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Explore the important link between play and language development in the pre-school and primary school years. Discover how play activities can enhance communication, literacy, and cognitive skills.
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All they do is just play!!!!! Play is central to and touches all aspects of a young child’s development. Its importance cannot be overemphasised.
Subjects English Music S.P.H.E Maths Art P.E Irish Drama S.E.S.E www.curriculumonline.ie
Oral language • The language curriculum emphasises developing listening and speaking skills in preparation for beginning of reading and writing. • It is essential for the social development of children. Children need language to perform common social functions- introducing oneself to others, greeting others and saying goodbye, giving and receiving messages, interacting with others and negotiating. • It is also necessary for their emotional development. They need language to express their thoughts and feelings.
Language & Play • Play provides an ideal opportunity for children to use language, build their vocabulary and to acquire a variety of linguistic skills. Don’t economise with language. • In developing language skills children should be encouraged to Listen Explain Tell Talk Question Retell • Ask open ended questions. • Too often we only speak to children to give instructions.
Language, language, language.... • Act out roles. Children love to pretend that they are nurses, doctors, teachers, astronauts, shopkeepers etc, etc. Opportunity for introducing new language here is endless.. • Memory games – put out three objects e.g animals. Name them. Take one away. Who’s missing? Opportunity here for counting and discussion. • Who am I ? I direct traffic etc. What am I? Make up stories. Odd one out and why? e.g apple, orange, aeroplane. • Story time. Repeat stories again & again.. Predict what will happen. What was your favourite part? Draw & talk. Retell the story. Allow children to handle the books. Parent/ child in role. • Rhymes & riddles are a great way of encouraging language development.
Reading Children are enabled to • Listen to, enjoy and respond to stories, nursery rhymes, poems and songs. • Become familiar with a wide range of environmental print. • Learn to recognise and name the letters of the alphabet. Emphasis on the lower case in junior infants. • Develop an awareness of letter sound relationships and to fuse the sounds of letters into words. • Build up a sight vocabulary of common words and start reading graded reading books.
Preparation for reading. • Language, language and more language.... • Singing and saying the alphabet. Point to each letter. Lower case. Allow children to handle magnetic letters, soft letters etc.. • Story time encourages a love of books and creates an interest in reading. • Pay attention to the mechanics of reading i.e. Holding a book, turning the page, let your finger go under the words as you read from left to right.
Let them repeat what happened in the story. This will help build their vocabulary. • Reading is essentially about recognising similar, written and individual sounds and rhymes, the more highly developed childrens ears are the better e.g Humpty Dumpty they learn ‘wall’ and ‘fall’ rhyme. N.B. Matching games. • Provide children with an opportunity to handle books..
Writing Children are enabled to • Develop a satisfactory grip of writing elements – pencil, crayon. • Learn to form individual lower case letters. • Understand the left, right orientation of writing. • Copy letters and write words as part of class activities. • Write his or her name.
Primary schools do not expect children to be able to write when they come to school. It is far more important that small children have had plenty of opportunity to build up the control in their hands. When the teacher begins to teach formal writing children with well developed muscles will learn to write with ease.
Preparation for writing • The assembly and pulling apart of construction toys. • Playing with dolls – dressing & undressing. ( Buttons, laces & zips) • Manipulating pliable materials such as playdough and marla. ( Pushing, pulling & rolling) • Scribbling using thick crayons.
Painting. • Use old magazines and catalogues to tear and stick or to cut and stick. Link with language development.. • Outdoor play – climbing, swinging, sand play and water ( stirring & pouring) , and other playground equipment
Maths Content for Junior infants • Early mathematical activities – including matching, classifying, comparing and ordering. • Number – including counting (1-10), comparing ( sets of 1-5) and ordering (1-5). Read and write numerals 1-5, combine sets of objects, totals to 5. • Algebra – including copying and adding to patterns of colour, shape, size and number. • Measurement – including working with length, weight, capacity, time and money. • Shape and space – including working with 2-D and 3-D shapes. • Data- including sorting objects and understanding and making charts and graphs.
Preparation for maths Early mathematical activities • Matching - snap, matching pairs of objects in one to one correspondence e.g socks, a box of random objects! • Classifying - putting similar objects in groups e.g same colour, shape, texture, animals, birds etc. • Comparing – according to length, width, height, quantity e.g The 3 Bears. • Ordering – ordering objects by length or height. Build towers, use cut outs. Number • Counting rhymes and songs – 5 little ducks etc. Birthdays for teddies, play shop ( 2 apples ..)
Algebra • Make simple patterns using beads, pegs, shapes and printing. Measurement • Length – long/short, tall/short, wide/narrow, longer/shorter. • Weight – heavy/light, balance, sort objects into heavy or light objects. • Capacity – full/empty, holds more/holds less. • Time – morning/evening, night/day,lunchtime, bedtime, early/late, days of the week, yesterday, today, tomorrow, seasons, birthdays, festivals, holidays. • Money – recognise and use coins up to 5 cent.
Shape & space • Use the language of spatial relations position – over, under, up, down, on , beside, in. • Directions – moving in straight/curved lines, in a circle. • 3-D shapes – make constructions with 3-D shapes. Things that roll/do not roll. • 2-D shapes – name shapes and use to create pictures. Data • Sort objects by one criterion – shape, colour, size etc.
Ready for school • The closer to five a child is, the easier and more successful their time in school will be. They will be – Physically bigger, have greater language usage, have a greater ability to play and mix with others, have better hand-eye co-ordination, generally have greater emotional steadiness and stronger concentration. • In contrast, younger children will be – Slower to complete tasks, have a shorter concentration span, get tired quickly, may be difficult to understand and be understood, get upset more easily and may not be as competent at expressing their thoughts. • They are moving from a small, more intimate group to one that is larger and more challenging. • Consider longterm implications.
Practical Tips.. • Your child should be fully toilet trained. Wipe, flush and wash.. • Practice with uniform on and allow them to use cubicles. • Have a trial run or ten! with their school bag, lunch box and coat. • Children cannot become independent if they cannot manage the equipment you provide. • Nothing succeeds like success!!
Treat it as a natural step in your child’s life. • Children take their outlook on school from you so if your experience was not a happy one, your child does not need to know!! There’s will be different...
The pre-school years play a vital role in laying the foundations for all learning.............
