Literacy and Numeracy
By Julie Irving

This term at preschool your children have been involved in many learning experiences focusing on literacy and mathematical concepts. I have put together a brief summary of these areas and what you can do at home to support your child’s learning.

Have you noticed the learning areas set up with new opportunities to practice these skills?

Our daily focus consists of inviting children to participate in experiences that offer rich literacy and mathematical learning. Children are provided with opportunities to listen to, share, retell stories and explore rhyme. We ensure singing experiences are fun and exciting for children to participate and enjoy. Daily the children are provided with resources to write, create stories and scripts. Children also use a range of media and creative arts to express their ideas and make meaning. This is facilitated through drawing, painting, sculptures, drama, movement and movement and storytelling.

Examples of ways to support your child’s literacy at home:

• Reading together. Stop through the story and ask questions such as what do you think is going to happen?
• Explain the way we receive messages. Email or write a letter to a relative?
• Read words that are on signs in the community. Allowing your child to understand that written words have meaning.
• At dinner have story telling time. Take turns to tell a real story or made up one.

Numeracy in the preschool curriculum is covering areas of problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating. Our daily program includes opportunities for your child to engage in learning measurements, numbers while understanding new concepts such as length, volume, capacity and names of numbers. Children use language to communicate thinking and explain mathematical ideas and concepts. Opportunities to enrich your child’s mathematical language repertoire is encourages through hands on experiment with cause and effect, trial and error, and motion.

Check out the classroom daily reflections around week 5-10 and you will see our daily reflections giving a report of our mathematical learning.

Ways you can support your child’s learning of mathematical concepts at home:

• Let your child pay for things at the shops. Work out together the coins or notes needed and what change you will get.
• As you pack away toys or clothes or dishes at home count the items aloud together.
• Sort toys or clothes into different groups by type or shape or colour.
• Look at objects and name the shapes.
• In the supermarket identify the numbers together; I spy number 2 in this isle.
• As you cut a cake or food talk about sizes such as ‘whole’ and ‘half’ or count how many pieces you can cut into.

Happy learning together!