green hippo Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Hi, I would like to know how other people start their session? Currently, I don't 'take' a register - the children self-register and go straight into free-play. This allows me and my TA to be around to greet children and parents and then we fill in the register after we close the door at 8.45am. (I'm in a school nursery). I'm thinking that I might start 'calling' the register to ensure that each child has had a personal welcome (and to get them ready for doing this in Reception) but am not sure what to do before all the children come in. I feel it is a long time for the children to sit on the carpet while they are waiting for others to arrive as well as taking one of the adults away from dealing with any issues that parents need to discuss. But... if I allow children to free-play first thing, say for 10-15minutes, I may then be stopping children who are already engrossed in their play. Would anyone be able to share how they begin their sessions and register? Thanks Green Hippo xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiny Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 We take a fromal register at the beginning of session. When we open the doors the children start coming in and we put on the cd player to do a action rhyme/wake and shake type thing. It keeps the children on the mat busy and is so much fun that children who are usual late comers don't dilly dally either as they are eager to join in. We are a preschool, so we have more staff on hand for parents etc but we also go and mingle with the parents 10 - 15 mins before opening to give them the opportunity to speak to us about any problems or concerns. It works really well for us!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hali Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 could you not do it at the beginning of snack, singing, group, circle or story time if you do any of these things? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gezabel Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 We are a pre- school and we have a daily 'tick sheet' completed by staff as children arrive. Children have free play when they arrive and we then come together for circle time (calendar, any news etc ) and 'call' the formal register then. The children really enjoy it as it's done along the lines of 'let's see who is here today' The reason for introducing the tick sheet is for safety reasons in the event of a fire during the busy arrival time. If we had to evacuate the building early in the session we would take the 'tick sheet' - this lists all children expected each day but obviously only those present will have been ticked. We have looked at self registration along the lines of apples/leaves with names on for children to attach to a tree or other self registration ideas but each time we come up with the issue of safety/record of children present. Perhaps someone could help me out here?? For example you have 16 children expected, 9 children have arrived and self registered by putting their names on a board or whatever. The fire alarm goes off and you evacuate the building - what do you take with you? We nearly introduced a self registration 'tree' but had visions of carting this outside if we needed to evacuate! How can you ensure that you can quickly account for all children at any point during arrival time - does this make sense?? For us it came about when the smoke alarm went off and we all trooped out - luckily it was a false alarm but it happened when the formal register had not been done as it was so early in the session. Obviously we checked the building but at that point in time we had no record of children who had arrived. Sorry if this is garbled!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hali Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 this happened when our co detector went off - i took register and phone - my deputy grabbed fish (childrens self registration fish laid out) - so we knew who was/wasnt here already!. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gezabel Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Thanks Hali I know it probably sounded like a stupid question on my part but I couldn't visualise how the self registration system could quickly and easily be taken outside. Your fish sound perfect but the self registration systems i have seen have been either rather big ( wooden free standing tree with branches! is one) or wall mounted ( lovely train with carriages) and I was just thinking of the time to stop and remove names. I am keen on introducing self registration so will have to give it some more thought - thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 We have a registration magnetic whiteboard and children put their name cards on this as they come in. I 'overview' the room to complete the register on the computer as children arrive, and then each of my key children (they are the eldest) take it in turns to do a register on a clipboard. This is a printout of who should be at the session and they read the name, call it out and the tick it. This is the list we grab if we have to go out quickly Once children have put their name up and have their slippers on they choose a book to take home and share with parents and then are free to access any activity that takes their fancy. They form their own groups or chat to their Key Person or whatever they want to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsbat Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 We are a pre- school and we have a daily 'tick sheet' completed by staff as children arrive. Children have free play when they arrive and we then come together for circle time (calendar, any news etc ) and 'call' the formal register then. The children really enjoy it as it's done along the lines of 'let's see who is here today' The reason for introducing the tick sheet is for safety reasons in the event of a fire during the busy arrival time. If we had to evacuate the building early in the session we would take the 'tick sheet' - this lists all children expected each day but obviously only those present will have been ticked. We have looked at self registration along the lines of apples/leaves with names on for children to attach to a tree or other self registration ideas but each time we come up with the issue of safety/record of children present. Perhaps someone could help me out here?? For example you have 16 children expected, 9 children have arrived and self registered by putting their names on a board or whatever. The fire alarm goes off and you evacuate the building - what do you take with you? We nearly introduced a self registration 'tree' but had visions of carting this outside if we needed to evacuate! How can you ensure that you can quickly account for all children at any point during arrival time - does this make sense?? For us it came about when the smoke alarm went off and we all trooped out - luckily it was a false alarm but it happened when the formal register had not been done as it was so early in the session. Obviously we checked the building but at that point in time we had no record of children who had arrived. Sorry if this is garbled!!! each morning the children's names are on boards in the hallway outside the pre-school room that I run, they find their own names (laminated cards with velcro on the back). When they come in to the session, they then put their names onto another board inside the room. From that they all sit on the carpet, we have a letter and a colour of the week, we go through words begining with the letter then ask which children are wearing the colour to stand up and ask all the children to think of things that are that colour. We also have cards with the days of the week on that we give to a random child to find todays day written down. Also we have cards with different weather on and these are also given out for the child to find todays weather. From then the register is called. After all the names have been read out we go through what is happening on the craft table, remind the children of any rules etc etc. Now I've always thought this is all a bit much as all the children want to do when they come in is play with the toys. Seeing it all written down it has definately made me see how much we do with the poor lil ones as soon as they walk through the door lol. So from now on I think we will do registration and the day then do the rest of the bits at circle time towards the end of the session. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beau Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 We always had an adult at the door meeting and greeting children and adults. The children self registered by velcroing their name card on a board. We didn't have a formal register time, but whoever was in charge that session was responsible for filling in the register near the start of the session once the main doors were locked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hali Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 thats exactly what we do Beau Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MaryEMac Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 The registration system has just been raised by a parent who thinks that we should do a formal registration time at the start of the session. Last year a parent thought that we should do self registration, ( we already did) . At the moment the children take their name from a magnetic board and place it in a container. At the same time, I am ticking the register so that we have a record of the number of children and staff in the room. The teacher in the reception class does not take the register as the children self register by using an interactive white board. She only formally takes the register occasionally when the children are getting ready for the transition into class 2. We have explained that we are aiding the transition into reception but I am not sure she agreed. Mary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hali Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 trouble is Mary we cannot please everybody Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 trouble is Mary we cannot please everybody I saw a t-shirt once that said something like "I can only please one person a day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow's not looking good, either." I think I may make that my motto for 2009! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 We do as Geraldine, the children enjoy sitting together and talking, in fact sometimes I think they'd sit and talk all morning jackie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmajess Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 We always had an adult at the door meeting and greeting children and adults. The children self registered by velcroing their name card on a board. We didn't have a formal register time, but whoever was in charge that session was responsible for filling in the register near the start of the session once the main doors were locked. That's pretty much exactly how it works in my reception class, too. I think a lot of reception classes self-register (and do a ticked off register for fire safety reasons) and don't do the formal 'calling' of the register. For me, I felt the children were sitting passively on the carpet throughout the register, apart from when they sang their 'here I am', and that it used up a good 5 minutes of their attention / concentration / sitting span at their most focussed time of the day. I say individual hello to each child as they come in, the children self-register, the adult ticks the list while the children are busy with continuous provision, then we come to the carpet and go straight into whatever our focus is (after singing and signing, 'Good morning, everyone'. The children have been much more focussed on the learning than after they had sat doing the register. I finally got to the point where we absolutely had to change it when we were asked to ask each child, during the register time, which of 4 choices they were having for lunch! The register and dinner choice bit took FOREVER! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
green hippo Posted January 9, 2009 Author Share Posted January 9, 2009 Thank you all for your quick replies. I am happy with our self-registration system (putting flowers on velro patches on door). I'm just weighing up free-play straight away against sitting for a short while on the carpet against stopping children mid-play. Also, I never seem to be happy with when I decide to stop children for circle-time etc - what are others feelings about the amount of time children should be given to free-play uninterrupted? Thanks Green hippo x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Thank you all for your quick replies. I am happy with our self-registration system (putting flowers on velro patches on door). I'm just weighing up free-play straight away against sitting for a short while on the carpet against stopping children mid-play. Also, I never seem to be happy with when I decide to stop children for circle-time etc - what are others feelings about the amount of time children should be given to free-play uninterrupted? Thanks Green hippo x We do a whole group registration, but we put a different box of toys in the middle of the carpet for when the children come in - just to keep some of them busy while we chat to parents and wait for them all to arrive. Normally we are all sat down within about 5/10 mins so its eems to work for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Also, I never seem to be happy with when I decide to stop children for circle-time etc - what are others feelings about the amount of time children should be given to free-play uninterrupted? Tricky one this - I guess its a judgement call you need to make at the time. Today I was supposed to be doing small group time but I had four children around me talking about what they got for Christmas which turned into a map-drawing activity instigated by a boy who is just beginning to be interested in mark making. To have stopped him in his tracks to go and do an activity with another group of children would have completely ruined the moment - and his little posse would also have been prevented from 'borrowing' his idea and engage in some quality mark making themselves. Whatever I had planned would not have enabled him to do something he was really proud of - and then show an adult how to use the photocopier at the end of it. Mum was suitably proud at pick up time and was full of admiration and praise! Maz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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