Learning and Teaching 

Literacy

‘Categories I Spy’ 

Play a game of categories “I Spy” with you child – “I spy with my little eye something that belongs in the ‘food’, ‘animal’, ‘transport’, ‘clothing’, ‘kitchen’ category. Your child must tell you as many objects as they can. You can use a timer to make this game fun and ask your child to tell you as many as they can in ten seconds. 

Numeracy

Talking about math can be as simple as counting clouds or guessing heights. This is especially crucial for young children who need to feel comfortable just thinking about math and seeing that it is a part of the world. Depending on the age of your child, find ways to incorporate math into any topic you’re talking about as the opportunity arises:

• How many is that? How many would I have if I had another one?
• What would half of that look like?
• How could I split this equally?
• How do you predict this trend will change over time?
• What’s the chance of that happening?
• How can you make that more abstract? (The whole purpose of mathematics is to take ideas and make them abstract!)
• How many cards will you draw?

Playing games is an easy and fun way to help. Ask your child to teach you a math game that we play at school.

Literacy and Numeracy tips to help your child everyday - pdf document from Vic Education Dept with great ideas to support your child.