Question

Discussion-Emergent Literacy and Mathematics

Share two activities you would design to foster emergent literacy in the preschool classroom (e.g., writing each kids' name on the board every day so they begin to recognize the look of their name). Also list two activities for promoting emergent mathematics in the classroom. Write 2-3 paragraph to discuss about this.

Answer 1

Emergent Literacy and Mathematics in Preschool classroom

Emergent Literacy is a term that we use to identify a child getting familiar with reading, writing and other textual products before they enter into pre-school and actually start learning reading and writing. Similarly, Emergent Mathematics refers to the phenomenon where children develop familiarity with numbers and quantity before actually start learning them in schools. This happens primarily in urban areas where the parents are educated and are surrounded with texts, prints or media for the child to get habituated to grow in the same surrounding.

Activities associated with emergent literacy

An activity can be conducted in such a way which could be creative and at the same time knowledgeable for the child. We can create a constructivist classroom wherein the activity would be based on the childrens' previous knowledge. This way they will be able to assimilate and accommodate new schemes and knowledge to their already existing ones (Piaget). Also as many children will be sitting and participating together, one can also learn from others' experiences (Vygotsky).

Activity 1. A slideshow or a game can be carried out in the classroom where children have to identify the figure of a Vegetable, Fruit or any object with which they might be familiar. Once they guess it right, the object comes into it's true form. The names of the objects should be written just below it in bold so that it is visible along with the image of the object. It can be tried on with showing the children movies where there are subtitles or like a comic strip where the audio plays along with a bubble appearing with text while the characters are talking.

Activity 2. Children can be taken to a walk around the playground or around the vicinity just outside school and can be asked to memorise the things they see. Then they come back to the class and the teacher asks them to raise their hands and tell her what were the things they saw. She writes the name of the objects on the blackboard as they speak. This way children learn the task of writing and how the name of each object can be "written" down.

Other Activites.

1. Reading aloud to students

2. Story telling

3. Playing a game where children give rhyming words

4. Describing activities by playing dumb-charades etc.

Activities associated with Emergent Mathematics

As mentioned above, the activities should be creative and interesting for the children to immerse themselves and meet the objectives of learning.

Activity 1. A similar activity can be done while making children familiar with numbers. They can be given different types of small objects in a box for eg. different shapes and ask them to sort out and place the same shapes together in different boxes. This will help them understand similarity and will provide a base for counting.

Activity 2. Simple Craft activities like paper folding or origami may serve as a good way to promote practical mathematics. Children understand spatial reasoning, measurements, estimations etc. When the children hear the teacher asking them to fold it "2 times" or make "3 cut outs" etc. children start getting familiar with quantities.

Other Activities

1. Counting the number of

• Slices an orange has
• Sides of a pumkin
• No. of grapes
• No. of peas in a shell etc.

2. Children can compare things among themselves

• No. of pencils or other stationary items
• Variety in shoe size
• Members in their family etc.