Answer to Question #249388 in English for Brenda

Question

Discuss the levels of the FAL foundation phase classroom in which you may teach the counting rhymes

Answer 1

The Foundation Phase is a developmental curriculum for three- to seven-year-olds.  It encourages children to be creative, imaginative and to have fun while making learning more effective. It is built on the principles of learning through play and is an essential ingredient in the curriculum. Learning through play is a powerful tool. It can help children to develop and extend their language and communication skills. Play allows them to

be creative, to investigate and explore different materials, and gives them opportunities to experiment and predict outcomes. It can also help them to develop their confidence, self-motivation and control of their own thoughts and actions. Play also allows children to test their abilities, use initiative, take risks and make mistakes without fear of failure. Through play, children learn the skills of negotiation and the art of forming relationships with their peers.

Counting Rhymes provide opportunities for children to practice a range of math skills including counting forwards and backwards, numeral recognition, using ordinal numbers, addition and subtraction. The seven stages of teaching these numbers are:

1. Counting up to 10
2. Counting down from 10 to 1
3. Counting things
4. Understanding and responding to spoken random numbers between 1 and 10
5. Being able to say random numbers when shown the figure
6. Recognizing and responding to numbers written out as words, e.g. number word recognition, word shape recognition and recognition of certain key letters. (First letter recognition isn’t enough as there are two numbers starting with T and two starting with F.)
7. Being able to write the numbers

The levels of the FAL foundation phase classroom for each subject include:

Subject Progression Requirements

Home Language- Level 4 (Adequate Achievement) (50%-59%)

First Additional Language- Level 3 (Moderate Achievement) (40%-49%)

Mathematics - Level 3 (Moderate Achievement) (40%-49%)