3.2

3.2 Shows competence in observing & planning for literacy & numeracy experiences & environments, adapting to specific learner needs, interests and contexts.

Tags: Antarctica, literacy, numeracy, children creating their own stories.

During Term 3 I have been teaching the children at the Preschool, where I am doing my placement about Antarctica.  Each week we focussed on a different Antarctica animal.  I will ask the children what animal they wish to focus on, have my IPAD and we would then search the animal on the IPAD.  Once the children had decided on a picture to copy, the children would use plasticine to make their own model of that particular animal.

On this particular day a little girl I will use the pseudonym Sara brought in her toy Snow Tiger.  Sara was very fond of her snow tiger and took her everywhere.  That morning we had used Plaster of Paris to make ice for the Antarctica plasticine animal display.  Once this task was complete Sara asked if I had some plasticine, as she wanted to make a Snow Tiger.  I asked her what colours we would need; she replied “brown for the spots and white for her body, as well as black for the eyes, back of the ears and feet”.

I found the correct colours and Sara sat and patiently copied the toy Snow Tiger, ensuring she counted how many spots he had on his legs, body, head, tail and incorporated the number into her model. 

I then used the Snow Tiger as the focus a couple of weeks later for Sara to create a story with some of the other plasticine animals she had made.  This was a great opportunity to further her understanding and building literacy concepts.  Sara told me a story about her Snow Tiger and I wrote it down.  The children are very happy to be involved in the plasticine activity the ability to create a small model of a creature and then use it in a story this furthers their development in literacy and making meaning through this children are confident and involved learners and Children are effective communicators - (Outcomes 4 & 5 ELYF - DEERW, 2009).

This experience could be further developed and enhanced by me or another adult/educator by writing the story out one line at a time and have Sara copy the words.  Thus she has the opportunity to learn about the letters that make up the words within the story and also has an opportunity to practising her writing and letter formation.  There are also opportunities for me or another educator to ask Sara how many spots are there on the Snow Tiger’s head, body legs etc.  From this we could then write Sara’s findings down again furthering her development in literacy and introducing her to numeracy by writing the numbers in words and numbers.

Numeracy could be further developed again by asking Sara to tell me a story using the Snow Tiger and other creatures by counting the number of penguins and various other creatures the children have made during Term 3.  The children also have the opportunity to incorporate numbers into their stories as well.

Sara in the process of making her snow tiger, and placing dots on the legs.

Snow Tiger made from plasticine below far right hand side.

References

Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations (DEERW), (2009). Belonging, Being and Becoming. The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia, Canberra, Australia: Commonwealth of Australia.