This experience involves reading (or singing) a book with children and using the book to develop phonological awareness through song, rhythm and rhyme.
It also provides opportunities for the use of counting vocabulary with children. Animal sounds within the text are also beneficial for pre-verbal children.
This experience should be differentiated depending on the individual child/group level. With younger children the focus may be on the song or the pictures of animals (with animal sounds).
For children with developing language skills, the focus may be on children singing along, with counting incorporated.
This learning experience plan relates to:
- emergent literacy
- early communicator, early language user (0-36 months)
- learning foci: phonological awareness, concept development and vocabulary
- teaching practice: reading with children.
Collect information
- What information has been gathered as evidence to inform this experience?
Links to VEYLDF
Outcome 5: communication
Children engage with a range of texts and get meaning from these texts
- Children sing chant rhymes, jingles and songs
Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes
- Children demonstrate an increasing understanding of measurement and number using vocabulary to describe size, length, volume, capacity and names of numbers
Victorian curriculum levels F-2: language
- Identify rhyming words, alliteration patterns, syllables and some sounds (phonemes) in spoken words.
Learning intentions
- For children to develop interactions with texts through gesture, sounds and words.
- For children to develop focus and interactions during book reading.
Assessment of learning
This is demonstrated when children:
- show eye contact, stay with the educator during the book reading, and interact through hand actions or body movements.
Resources
- Over in the Meadow book
- Animal puppets
- Over in the Meadow YouTube clip containing melody
Text details: Over in the meadow
The text contains:
- examples of rhyme, for example. “one and sun”, “two and blue”
- counting from 1-10
- phonological awareness (singing).
Group size(s)
Whole group if appropriate, or individuals/small group (two-five children).
Differentiation
Differentiation should be based on prior assessment of the child/children’s communication skills. Examples of differentiation:
- educators can use a different range of vocabulary.
- educators can focus on the pictures in the book rather than the words.
- educators can focus on singing the song with very young children.
Experience process
This learning experience may be implemented as a spontaneous experience with children in the book corner or at group time:
- draw children’s attention to the books, note that there will be some counting and different animals to keep a look out for.
- When reading/singing the book, use fingers to model how many animals are on each page while reading (e.g. the first time the book mentions a number show the number of fingers).
- Encourage children to join in with singing, counting, hand actions.
Going further
This experience can be continued by supporting children to create their own songs or re-enact the book using puppets.
Reflect/review
Reflective questions for educators may include:
- What learning has occurred? How do you know?
- What have you realised about the child’s interests, knowledge, and capabilities?
- In discussion with colleagues, what would you plan next to consolidate or extend children’s learning?
Additional/alternate resources for this learning experience
- Ten Little Monkeys
- Old MacDonald Had a Farm
Related learning experience plans
Links to sections
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