Week
8
16 October
2013
Reading
Tags:
emergent
literacy, songs, literacy development, numeracy development, reading books,
rhyming, measurement, patterns
What?
The readings I chose this week were ‘Using Song Picture
Books to Support Early Literacy Development’ and ‘More, All Gone, Empty, Full:
Math Talk Every Day in Every Way’. I chose these two readings as they discuss
great ways in how to teach literacy and numeracy in the infant to toddler
years. I found these two readings very interesting and found it to be a great
resource as a future educator on how to create these learning opportunities.
So what?
Literacy
Barclay
(2010) discusses how adults could use song picture books to support early
literacy development. She points out that young children love to hear the human
voice and love listening to music. Books with rhythmic language are perfect for
young children who are classifying the world and fast adding new words to their
receptive and expressive vocabularies. Barclay (2010) states that typically
developing toddlers have acute hearing, and their attention is caught by the
rhythmic and rhyming patterns found in practically all song picture books. For
example, young children love hearing “This old man, he player two. He played
nick nack on my show. With a nick nack paddy whack, give a dog a bone. This old
man came rolling home” (Adams, 2000, as cited in Barclay, 2010).
Careful
selection of books, including attention to illustrations, length of verse,
repetition and rhyme, and content, will help ensure appropriate book choices
for young children, and will make for a pleasant way to link lyrics to
literacy. Song picture books are wonderful tools for fostering emergent
literacy skills; they can be used to develop concepts about books and print,
language fluency, phonological awareness, vocabulary, comprehension, and
emergent writing abilities (Barclay, 2010).
Numeracy
Greenberg
(2012) states “the development of math concepts and skills begins in the first
years of life.” Furthermore, Greenberg (2012) says “in fact, from the moment
they are born, children begin to construct ideas about mathematics through
every day routines, experiences, and, most importantly, caring interactions
with trusted adults”. It is important for us as educators and potential parents
to be aware of early mathematical concepts as it helps you be more thoughtful
and intentional about using these concepts in every day experiences and
interactions with infants and toddlers. Infants and toddlers are natural
mathematicians (Greenberg, 2012). Even without adult support, we see infants
and toddlers using math concepts to make sense of their world. For example,
infants signal they want ‘more food’; ‘more’ is one of the first math concepts
that children construct (Greenberg, 2012).
Parents
are their children’s first teachers, and therefore play a vital role in
supporting and developing infants and toddler’s maths skills (Greenberg, 2012).
As educators it is important for us to share information with parents and ask
them too what math they see happening at home.
Now
what?
Literacy
To support the development of early language and
literacy, the following three steps can assist educators in planning for use of
song pictures books.
·
Step
one: Learning the song
- Play
music, sing the song, talk about unfamiliar words and ideas, add motions
·
Step
two: Linking the Song to Print
- Share
song picture book or chart with song lyrics
- Invite
children to join in reading/singing the song with you
·
Step
three: Extending the Song
- Invite
children to illustrate their own version of the song
- Create
new verses of the song with the children
- Wherever
possible, insert children’s names into the song
Numeracy
One way to recognize and talk about math opportunities is
to know what math involves. Here are brief descriptions of five math
components.
·
Number
and operations
- Understanding
the concept of numbers. For example, “you have two eyes, and so does your bear.
Let’s count: 1, 2.”
·
Shapes
and spatial relationships
- Recognizing,
naming, comparing, and contrasting objects. For example, “Look, Jason went
under the climber and Aliyah is on top!”
·
Measurement
- Determining
qualities such as size, weight, quantity, volume and time. For example, “Moving
that stool is heard. It’s heavy.”
·
Patterns
- Seeing
the relationships that make up a pattern. For example, “Marcus has stripes on
his shirt – white, blue, white, blue, white, blue.”
·
Collection
and organizing information
- Gathering,
sorting, classifying and analysing information to help make sense of what is
happening. For example, “You put the big lid on the big pot and the small lid
on the small pot.”
Reference
List
Barclay, K., H. (2010). Using Song Picture Books to
Support Early Literacy Development. Routledge,
Taylor & Francis Group, 86 (3): 138 – 145.
Greenberg, J. (2012). More, All Gone, Empty, Full: Math
Talk Every Day in Every Way. YC Young Children, 67 (3): 62 – 64.
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