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Play provides children with the opportunity to develop both their literacy and numeracy skills. Find out how you can support literacy and numeracy learning at your playgroup.
Supporting literacy
Literacy is ‘the capacity, confidence and disposition to use language in all its forms’ (AGDE 2022:57).
Children start developing literacy skills at birth through everyday interactions. This might include talking, singing, sharing books, telling stories or pointing out and naming objects (McCain et al 2007:49).
Give children opportunities to explore a variety of communication methods to develop literacy. These include:
- music
- movement
- dance
- story telling
- visual art
- media
- drama
- talking
- listening
- viewing
- reading
- writing.
TIP: Routines are an opportunity to teach important skills that support life-long learning. For example, through pack up-time children communicate, listen, self-regulate, cooperate and follow directions.
What literacy at playgroup looks like
Reading, writing, words, symbols and pictures
- When children are read to, they learn that words, symbols and pictures all have meaning.
- Drawing, writing, mark making and creating symbols helps children understand that letters carry meaning.
- Making signs to include in play, for example road or shop signs, teaches children about symbols and environmental print.
Dramatic Play
- Dramatic play fosters the use of language as children create stories and assign roles to characters.
Listening skills
- Singing during group time helps children learn language through rhythm and rhyme.
- Children can hear many sounds through talking, reading or singing in a group or with their parent or carer. They learn that words have beginning, middle and end sounds.
- Making music develops children’s listening and auditory discrimination skills. This occurs when they listen for the rhyme and sound of the beat.
Building vocabulary
- Reading and singing at playgroup helps children hear ‘rare’ words that they may not hear in ‘everyday’ talk.
- When we talk and tell stories, children develop vocabulary and listening skills.
- Sensory experiences, such as gloop, sand or water play, can expand children’s understanding of their world. They provide opportunity to hear and use language describing what they see, taste, smell, hear and feel.
Communication skills
- Children hear when they play and interact with others. This helps them develop language, listening, responding and negotiation skills.
- Dancing and the visual arts allow children to express and share their ideas and knowledge.
Developing fine motor skills
- When children use their hands, they develop their fine motor skills, hand strength and hand-eye co-ordination. These are essential building blocks for learning to write.
Literacy activities
View ideas for language and literacy related activities in the Together activities search.
Supporting numeracy
Numeracy is the ‘capacity, confidence and disposition to use mathematics in daily life’ (AGDE 2022:57).
Children learn numeracy as they start to recognise relationships between objects (like big and small or long and short).
Children also learn the meaning of numbers and cardinality. Cardinality means the last number we count tells us how many objects there are. They do this through experiences such as cooking and singing number songs (McCain et al 2007).
Numeracy includes understanding about:
- numbers
- patterns
- measurement
- spatial awareness
- data
- mathematical thinking and reasoning
- problem solving.
What numeracy at playgroup looks like
Sorting, grouping and classifying objects
- Through activities like treasure hunts, children learn to sort, group, classify and measure objects.
Recognising attributes and patterns
- Children notice the attributes and patterns of objects while looking at collections. They hear and learn to use mathematical language to describe what they see, for example big, small, long, short, heavy, light.
- Physical movement activities such as an obstacle course, provides opportunities for children to explore, hear and use language associated with movement, orientation, location, position and space.
Estimation, prediction, comparison and measurement
- Cooking lets children use number estimation, prediction and measurement.
- Dramatic play, such as playing shops, supports children to explore measurement, money, sorting and grouping, quantifying and ordering objects by weight, height or prices.
- Gardening provides opportunities to measure, make comparisons, record data and watch things grow.
Counting
- Playing games like bean bags toss, soccer or basketball lets children keep scores. They can count who got the most balls in the ring, bucket or goal.
- Friendly races like running, riding a bike or pushing a toy car teach speed, time and place order.
Spatial awareness
- Puzzles are about exploring geometry, 2D and 3D shapes, transformation, symmetry and spatial relations.
- When playing with blocks, children explore concepts of size, shape, number and spatial awareness.
Position, direction, space and measurement
- Singing and following the directions of the lyrics in songs such as 5 Little Ducks or Hokey Pokey helps children learn about position and space, number order, addition and subtraction.
- Reading maps teaches children about direction, space and measurement. This might include weather maps, road maps, street directories or world maps.
- Children and families discuss shapes, patterns and colours when painting. This might include where on the page they’re placing the paint.
Numeracy activities
View ideas for numeracy related activities in the Together activities search.
References
- Australian Government Department of Education (AGDE) (2022) Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia V2.0, Australian Government Department of Education for the Ministerial Council.
- McCain M, Mustard J and Shanker S (2007) Early Years Study 2: Putting Science into Action, Council for Early Childhood Development, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs (MCEECDYA) (2010) Engaging Families in the Early Childhood Development Story, Early Childhood Services, Department for Education and Children’s Services, South Australia.