Outcome 1.1

Week 11 Portfolio Post

• Outcome 1.1 Clearly describes how the concepts are connected to & supported by social relationships & contexts

An experience: describe something you saw or were a part of & what you learnt as a result

 

 

These observations are from a professional experience in a childcare centre where I have evaluated the social environment of the outdoor area to determine the literacy and numeracy learning processes that are occurring...

 I was able to observe three different types of play and learning in the outdoor environment, imaginative, social and developmental. The layout of the outdoor play area is attractive to children as there are lots of different coloured object and shapes. These include brightly coloured play equipment with tunnels and a slippery dip, an undercover veranda with many different toys to use, including dress ups for imaginative play and a sandpit with many different buckets and spades to choose from.

One example of literacy and mathematical learning I observed while sitting outside involved the children running around the outside area pretending to be crocodiles and clapping their hands together in front of them like a crocodile mouth. The other children would run away from the crocodiles and hide around the play equipment, under it and in the tunnels and behind the shade cloth of the veranda. The majority of the children seemed to like this game best, laughing and screaming in delight as they took on the role of the person being chased by the crocodile. The literacy and numeracy learning areas from this observation include:

Literacy:

- showing/reading emotion and expression
- imitation of symbols/words – being a ‘crocodile’
- social roles (group/individual)
- communicating – finding out information/body language
- understanding gestures – symbolic play
- negotiating socially acceptable behaviours in play

Numeracy:
- spatial awareness – navigating the outdoor space
- size of play equipment
- group dynamics – ‘crocodiles’ and ‘people’ and how many of each
- shape of the space/colour of the play equipment


One of the most appealing things outdoors is the sand pit. I have noticed that many of the children like going around the playground and just feeling different textures with their hands. They pick up handfuls of sand and let it drain through their fingers watching it fall intently. They also pick up little bits of sand and rub it between their fingers to feel the grains. The children also love it when buckets of water are brought out for them to use in the sand pit as they seem to particularly enjoy the feel of the wet sand, likening it to ‘mud’ and making mud pies. This kind of play would relate to sensory development such as touch. They also love using different objects in the sand pit such as buckets and sand castle models and filling them up to see how much sand will fit in them and what shape it will create when the sand is tipped out.

Literacy/Numeracy Learning Outcomes:

Literacy...
- textures, describing and feeling different properties of objects (bucket, water, sand)
- cause and effect – sand + water
- utilising prior knowledge – making comparisons between the sand and ‘mud’
- symbols – understanding that sand could represent mud
- fine motor skills
- hand-eye coordination

Numeracy...
- changes of objects (change of the sand) – awareness of change
- awareness of shapes (building sand castles with sand castle models)
- awareness of depth/capacity of the bucket – filling it with water and sand
- number concepts – how many buckets of water/how many sand castles

From these examples I have now learnt that the social and environmental aspects of learning are important for understanding as social relationships provide scaffolding, joint construction of meaning and allow the child to test and represent their understandings in concrete ways. Environmental aspects are important as the environment (natural and constructed) provides many underlying elements that promote spontaneous learning, for example larger spaces, many colours and shapes and different textures (sand, water, play equipment (metal)).