Home / Children Learning / Foundation Stage / Literacy and Numeracy in the Foundation Stage /

Helping you to help your child
achieve their best!

 

Literacy and Numeracy in the Foundation Stage

Literacy and numeracy are important areas of learning in your child's Foundation Stage. They can be found in lots of everyday activities and can be taught in a variety of different ways...

Reading 

Reading is essential for children throughout their education, and it is good to start early. However, you shouldn't force your child to read too early. Simply reading to them and pointing out initial sounds will help them. Let them develop at their own rate. Just let them know that reading is a good, enjoyable thing and you will help when they need you. If you are worried about your child's progress in reading, talk to their teacher. It is important that you let your child's teacher know if there is a history of dyslexia in your family.

Mathematical Development

Your child will be taught about maths through songs, stories, games and play. As they progress they will learn to count and understand numbers as well as using comparative expressions such as ‘smaller than' or ‘lighter than'. They will also be aware of shapes and space.

Singing numbers - Sing songs which use numbers to help reinforce your child's learning. Songs such as ‘One, two, three, four, five, once I caught a fish alive' will help them remember basic number sequences in a fun way.

Size it up - Your child will learn about sizes, so when you are talking use adjectives of size to  reinforce their vocabulary. Big, small, long and short, are all words they will come across and be expected to know before they go into Year 1.

Snap - If you are looking for a game to play that will support your child's learning, try snap. Children learn about matching pairs at the Foundation Stage so you can help them learn while having fun!

Think of a number - On a car journey, you could play think of a number. One of you thinks of a number between 1-10 and the other has to guess what it is. Use terms such as ‘no that's too high, or too low' until they guess it correctly.

 Try to give your children positive early experiences of maths, this will help them to enjoy the subject and approach it with confidence.

Related articles

Children Learning | National Curriculum

After School | Play

 

What's it mean?

•    Find out more about the terms and names used in education. More...

 

Helping hands

• Your online Directory of support for parents and children. More...
 
pencils

Words for Foundation Stage

Children will learn words at different rates, but there are some words all children are expected to know how to read and spell by the end of the Reception year. These include

Why not create a set of cards and ask your child to identify and spell them out?

 

Books for Foundation Stage learning

So Much by Trish Cooke, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury (Walker Books), is a lovely tale, with repeating story patterns, where everyone in family shows the baby how much he is loved.

Room On The  Broom by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler (Campbell Books) is written in rhyme and tells the story of a witch and her remarkably spacious broom. It will captivate and engage even reluctant readers.

Handa's Surprise by Eileen Brown (Walker Books) is a story about a girl's journey to deliver fruit to her friend and is punctuated by a series of interventions by hungry animals. The surprise at the end of the story always captivates children and the repeating language maintains their interest.

Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae, illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees (Orchard Books). Each year Gerald dreads the great Jungle Dance, and feels sad that he can't tango and two-step with the rest of the jungle animals. One day he realises that it doesn't matter that he can't do things the way everyone else can... he simply needs a different tune to dance to.