Overview of learning 1

Example of literacy planning and resourcing 1

What we want children to learn (Development matters)

Enjoy listening to and using spoken and written language, and readily turn to it in their play and learning

Related Early Learning Goals

Recognise numerals 1 to 9 - Mathematical Development (MD)
Find out about and identify the uses of everyday technology and use information and communication technology and programmable toys to support their learning (KUW)

Possible contexts

Provide a context for encouraging spoken and written language by setting up role-play based on shared experiences.
Share stories, rhymes and songs and provide opportunities for children to imagine and recreate experiences both inside and outdoors. Provide props for writing, for example clipboards, labels, sticky notes and charts.
Encourage children to share their experiences by using 'small world' play and role-play, sharing photographs and videos, making books, using slide shows on the interactive whiteboard or in a screen saver.
Use tools to encourage children to reflect on their learning together.
Encourage mark making for a purpose by making clipboards, mark-making tools and word banks available in many areas.

Example of adult-led activities

Context: Role-play supermarket

Plan a visit to a local supermarket or use an online shop. Model writing a list for shopping, for example fruit for snack time or a picnic. Ask the children for their ideas of what you need to add to the list and discuss the purpose of the list.

At the supermarket, help the children to follow the list to buy the shopping. Ask them how they know what is in the boxes. Tell them we could set up a shop like this. Encourage them to notice labels and to copy them through photographs or mark making.

Develop a role-play supermarket together: planning what needs to be in the supermarket, collecting, bringing things from home and making things.

Show the photographs and mark making of labels. Discuss the need for labels in the shop. Notice the detail on the labels: What information do they tell us? What would we want to know? From the collection of photographs of labels and from cereal boxes, etc., encourage children to write their own for adding to their shop.

Adult role

Encourage children to communicate thoughts, ideas and feelings and build up relationships with adults and each other.
Provide opportunities for children to see adults writing and for children to experiment with writing for themselves, for example making labels, signs, notices and lists, and writing phone numbers.
Scaffold children's spoken and written language, recasting sentences, providing models, etc.
Participate alongside children's role-play to model use of language, for example talking with customers, answering the phones.
Extend the play by planning with the children and helping them to record and reflect on experiences through photographs and video.

Opportunities for children to explore and apply

Provide opportunities for children to imagine and recreate experiences both inside and outdoors, for example: extend large construction blocks by providing a making basket of cloths, tape, string, clothes pegs, etc.; extend a story by making a story trail of objects from a book that can be found by the children and used in their play; encourage children to collect things from one area they may need in another, for example a suitcase of clothes from the home corner to take to their construction caravan; using playdough in a role-play kitchen.

Help children to share their experiences by using 'small world' play and role-play, sharing photographs and videos, making books, using slide-shows on the interactive whiteboard or in a screen saver.
Use tools to encourage children to reflect on their learning together, for example children taking photographs themselves to show a model they have made or something they particularly like or a game they were playing with a friend. Share with families.
Share books, rhymes and songs and encourage children to remember while playing, for example use familiar rhymes and parts of stories during play.
Encourage mark making for a purpose by making clipboards, mark-making tools and word banks available in many areas. Model uses, for example when children are waiting for a turn, or support them in making a register.

Adult role

Make a language and literacy rich environment. For an audit see Early Reading Audit.
Provide opportunities for children to communicate thoughts, ideas and feelings and build up relationships with adults and with each other.
Give opportunities for linking language with physical movement in action songs and rhymes, and role-play and practical experiences such as cookery and gardening.
Plan an environment that reflects the importance of language through signs, notices and books.
Provide time and opportunities to develop spoken language through conversations between children and adults, both one to one and in small groups, with particular awareness of, and sensitivity to, the needs of children learning English as an additional language, using their home language when appropriate.
Provide opportunities for children to see adults writing and for children to experiment with writing for themselves through making marks, personal writing symbols and conventional script.
Plan opportunities for all children to become aware of languages and writing systems other than English, and communication systems such as signing and Braille.
Provide opportunities for children who use alternative communication systems to develop ways of recording and accessing texts to develop their skills in these methods.
Model pleasure in using spoken and written language, for example using voices of book characters in play, retelling stories, songs and rhymes, through puppetry or objects and listening to tapes together.
Share stories, rhymes and songs and refer to them across children's experiences. Model using the language of books in play.
Provide story and rhyme sacks with books, objects, tapes, CD-ROMs, etc. Model uses and make available for play. Extend into puppetry, 'small world' play or role-play.
Provide an environment that supports individual, small group and large group play, inside and outside, with opportunities for children to be quiet and reflective, for example a rug and tape recorder left on a bench, a cushion for two in a reading area.
Scaffold children's spoken and written language, recasting sentences, providing models, etc.
Participate alongside children's role-play activities to model use of language, for example talking with customers, answering the phones.
Extend dramatic play by planning with the children and helping them to record and reflect on experiences through photographs and video.
Encourage children to retell experiences through 'small world' play, role-play, construction, etc.
Use puppets to talk, discuss and ask questions with children.
Use ICT tools to record, reflect on and extend children's play, for example video the making of a construction and share with the children, noting features of spoken or written language: That was a useful sign to make. Look how Sam knows what you wanted; you told her so clearly.

Look, listen and note

Observe how children concentrate on what others say and their responses to what they have heard.

Do they show pleasure in using spoken and written language?
Do they know rhymes and songs off by heart?
Can they make up their own rhymes or alternative versions of favourites using their phonic knowledge?

Assessment opportunities

Observe when children listen attentively and with enjoyment, for example to a story.
Are children able to recall in increasing detail, for example by sequencing photographs?
When listening to suggestions or explanations, do children respond appropriately through actions or comments or by asking relevant questions?
Are children often using language rather than action to rehearse and reflect on experiences and to clarify ideas and feelings, for example through 'small world' play?
Observe how children use mark making in play.