MS KAY BOXALL
reception coordinator
R
eception has had a very exciting year in 2018. From day one the boys discovered many of the new spaces both inside and out and adapted very quickly to their new space, as young children do. Our wonderful teaching spaces have enabled us to design many collaborative sessions with our neighbouring Reception classes. There are so many opportunities to be creative in our approach to teaching young children. The Reception environment has meant we have thought about different approaches to many of the subject areas in the Australian curriculum. The boys have realised that learning can take place in areas outside the classroom as well as inside. Life in Reception is quite different to Preschool, but the boys took it in their stride and faced various challenges with a smile. Having such a large area to play in was initially a bit daunting for some, but with time they loved interacting with the Year 1 boys and making their own choices of games to play. They have enjoyed a variety of activities at different times of the year, including, playing soccer and rugby, looking for bugs, climbing the spider gym, digging in the sand pit, using the gross motor equipment and building forts from sticks found in the rainforest.
At the beginning of the year some boys were not quite able to write their name. Now the boys are writing sentences and stories. Each boy is on an individual journey and this is reflected in the adjustments that the skilful teachers make to the program to enable all boys to access the curriculum. The students are now very independent in their use of the THRASS chart and they are able
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SOUTHPORTONIAN
to analyse their spelling words using the MASUTA Model.
In Maths the boys are now able to calculate addition and subtraction facts, independently. They are counting in a variety of ways and love doing number work with the One Hundred Board. We have computers in our classroom for the boys to use during our Maths and Literacy group times. Each week the students have also enjoyed going to the computer lab to hone their IT skills. We work around a different theme each term. During Term One we explored a variety of nursery rhymes to help us in Literacy. We did this in our English time but also carried it over into Art. With the help of their parents the boys then learnt a rhyme at home. We celebrated our learning at the end of Term One on Nursery Rhyme Day. The boys dressed up as their nursery rhyme character and recited their rhyme to their family members. After the presentation we had a delicious morning tea with our families. This
was a wonderful morning and quite an achievement for a five-year-old. In Term Two our Science focus was living things. We learnt a lot about animals and plants and all the things they need to stay alive. At the end of the term Barnyard Babies came to visit us. So the boys put on their farm clothes and learnt some important information about caring for and handling animals. They were able to pat and brush the animals too. This caused quite a lot of excitement for the animals and the boys.
We studied Geography too and found out how to use Google Earth so we could find out about our neighbourhood and school. We learnt about maps and even made our own map of our playground. We love using the internet in many of our subjects. In Term Three we did an author study on Jackie French. The boys were able to explore some of Jackie French’s amazing picture books and use them as
