Program Guidelines 

  Thinking

Students use thinking and problem solving to explore patterns and relationships. They express their ideas using language, number, art, drama, music, construction and dance.

  Social Living and Learning

Students develop an appreciation and understanding of the way that individuals live and work together in groups to meet basic needs and wants. They understand the rights and responsibilities that are a part of these roles.

  Communication

Students use art, music, language, number, dance and media to share and receive information. They recognise and begin to use literacy and numeracy symbols in their own writing, reading and speaking

  Health and Physical Understanding

Students develop fine and gross motor skills required for a variety of writing, running, hitting, kicking, catching, balancing, climbing and turning and manipulating tasks. They develop strategies for ensuring healthy and safe practices for themselves and others

  Sense of Self and Others

Students recognise personal skills, feelings and abilities and appreciate the diversity that exists between individuals. They develop strategies for positive relationships with others

  Cultural Understanding

Students explore the diversity that exists between individuals in culture, age, gender, ability and belief systems. They are encouraged to develop tolerance and understanding of diversity

  Understanding Environments

Students investigate the natural and built environment including living and non-living things, developing attitudes of respect for the environment and exploring changes that occur with time.

Each term a number of outcomes are selected for each Foundation Area of Learning. A staff member observes children and keeps a record of observed needs. These observations are used when selecting outcomes. A variety of documentation is used to collect evidence of children’s progress including samples of work, anecdotal records, and checklists.

Children learn through observation, interaction, play and real-life experiences. All of these are incorporated into the Preschool program. Play however is seen as central to all learning.

Play allows children to:

  experiment with ideas

  take on leadership and support roles

  develop effective communication, negotiation and social skills with  peers

  apply prior knowledge in new learning situations

  work at their own pace

  use a variety of equipment to represent their ideas

  acquire new knowledge and develop imagination  

The teacher’s role in play is to:

  interact with children, and take on roles and share in decision-making

  ask questions which promote further thinking

  provide resources to enhance and extend play ideas

  provide opportunities for children to share their play experiences with others

  encourage children to reflect on and keep records of their learning through play

  value the uniqueness of each child and encourage children to respect one another  

  encourage children to develop independence and confidence in making choices

Literacy and Numeracy in the Preschool Curriculum   (top)

Understanding the purpose of print and beginning to emulate print forms are an integral part of preschool learning. Children are encouraged to use signs, labels and diagrams in play episodes. Writing, reading and drawing materials are always available. Teachers continually model the use of print and numbers in play and in  group activities.

Children are taught the conventions of print, reading and writing from left to right and from front to back. They are aware of the use of pictures to support text information and they begin to use letters and numbers in a meaningful context.

Different forms of text including stories, informative texts, letters, poems, songs, signs, lists and labelled diagrams are shared with children every day. Children are also encouraged to recognise other forms of communication including signing, music, art and drama to develop an awareness of the variety of ways people communicate their ideas to others.

The use of technology is also included in developing literacy and numeracy skills. Children use computer games that encourage awareness of letter names and sounds, number concepts and words. They begin to develop skills in using the keyboard to print out messages and stories. E-mails are sent to other centres and replies are read to the children.

Puzzles, stories, measuring equipment, telephones and games are just some of the equipment used by the children during the preschool day to develop literacy and numeracy awareness and skills.

Letterland      (top)

Letterland is a program devised to introduce children to the letters of the alphabet. In this approach, children are introduced to letter shapes, their names and their sounds. The picture codes provided help children to form visual images of the letters that helps in reproducing them. The character names for each letter reinforce the sound associated with the letter shape.

Reference: Lyn Wendon. 1997. Letterland Programme One Teacher’s Guide. England. Letterland International Limited.

As part of our approach to the introduction of the letterland characters, we have also encouraged children to be aware of the way these speech sounds are formed using mouth, lips, tongue, palate and vocal cords. This encourages children to correctly articulate the sounds associated with each letterland character.

Throughout the Letterland Source Book, there are stories helping children to begin to learn how letters function in words. We have found it a wonderful tool to encourage children’s early literacy learning.

The Queensland Print Script may not be the text that you learnt in your early school years. The shapes used provide an easy transition to letter joins in later cursive script. As children develop curiosity and confidence in exploring writing at home, use this as your guide to help them. Lower case and Upper case letters can be introduced to children. Using the computer keyboard is another tool for helping children to develop familiarisation with the names and formation of letters.

Enjoy exploring early language experiences with your child. We hope you find this helpful.

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