Early Morning Activity For Rec

[Guest]

Hi all,

 

I am a Reception teacher and each morning before assembly and the register there is approximately 5 minutes where the children sit on the carpet waiting for the other children to put their things away and join them.

 

What activites could the children do in this time?

 

I need something that will keep the children occupied but that does not take much setting up or need any equipment. I have and IWB and was thinking of maybe some kind of challenge??

 

Thank you for any ideas and suggestions,

 

ABC

 

xx

[Susan]

There must be lots of lovely games that you could play to encourage hand eye coordination. Or could you do some name writing, letter formation activities either on the IWB or individual whiteboards?

[Guest]

There must be lots of lovely games that you could play to encourage hand eye coordination. Or could you do some name writing, letter formation activities either on the IWB or individual whiteboards?

 

 

There are lots of games, but they find it hard to take it in turns on the whitebaord and would not be able to decide who comes next. Might do some individual whiteboards.

[Guest]

There are lots of games, but they find it hard to take it in turns on the whitebaord and would not be able to decide who comes next. Might do some individual whiteboards.

 

Would you not be there supervising to ensure they took proper turns and pick who goes next yourself? If this is something they need to keep them occupied whilst you are busy with other children then then establishing a good pattern of behaviour for 'turn taking' shouldn't be too difficult. If you select the child to go first then establish that that child must choose who comes next they might respond to this very well. Setting up established selection rules such as 'girls must pick boys and visa versa' and 'only people who are sitting nicely/quietly etc can be picked' will stop the children from picking on their particular friends all the time. I use this technique a lot and find that the child doing the selecting does take it very seriously and makes sure they pick someone appropriate because they like having that little bit of power and responsibilty.

[KST]

I usually put a few things out on table tops that the parents help to settle to settle their children at whilst others are coming in. They are things like threading boards, magnetic letters and boards, computer games, etc which are very quick to tidy away. It then allows me to be a bit free to welcome other children and chat to parents.

[WChurchill]

Thinking about my early morning routine. Am going to get children to write names on large paper (differentiated) and do free writing pattern again on large paper. This is an activity that has no time limit so could call to carpet at same time. Also found superb signing in activity for whiteboard on communication4all.com . Hope this helps.

[Guest]

As the children come in in the morning they do self registration (find thier name on a table top and velcro on to school dinners/-acked lunch) and then get straight on with 'hands on' activities. These Alternate between fine motor, literacy, numeracy activities each day. These are normally activities which require minimal 'getting ready' and are very quick to put away. In the mean time one of us takes the register and the other supports the children coming in or does target work with individual children.

This time lasts between 10-20 minutes, depending on our target time!

Works for us and our children!

[Guest]

As the children come in in the morning they do self registration (find thier name on a table top and velcro on to school dinners/-acked lunch) and then get straight on with 'hands on' activities. These Alternate between fine motor, literacy, numeracy activities each day. These are normally activities which require minimal 'getting ready' and are very quick to put away. In the mean time one of us takes the register and the other supports the children coming in or does target work with individual children.

This time lasts between 10-20 minutes, depending on our target time!

Works for us and our children!

 

 

 

Thank you all for your suggestions I look forward to trying some of them out x

[Guest]

Hi

I am a foundation stage teacher and have 10 minutes each morning before registration. Each morning we have a different activity and encourage the parents to stay for these - gives me time to talk to parents etc. Monday - diary - parent and child draw a picture and write 'news' from the weekend which I then discuss with the child later. Tuesday - library - child chooses a book with their parent/carer to take home. Wednesday - choose a box - general numeracy or literacy activities. Thursday - choose a maths game to take home. Friday - trace, copy write name. When the school bell goes - most children have finished their activity and ready for parent to go. This works well for us. Last summer term we changed the plan but soon realised that we missed the contact with the parents and observations of the children with their parents.

 

Jude

 

Hi all,

 

I am a Reception teacher and each morning before assembly and the register there is approximately 5 minutes where the children sit on the carpet waiting for the other children to put their things away and join them.

 

What activites could the children do in this time?

 

I need something that will keep the children occupied but that does not take much setting up or need any equipment. I have and IWB and was thinking of maybe some kind of challenge??

 

Thank you for any ideas and suggestions,

 

ABC

 

xx

[Guest]

we do lots of things similar to those listed - parents come in and share reading / handwriting activities first thing. But 5 minutes to fill on the carpet can be a tricky time. When I am gathering children onto carpet at a time when others are finishing an activity I use Activate (physical exercises / actions to music) - the music is the signal to start gathering and children can join in as soon as they are ready - because they all enjoy it it hurries the others along to join us. At other times I have a 'spot book' activity - everyone gets a book as they settle on the carpet and have to find either our colour/shape/letter/word of the day/week - depending on the age group and current focus - they get a spot sticker when they've found it.

[Guest]

Whilst the rest of the children are tidying up or putting bits away, we put on the mission impossible song from the film. The children love this and they all help. By the end of the song the children are all sat on the carpet. They know that they cant sit down until the song ends and everything is tidied away. They love the idea of trying to beat the song.

 

Jenna

[Susan]

Hi and welcome to Jude, although I can see that you have been a memeber for a long time, thank you for making your first post. Lovely ideas too, what a super way to start the day!

 

nsunshine, is Activate a published programme or something you have put together yourself? I am very keen to do something like this in my year 1 classroom but the children actually find it quite unsettling.

[Magenta]

We put a Boogie Beebies video clip on as a sort of 'wake and shake'.

[Guest]

Hi

 

 

I had the same problem with my children in reception last year. So i came up with somethings for them to do. Also, i had couple of chn who didnt settle but once i started these actvities they would come in and get on with them! On a mon we would write and draw what we did on the weekend. Tues we would read books, wed we would write our numbers on the whiteboards, thurs i would give them HFWS and they would make sentences using these on their whiteboards and fri i would give thme tracing paper to practise their names. Hope this helps!

[Guest]

Our reception children self register for attendence and lunch choices.Then move to the carpet area where there is a decodable topic sentence on the whiteboard. There is a sticker when everyones settled for the 'answer'. There is a basket of books on the carpet which alternate fiction/non fiction.

[Guest]

Our school registered with a site called goodmorning children. Aimed at G&T but has things like pictures to look at and find things starting with a particular letter sound or just pictures to spark discussion and questionning with each other. Think it coast about £100 but the whole school uses it. I don't use it everyday, and some of it not appropriate for EY'S but there are some preview bits on there I think so maybe worth a look

[Susan]

Wow, thats a super resource, you can find it here.

[Guest]

Thanks for adding the link fo me... I'm not great with the technical bits!