3.1

3.1 Offers a careful interpretation & analysis of children’s early literacy/numeracy skills & interests

Tags: Dramatic play, shop, money, numeracy, language, literacy.

The following interpretation & analysis of dramatic play, occurred during my placement visit on Friday 20^th of September 2013.

The children had a shop set up in the home corner. The fruit/vegetable Italian bakery had been the idea of another 1^st year master’s student and had proven very popular with the children.  The shop sold a rage of fruits, vegetables, bread, baguettes, and pastries including custard tarts, croissants, and slices of pizza.  When I arrived one of the children asked the teacher who teaches them Italian, what was the round Italian biscuit called in Italian, her response was “ciambelle”.  It was wonderful to observe both the Italian teacher engage with the children in Italian, and the children responded in Italian too.  The children did initially name the biscuit correctly, however after prayers and circle time, they had forgotten what the Italian name for the biscuit was, so it was just called Italian biscuit.

The children took turns in being shopkeepers, heating the pizza and baguettes in the oven, ringing and answering the phone, placing orders, as well as being the customer.  The children also learnt how to use their manners when playing in the shop, they said “please & thank-you, may I have… etc”

There were numerous experiences for numeracy skills to develop too.  The children used numbers to make a phone call by pressing buttons on the phone, priced the various items, and used a calculator to calculate the prices of the various items.  There was a small amount of play money, they were also learning the use of money, however when I gave the children a $5.00 note, I was given $100.00 change, as this was all they had to play with. 

When I asked my mentor teacher later, did the preschool have access to plastic school play money that the children could play with?  The answer came back that it is very expensive and it often goes missing, so the children, don’t have the opportunity to experience the use of pretend money, which I felt was sad, as it would be one strategy to further developing their skills in numeracy, so too would be having access to a toy cash register.

This dramatic play can be directly related to ‘The Early Years Framework’ Outcome number 2 - Children are connected with and contribute to their world. 

This observation of the fruit/vegetable and Italian bakery play provided a world of literacy experiences in both English and Italian.  The children named the Italian biscuit “ciambelle” some would even say hello and goodbye in Italian too, which was a delight to hear.

The children did this by using dramatic play with their pretend fruit and vegetable shop and their Italian bakery.  The children cooperated with each other, participated in reciprocal relationships such as shopkeeper and customer, as well as practiced their use of Italian language at times within their play. 

This experience also provided a range of numeracy experiences.  The children used a real phone and pushed buttons, they recognised the numbers on the phone, patterns and measurement.  They also used a large calculator to add up the purchases, had access to brown paper bags and some of the children would count the customer had brought 2 slices of pizza, 1 apple and 3 mushrooms etc.

With the development of technology moving at such a fast place today.  I am hopeful that in the future I may be able to suggest to young children they have the opportunity in making a cash register and barcode scanner and perhaps a set of scales to measure weight of certain fruit or vegetable items this way they could scan in the items they also have the opportunity to punch in numbers for prices to bring up.  Making an EFPOS machine with a tap feature on the side is another way children could incorporate growing technology.   The children would also have the opportunity of making credit cards, perhaps with coloured card board this could incorporate literacy and numeracy with the child’s name and they could create their own number with expiry date, just like a real one. 

Teaching children how to write receipts could further enhance the above play.  This could be simple as providing a pad of narrow long paper the children would then write or draw a picture of what they have sold the customer.  This additional skill has the potential for children to further enhance their literacy, as they would be writing the name of what they had just sold as well as the price a numeracy skill, which also involves children being able to recognise and write numerals.

These additional changes could take the concept of play further.  Children may also like to cut catalogue pictures cut out and past them onto empty boxes (Plowman, 2011).  Adding another element to supermarket and home corner play, when they either play shops or participate in cooking well into
the future.

References

Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) (2009). Belonging, being and becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia, Canberra, ACT: DEEWR.

Plowman, K., (2011).  Everyday Play – in association with Playgroup Victoria, Australia Victoria: The Five Mile Press Pty Ltd