Learning at primary school
Getting your child ready for literacy and numeracy learning at primary school.
Literacy
Literacy involves speaking and listening, reading and writing. Engaging with your child in play-based literacy activities every day will support their development of early literacy skills.
Talk and interact with your child. Through talk, children learn about communicating with others. They also learn how to take turns, ask questions and develop a knowledge of words. These skills help children develop a strong foundation for reading and writing.
Activities to try with your child
Speaking and listening
Speaking and listening skills are important for children to socialise, make friends and to actively participate in school activities.
Make conversations fun. For example, make up funny or nonsense rhymes.
Use everyday words that are part of your child’s culture, experience and interests.
Have fun with the sound of letters. Make up silly sentences using words that start with the same sound, such as, “Sam sat on 6 socks.”
Reading
Read to and with your child daily. Encourage your child to explore books by themselves or with a family member. This will support your child to understand how books work and build a love of reading.
Read books with rhymes and riddles that your child enjoys.
Sing songs. Make up a song about an everyday activity such as getting dressed.
Drawing and writing
Encourage your child to draw or write about topics that interest them. This will help your child explore how messages can be communicated in different ways.
Ask your child to draw or write about things they like to do, make or play. Talk with your child about their drawing or writing.
Encourage them to create a card for a friend, or an invitation to a special event or celebration.
Curriculum
Each year, students are taught from syllabuses developed by the NSW Education Standards Authority. Schools and teachers use these syllabuses to create lessons. These syllabuses explain what knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes students should gain at each learning stage.
Numeracy
Numeracy is the ability to confidently use mathematical skills in learning and daily life. It involves understanding how numbers work in everyday situations.
We see and use numbers daily. For example, we see page numbers in books, and when we buy something, we add and subtract numbers.
Activities to try with your child
Numbers and counting
Encourage talking and learning about numbers during daily activities.
Play board games that use dice and counting.
Find numbers or count objects when going on a walk or other daily activities.
Sing counting songs such as ‘Five little ducks’ or ‘Ten green bottles’.
Adding and subtracting
Support your child to develop a sense of adding and subtracting.
Add or subtract everyday items such as putting food in their lunch box or taking food out of their lunch box.
When shopping, talk about how many items need to be purchased. For example, “how many bananas do we need for everyone in the family?” “If I have one banana how many more do I need?”
Identifying and creating patterns
Have fun recognising, creating, identifying, copying and continuing patterns every day.
Play clapping games where you clap a pattern and your child repeats the pattern.
Create patterns with everyday items such as toys and pencils.
Always encourage your child and use activities and topics they are interested in. If you speak a language other than English, it is important that you support your child to use their home language when interacting.
Most importantly, have fun with your child and make use of opportunities in everyday activities. The early years are critical to developing a lifelong love of learning.