Guest Posted May 19, 2009 Posted May 19, 2009 Hi This is the first time i've posted on this site, so i'm hoping hope someone can give me some good advice. In September we will be combining our nursery and reception classes, we are a small rural school and for the first term will only have 18 children- 8 reception and 10 nursery (2 adults), we will have another 2 small intakes one at the beginning of each term. As I have only worked with the nursery children i am feel a little apprehensive about how to structure the day, we will only have one room which is not very big- not sure how i will do lit/numeracy with the reception while nursery children will be playing some probably wanting to join in. If anyone works in a similar situation how do you structure your day, also do your reception children do a phonics session and guided reading each day on top of literacy. Hope this makes sense - i'm feeling really tired.
Cait Posted May 19, 2009 Posted May 19, 2009 Welcome to the forum and congratulations on making your first post. I'm sure that someone will be along to give you some advice soon, I'm Preschool (age 2 - 4+) so can't really help you much.
Susan Posted May 19, 2009 Posted May 19, 2009 Hi Ange and welcome. Yes, your reception children should have a daily phonics session. Otherwise I would teach reception in much the same way as you probably teach your nursery with some short teacher focus inputs, maths and literacy every day or a balance across a week or two and activities which will be both AI and CI. Ideally you should have free flow indoors and out too.
Guest Posted February 26, 2010 Posted February 26, 2010 Can I ask what made your school cahge to a foundation unit. We have a small private nursery on site that take 12 children. How would we join together and how is the unit funded. Thanks for any replies
ChrisAR Posted March 14, 2010 Posted March 14, 2010 (edited) Yes, your reception children should have a daily phonics session. Personally I am starting to question the benefits of a daily phonics lesson. Is it really giving the children what they actually need? That's roughly 1 and a half hours a week we could be learning about something fun! Sorry to hijack your thread with my opinion but this fascination with phonics is really starting to get my goat! Edited March 14, 2010 by ChrisAR
Guest Posted March 16, 2010 Posted March 16, 2010 But phonics sessions are fun! My children love them, we use toys , puppets, and lots of different ways of learning (the whiteboard, singing , writing in the air, etc.) Most importantly, the sessions are very short, and several different games are played in that time. The children then use their skills, all the time, in their own play, writing lists, labels, cards and letters, etc. I can't see the problem with it , it empowers them.
ChrisAR Posted March 28, 2010 Posted March 28, 2010 Well I'm probably going a bit deep here, but do young children actually need all this phonics knowledge. I agree with the principles of the OpenEYE project: http://openeyecampaign.wordpress.com/ They argue that "that children should not be taught academic, abstract skills too early".
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