the year (and there will be early years teachers out there who won't like this!) our mornings are structured with daily numeracy, 3X weekly writing sessions, daily guided reading and daily phonics that pretty much takes up the whole morning and then in the afternoon all children have child initiated time all afternoon and my TA and I don't have focus groups, we support play and observe the children. The main topic of our term is generated from the children's ideas and the afternoon activities we brainstorm with the children on a Thursday what they would like to do the following week and that forms the basis of my planning. In the afternoons I have a system called the busy board which is a selection of activities or areas for children to choose from (covering all 6 areas of the EYFS) although the children can and do venture away from the suggestions on offer but it does give support for those who would wander aimlessly. I do put out challenges for the children which I expect all children to achieve by the end of the week.

 

For literacy/writing this year I have done the storymaking project with the children and this has been hugely successful which I will continue in September (daily whole class storytelling which leads to writing see pie corbett) Each term I have taken a story with a repetitive structure and taught it to the children by heart and they have then used the structure to make up their own stories. I have picked a story that fits in with the overall theme of the term the children have loved it!

 

Every reception class is run differently and you will have to find the way that works for you, your children and your school. As a C of E school my children are expected to go to assembly daily from about week 4, they are expected out at playtimes with the other children again by about week 4 and when they start phonics it has to be at a set time in the morning as we set through the school up to Y4. My mornings therefore are very fractured and extended freeflow play just wouldn't work very well which is why the afternoon with a clear run of 2 hours 15 works better.I moved to reception this year from Y2 but have taught in reception before about 6 years ago (things have changed quite a lot though!)and you need to be kind to yourself that you cannot possibly know everything straight away and this next academic year will be a steep learning curve. Your best bible is probably the letters and sounds document along with the eyfs framework. I have also found the 'little books' very useful for ideas (featherstone books) eg 'little book of tuff spot activities' Lurking on here and searching older posts has been invaluable too.

 

Hope that helps!

Good luck

deb

 

That has really helped me too thanks Debs as i have moved from Yr2 to reception also... very different! Thanks

 

Jo