LO 2.3

Learning Outcome: 2.3
Describe the influence of perceptual-sensorial, memory, representational-symbolic & communicative-linguistic thinking on young children's literary & numerical learning & development, through sourcing further information; developing &/or collecting resources for literary & numerical teaching & learning

Since commencing my education placement in the Kindergarten at the beginning of this year, I have been collecting bottle caps from all my drink and milk cartons to use for activities with the children. By August I had managed to collect almost 300 bottle caps. I had planned to do several activities with the bottle caps: from creating bottle-top animals, to making number/alphabet stamps, and matching the letters/shapes/numbers on the caps to the corresponding letters/shapes/numbers on paper.

I have collected some instructional activities on Pinterest, based around my original bottle cap ideas. Below are some of the activities I have implemented in my programming, which encourage the development of literacy and numeracy for the children at the Kindergarten.

The first activity is stamping with number stamps.

These number stamps, which could also be letters or shapes, make learning your numbers fun and creative for children as they can make endless paintings of number, letter or shape prints and sing-a-long as they learn and play! A bonus also with this activity is that the stamps are low cost, require very little materials, time effective and are super easy to make; which I am all for with my teaching as an educator!

 For the number stamp activity we need paint, sponges, 10 milk bottle tops, PVA craft glue, paper, clean meat trays and foam numbers. The foam numbers can be purchased from a craft store. Glue one side down onto the flat part of the bottle top to show the numbers reversed.  The numbers need to be reversed because when you turn the stamps face down to stamp they will appear the correct way.  Also place the numbers on the inside of the bottle top to demonstrate to the children the correct way to hold the stamps when using them.

Exploring the number stamps in their own individual ways:  children explore and experiment different patterns with the numbers and colours of paint. They can also create new numbers by joining two of the number stamps together and counting onwards from 10.  While engaging in the activity singing can also be implemented to promote further learning and memory of the numbers as the children stamp them into paint and onto their paper.

♪ Put a ‘five’ over here and a ‘six’ over there

Put a ‘four over here and a ‘two’ over there

There are lots of different numbers everywhere, everywhere

It’s a numbers kind of day! ♫

The bottle caps are the perfect size and shape for little fingers to grip and pick up. 

Another activity using bottle caps, based around literacy and numeracy, is alphabet matching. Like the previous activity, this activity could involve the use of numbers, letters, or shapes. It is a fun hands-on activity for kids to help recognise and learn their alphabet letters.  It is also a great opportunity to introduce upper case and lower case letters and match them in a fun puzzle like activity.    

  

The alphabet matching activity requires 26 bottle tops, a large sheet of paper, coloured makers and foam letters.  Like the numbers, these foam letters can be bought from the local craft shop. Trace around the bottle tops onto the paper and write the lower case alphabet letters inside the circles. The foam letters are upper case and the letters written on the paper are lowers case, with the aim to match the two letters together, Aa, Bb, Cc, etc.  

 

 

Other activities could use these letters also: for example, encourage the children to cover only the letters that are written on a blue or yellow bottle top; or cover only the letters that have a tail; such as a g, j, p, q and y; or cover only the letters that make a round shape, such as a, b, d, g, o, p, and q. They could also cover the letters that are in their name, or make patterns and cover every second or third letter. When they become more familiar with the letters they may also be able to make words, such as dog, man, car or cat. This activity could also involve a sing-along with the alphabet song, while they lay all the bottle tops out in order of the alphabet. 

As an educator I would use these activities as I have seen first-hand the evidence towards the benefits children gain from these sorts of tasks. I would set it up as a free play activity in the kindergarten setting; an area for the children to come and go as they please, when they are interested and curious to explore and experiment in a different manner with letters, numbers and shapes. The use of bright colours makes it inviting and fun for children to learn their numbers, shapes and alphabet letters.

There are many benefits with the number stamps; they are so much fun and while kids are having fun they are also unintentionally learning and developing skills at the same time. With the number stamps children become familiar with the shape of numbers, and also begin to name and memorise numbers. Similarly, with alphabet or shape stamps, children gain knowledge and awareness of letters and the sounds and shapes of the letters as they are match with the symbols, and recognition of shapes, numbers of sides, etc. The alphabet matching activity also strongly benefits children’s literacy development. Like the stamp activity, children can become familiar with the shape of letters, and also begin to sounds and memorise each letter in uppercase and lowercase.