This week we’d like to share some of the ways we’ve been developing our literacy skills and knowledge this week. At this age our engagement with talking, listening, reading and writing is called “emergent literacy”. We need to acquire emergent literacy before we can learn formal literacy and the best way we can do this is through play.

As this iceberg shows there is A LOT for us to learn before we are ready to formally read and write. One of the first, and most important things, that we need to develop is our spoken language. This includes being able to listen carefully and respond to what we hear as well as having opportunities to hear words, use these and practise talking in a range of situations.

Neaum,S. (2017).

As we play we learn to listen. It is important for us to be given time and space to listen to our friends, and to the adults around us, as this helps us to absorb language and respond to what we hear. As we play we  learn to talk. Role play is a great way for us to talk together as we take on different characters and require each other’s attention in order for a game to proceed.

Listening and talking through our play in these ways develops our cognitive flexibility which we need for learning and for life. Having cognitive flexibility means we can switch between changing priorities and demands and can keep up with games as rules and scenarios change.

Here are some of the ways we have been developing these skills this week.

Learning to read happens alongside listening and talking development. We must be able to hear differences in sounds before we can read. We must be able to understand and to use words verbally. In order to read we must develop good working memory which means we can hold information in our minds and use it. We learn this through play. All of the photos shared above show us developing reading readiness through play but here are some extras!

There is a link between physical movement and becoming literate. We learn and develop through being active in the world around us. We explore, investigate, observe, and experience our world through all of our senses. To become physical writers we need good sensory awareness and fine/gross motor control so we can control a pencil and know how much pressure to exert. We learn this through messy play and play that requires us to cross our midlines and use our fingers, thumbs, hands, arms and shoulders. In order to write formally we need good balance and proprioception. We learn this by moving and by getting a sense of our bodies in space, gaining control over them. If we do not have good balance it makes it very hard for us to concentrate and focus. We learn balance through physical play.

Here are some of the ways this week that we have been using our bodies in ways that will help us become writers of the future.

Thanks for taking the time to see how we have been developing our love for literacy this week. We look forward to sharing more of our learning with you next week.

Snack planner – Copy (1)

Wow it’s wonderful to be back at nursery! What a lot of happy faces we’ve seen this week 🙂

This week we have settled back into the routines, the environment and the spaces around us through exploring, building, creating, sharing, listening and talking.

Some of us used big blocks to build boats, recalling previous learning from last year and re-visiting some themes while others created hotels which recreated some real life experiences from our recent holidays. Many of us were very engaged in creating pictures by drawing, mark making, gluing, sticking, snipping and cutting this week too. Some of us shared what our pictures were about and told short stories about them while some of us engaged quietly in the creative process. It is important for us to have time and space to both talk and listen and to also silently absorb and engage.

There was much mark making outdoors too as we used chunky chalk to create shapes, letters, fish, car tracks and imaginative designs. We used natural resources to build a circle obstacle course and we found many interesting natural treasures as we dug in the sand. Some of us cleaned sand off the objects and used them symbolically in our play.  As we played together we developed our listening skills and awareness of others around us. Vehicle drivers and pedestrians followed rules about stopping, looking and listening at the zebra crossing. Playing together like this is very important for us as talking and listening are the basis of much of our learning, in particular becoming literate.

It was absolutely amazing to welcome Kate Hookham to the setting on Wednesday. Kate is a specialist in Forest Schools and Outdoor Learning and we were very lucky to have her input and expertise for the day. It was brilliant to learn about different ways to use outdoor resources safely in our play. We learned how to make fire and were excellent at following and understanding the safety rules. We were also eager to get involved in using hammers, wood and cloth to create some beautiful nature pictures. We’ll be taking forwards a lot of what we learned about fire, den building and outdoor play and look forward to sharing this with you all!