Reception

MS KAY BOXALL reception coordinator

Reception 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 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

a stimulus to write their own stories. Then came the trip to the HOTA (Gold Coast Arts Centre), to see the Josephine Wants to Dance production. This really inspired the boys to read some more Jackie French stories. It was wonderful to see the joy on their faces as the characters from the story came to life on the stage.

Another exciting thing happened in Term Three, we met Mr Ayres and found out he would be teaching us Lego Robotics. This meant that each week we learnt a new building skill. We can now construct towers, cranes and pyramids using Lego blocks. The boys are looking forward to continuing this in Year 1. These lessons really engage the students and challenge many of them to build in a new way.

Transport is always a very exciting topic for boys and we had fun exploring many different types. Thinking about different modes of transport was useful for us as our Science topic was how things move. We read books on the subject of transport and constructed our own forms of transport.

Book week was fun too, as the boys and teachers dressed up as their favourite characters from many different stories and then paraded in the new Prep Hall. We have a very creative and involved group of parents who rise to all the challenges to help the boys enjoy all aspects of school. Celebrations are always very special and the boys had fun creating and making their own gifts and cards in class for Mother’s and Father’s Day, but they were also able to buy them a great gift from the stalls organised by the Friends of Prep. There were so many amazing gifts, so some hard decision making was in order to make the best choice. Mums were lucky that they could attend an entertaining morning tea and the dads had fun participating on the oval after school with their sons. We learnt about family trees in History and we looked at different types of families and the variety of ways in which they celebrate their special days.

PE has been fantastic this year, with such great variation in the program. This has given the boys a wonderful opportunity to practise and improve their gross motor skills. They participated in swimming, gymnastics and really impressed their parents with running, jumping and throwing at Sports Day. The boys really enjoyed the program that was put together by Mr Robertson, Mr Egan, Mrs Goudy and Mr Silvera.

A highlight of the year was the picnic with St Hilda’s. It was our turn to visit their school this year. The boys were excited to receive their invitations and awaited with anticipation for the day to arrive. The day finally came. You could feel the excitement in the air in midSeptember when the bus arrived to take us to St Hilda’s. Each boy took a rose to give to their girl, as true gentlemen do. Once the boys met the girls they were keen to commence the great activities that had been organised. All the children quickly started to interact with each other and the playground came alive. It was wonderful to see all the spaces transformed into a hive of industrious activity. What a fun morning we had with our sister school. As we close on another successful year in Reception it is good to reflect on how far so many boys have travelled in their first year of school. They have not only involved themselves in all activities within the classroom, but have also made the most of the opportunities to play a variety of sports in the afternoons. It has been awesome to have the parent support too, which allows us to do so many more activities on a daily basis, and for the parents, they have a new appreciation of how hard their young children work at school. Busy boys are happy boys and this is certainly the case as you see their smiles as they shake their teachers’ hands at the end of the day and then greet their mums, dads and carers. We wish them all well for Year 1 and we look forward to seeing them out in the playground at break time.

As a teacher I am always amazed by the young boys we teach in Reception. It is an absolute honour to be part of this program and work with such a dedicated team of teachers.

RECEPTION B

SEATED ROW: N. SARDANA, N. ZHOU, C. GOODCHAP, S. JANSEN, E. MA SECOND ROW: K. MIYAKAWA, J. BIDJA, M. ARONIS, T. GRIFFIN, C. LANE, E. JACOBS THIRD ROW: R. MAHON, A. LEE, M. BOGATIE, D. MASTROCOSTAS, P. DONOHOE

RECEPTION C

SEATED ROW: K. BROOKES, L. KIM, M. MILLIGAN, J. ARNELL, W. PASK, J. THAI SECOND ROW: E. THURA, H. HUGHES, A. BOS, O. CONRY, L. FRAME THIRD ROW: S. WOODALL, B. BROOKES, O. HENNOCK, W. ZHAO, J. CLEGG, M. AVERY

RECEPTION G

SEATED ROW: T. WILKSCH, K. BROWN, O. TSENG, R. ANTHONY, J. REINHOLD SECOND ROW: J. RHO, J. NUTLEY, A. KULASEKARA, D. LESA, L. DURMAN, C. ZHANG THIRD ROW: J. LAWLER, W. HARTLAND, B. FABER, H. BROWN, A. PHILLIPS

RECEPTION S

SEATED ROW: L. PENG, A. SCOTT-KEDDIE, L. NEWTON, H. BROWN, L. PENG, K. GOEL SECOND ROW: E. FOLWELL, M. MUDGE, L. NOBLE, X. TANNER, S. ZHANG THIRD ROW: H. PICKETT, C. GWYNNE, O. NORCROSS, H. BEETON ABSENT: N. KARTHIK KUMAR