Scotch Reports Issue 174 (April 2019)

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EARLY LEARNING CENTRE ELC Literacy and Numeracy An article in the SAGE Handbook of Early Childhood Research summarises what research tells us about early human development and the importance of the environment to early life. 1. Coping abilities, cognitive and noncognitive competencies, and skill formation are influenced by genes and early life environments and experiences. 2. The foundation for later learning is formed in early life experiences, such that the development of neural pathways and the mastery of skills occur ‘from the bottom up’. 3. Cognitive, social, emotional and language competencies are interdependent, and all are shaped by early experiences. This summary clearly demonstrates that an investment in high quality education for children in their early years is a prudent investment in their future. The experiences that children have in their early years lay the foundations for learning later in their schooling. Hence, one of the most important decisions that parents make about their child’s education is where they begin their educational journey. Our play-based environment provides a rich base for children to develop early Literacy and Numeracy understandings, which will underpin all learning for these children in the future. Here is a snapshot of what Literacy and Numeracy look like every day in our 3 and 4-year-old classrooms. TANIA DARLING Director of Early Years LITERACY AND NUMERACY IN 3-YEAR-OLD LEARNING While numeracy learning is always occurring, the educators in the Fraser room extend and challenge children’s understanding by supporting and extending them through the intentional and focused use of numerical language. With targeted Numeracy focus areas each term, educators consistently model focused mathematical language that is relevant to 3-year-olds and their world. Literacy is at the heart of learning in the Fraser Room. Through play and intentional learning experiences, children build oral and written communication skills. Literacy learning for 3-year-olds occurs when children sing songs, share ideas, question, predict, decode pictures, negotiate, copy words and sounds, recognise their name, develop a love for books and describe their learning. The Fraser children have a keen, ongoing interest in planting and caring for vegetables in the Fraser garden. This has been an ideal opportunity for educators to support the children to extend their literacy and numeracy learning through play. For example, reading books linked to children’s interests fosters sharing ideas, a developing love of books, letter, sound and word recognition. The responsibility of watering the garden supports children’s negotiation skills and builds their idea of time and routine. While observing and investigating our produce, children are predicting, counting, exploring pattern, noticing number, observing shapes and questioning their theories and ideas. LIA VAN DER PENNEN 3-year-old Teacher 8
01 02 03 04 05 LITERACY AND NUMERACY IN 4-YEAR-OLD LEARNING Children begin to notice similarities in names and as their confidence and familiarity with the environment develops, some children become accustomed to reading friends’ names, or recognising names that start with the same letter sounds as their name. Our writing tables encourage children to represent their thinking through drawing pictures and writing scribed words connected to their illustrations. Children begin sounding out familiar words and having a go at writing these words. They begin to recognise common words in their environment and ‘read’ signs around them. Our Focus Learner Poster program invites children to create a poster using their literacy skills and then share this poster with the class. This project encourages the children to write titles, labels and draw pictures to represent an interest of theirs. The children learn the importance of representing information and how powerful their interests can be in building relationships and sharing ideas amongst peers. Dramatic play in the form of dress ups and role playing encourages children to experiment with creating scripts and building the necessary skills to share ideas, collaborate and explore different identities. Puppets and books build complexity and create new ideas for exploration. We encourage numeracy exploration in all areas of our learning environment, and it is especially evident as the children explore our outdoor learning areas such as in the sandpit and the mud kitchen. Children compare quantities, work out capacity and experiment with comparing the attributes of the tools that they are using. Inside we have resources such as dominoes, dice, number puzzles and counting disks, as well as supporting materials such as number lines and number cards. Children of this age must first build a concrete understanding of what a number represents, rather than simply rote learn the name of each number. Our group times are pivotal in bringing their understanding of Literacy and Numeracy together. We incorporate many different activities including quantifying our group each morning by counting how many children we have. Old favourites such as playing ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf?’ or ‘The Kindy Train’ are exciting and help the children learn the connection between the number and what it represents, through games. Shared stories and songs build an understanding of rhyme and the conventions of reading. Songs and games encourage fun participation, whilst exploring an understanding of the Literacy or Numeracy content within each. GEORGIE SEPPELT 4-year-old Teacher and Educational Leader Feature Using books for identification / 01 Water makes them grow / 02 Drawing to represent ideas / 03 Recognising and matching / 04 Using books and Mathematical equipment to recreate representation / 05 Looks what’s inside! 9
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Scotch Reports Issue 174 (April 2019)

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