New to Reception in September

[Guest]

Hello

I will be moving from nursery to reception in September and would be grateful for any ideas about what to do with the children on their first settling-in day (a.m. group and p.m. group).

We go back on a Thursday, so I want to spend the first 2 days just getting to know the children and perhaps playing some simple games for us all to get to know one another; the children come from far and wide as well as the school nursery.

Any tips and ideas would be much appreciated. :1b

[Guest]

I quite like to focus on something children feel comfortable with for the first few days, it's Elmer usually and we talk about colours - most children are confident to name at least one and seem to find it quite unthreatening. I have an Elmer stuffed toy I acquired a few years ago and he sits in the home corner along with a pile of grey berries.

 

I use sticky labels so that we all wear names for the first 2 weeks at least, and play games in small groups so that every one knows at least five other children's names, then swap them around - games like 'roll a ball' 'swap places if you have stripy socks/black shoes etc and then the ring a ring a roses type ring games.

 

I use a visual timetable and move a peg along it as we go through the day, just to keep the sense of time ticking over. In my school Friday is a bit disjointed because we have whole school assembly, but I don't take the Year R's to that for the first half term so that the routine of each day is the same while they settle in.

 

The rest of the school are usually very helpful in returning small children who have taken a wrong turning on the way back from the loo, but I do try to make sure they go in pairs if possible - though I do seem to spend a large proportion of the first few days ferrying children backwards and forwards!

[Guest]

Thank you, marywilliam - that is really helpful! :wub: