The School that Trains for Service

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

UNIT 1
Lesson 1

LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY: SOCIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES OF LANGUAGE

LANGUAGE

■ Considered one of the elements of culture

■ It is the system of words or signs that a particular group of people uses to express thoughts and
feelings with each other

■ Primary tool used in the communication process

Why languages cannot be allowed to die?

 When a language dies - we lose a piece of knowledge, of human thought, and of world-view –
and it cannot be replaced.
 Languages in danger must be revitalized and further developed because:
 they are needed to maintain cultural and linguistic diversity for a sustainable future
 they express identity, “hold” history, and transmit culture
 they contribute to the sum of human and cultural knowledge
 they are essential for human and social development – and for the fulfillment of human rights
What do we know?

 A language can survive and thrive only if it has a strong presence in the education system.
 But most education systems are inappropriate for, or even hostile to, indigenous and minority
groups and their languages.
 Large numbers of learners are forced to learn in a language (official or international) that is
different from the language they speak at home.
 People only learn to “read” once.
 It is therefore essential – both to keep cultures and their languages strong and intact and to
increase school success – that early education and initial literacy be provided in the learner’s
first language or mother tongue – which then makes it easier to master national and
international languages.
 Learners must begin school from where they “are” – in their home language -- and NOT in a
language they do not know.
 It is very difficult to teach people to read and write in a language they don’t understand.
 The starting point of learning how to read and write is the language of the learner – beginning
with the known and moving progressively to the unknown.
 Skills in the first language of literacy should be consolidated before the second is mastered -
preferably during at least three years of study.
 A strategy of multilingualism beginning with mother-tongue mastery produces better learning
outcomes and higher rates of internal efficiency – higher enrolment, less repetition, lower
drop-out rates, and higher achievement.
 Education for All can only be achieved with a strategy of mother tongue-based multilingual
education – without it, too many children will not enter school, will fail, and will drop out – or
be pushed out -- of the education system.
 Using mother tongue also:
 builds initiative and participation in learning
 stimulates the production of materials in home languages
 inserts local knowledge into the classroom
 facilitates integration into broader social, cultural, and economic contexts
 contributes to the individual and collective development of often excluded people
 can improve relations between political leaders and the multilingual population of a country
MLE for building a strong foundation and a good bridge in multilingual contexts

What are the linguistic elements of language?

1. Phonology

– The sound system of a language

2. Morphology

– The study of the structure of words

3. Syntax

– The study of the structure of sentences

4. Semantics

– The study of meaning in language

5. Pragmatics

– The appropriate use of language in different context

Why is language cultured-based?

Language Environment

 All languages take place within a particular environment

 Language that is appropriate to one environment might appear meaningless or foolish in another

4 Elements of Language Environment

■ People

■ Their Purpose

■ The Rules Communication by Which They Achieve their Purpose

■ The Actual Talk Used in the Situation

How do we acquire Language?

Lesson 2

First Language Acquisition (FLA) and Literacy Development

Different Theories that Influence Language Acquisition

1. Behaviorist Perspective (B.F Skinner)

 Believe that language like any other knowledge, skills and values can be taught to children via
repetition, imitation and habituation
  Children learn to speak by copying the utterances heard around them, and by having their
responses strengthened by the repetitions, corrections and other reactions that adults
provide.

3 Basic Parts of Audio-lingual Teaching Method

1. Presentation

Through oral and dialogue form with little explanation. Errors are immediately corrected, accuracy
emphasized, accurate repetition and memorization of the dialogue is the goal of this stage

2. Practice

Through patterned drills to help learners master the structure of the language and fluency overly
emphasized

3. Application

Through the use of the memorized structures in different contexts

 Constructivist Perspective (J. Piaget and LevVygotsky)

 Argue that children are prewired to learn and acquire language as they go through different
developmental stages

Stage Age Description

 Sensorimotor - 0-18months Knowledge is acquired and structured through sensory

perception and motor activity. Schemes involve action rather than symbols
 Preoperational - 2-6 years Knowledge is acquired and structured through symbols such as
words, but schemes are intuitive rather than logical Concrete
 Operational - 7-12yearsKnowledge is acquired and structured symbolically and logically,
but schemes are limited to concrete and present to objects and events
 Formal Operational - 12 years and older Knowledge is acquired and structured
symbolically and logically, and hypothetical/deductive (“if then) thinking can be used to
generate all the possibilities in particular situation

Cognitive Constructivism

 As children become sophisticated in their mental processes, the more susceptible they are in
acquiring and manipulating language to represent ideas

Sociocultural Constructivism

 Lev Vygotsky emphasized the importance of private speech, children talking to themselves for
turning shared knowledge into personal knowledge

 Vygotsky’s theory implies that cognitive development and the ability to use thought to control
one’s own actions require first a mastery of cultural communication systems and then learning to
use these systems to regulate one’s thought processes

 He explained that every individual has zone of proximal development (ZPD)

– the gap between actually ability, something that they can do on their own and potential
ability, something that they can do with help and supervision (scaffold)

The Critical Period (CP) Hypothesis

 Eric Lenneberg (1921-75) was a linguist and a neurologist who pioneered on innateness argued
that the development of language in children can best be understood in the context of
developmental biology that critical period inhuman maturation existed especially on language
acquisition
 Lenneberg believed that the development of language was said to be the result of brain
maturation

Innateness (Noam Chomsky)

 Chomsky argued that children are endowed with the capacity to acquire a language as they are
continuously exposed to adult speech

INPUT LAD or Universal Grammar OUTPUT

Primary Linguistic General language Grammatical

Data Child’s Speech
learning principles Knowledge
(Adult Speech)

Interactionist’ Perspective

Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory (SLT) explains that children learn from each other
and from others through observation, imitation and modeling

This theory explains that children imitate the words and language patterns they hear by
watching and listening to the models, caregivers and family members in their life

4 Phases Bandura’s Analysis of Observational Learning

1. Attention Phase

– Paying attention to the model this phase actually explains why teenagers are hooked up with pop
culture

2. Retention Phase

– Once teachers and adult have learner’s attention, it is time to model the behavior they want
students to replicate and then give learners a chance to practice or rehearse

3. Reproduction

– Learners attempt to replicate the models Behavior In the classroom, this takes the form of an
assessment of learners’ learning

4. Motivation Phase

– Children will imitate a model because they believe that doing so will increase their own chances
to be reinforced

First Language Acquisition

 In the home babies listen to language for around a year before they begin to attempt
responding in sensible syllables and words (speaking). Babies are allowed to try, to make
mistakes and to try again without blame. This same safe environment should exist in the
classroom, allowing continued development of the first language in order to continue
developing cognitive skills.
 Continuing the developing of the learner’s first language enables them to use that language
for thinking. When the mother tongue is bypassed we postpone learning until adequate
proficiency is developed in the second language. Thus mastery of content is postponed
while second and third language acquisition is taking place. First those foreign languages
must be understood before learning of content can take place.
  People say that 95 % of all Filipinos speak Filipino, but that is not true at the time young
children begin their schooling. At age 5, 6 and 7 only 30% speak Filipino. How we teach
Filipino and English are of key importance for adequate mastery and useage of those
languages. Building on the first language of the learners provides a strong foundation and a
good bridge toward learning Filipino and English.
Listening, speaking, reading and writing
The four modes of language, talking (speaking), listening, writing and reading, are all
interdependent. As learning is very much dependent on language, a classroom should be a place
where language flows confidently with the four modes constantly interweaving.
Children come to school with a good foundation of oral language development in their mother
tongue which requires expanding through experience and practice. It is the teacher's responsibility
to provide children with those experiences which will increase their language capacity and
practices, expanding their competence and confidence in the four language modes.
Conversation is an important tool for developing oral L1.
 Conversation between teacher and student
 Conversation between student and student
Conversation provides ways to
 Explore new topics
 Share tentative ideas
 Consider possibilities
There is strong positive correlation between early oral language skills and the later development of
reading and writing. However, in the focus on literacy, the importance of getting children to listen
and to talk is often overlooked. The teacher who encourages the children to listen and to talk and
to use language in all its forms, first in the childs mother tongue, will have the greatest success in
promoting the cognitive development of the children. This must first occur in a language the
learner knows best and uses most, the learners first language. Then, as oral or communicative
competence is built in the second and third languages, the cognitive abilities will transfer from the
L1 to subsequent languages learned.
Cummins (2000), an educational researcher and writer suggests:
 Children…with a solid foundation in their mother tongue develop stronger literacy abilities
in the school language.
 The level of development of children's mother tongue is a strong predictor of their second
language development…
 Children's knowledge and skills transfer across languages from the mother tongue…to the
school language
A good bridge allows learning of a new language before learning in a new language.
Reading and writing skills only have to be learned once and these skills, as well as understanding
concepts can be transferred from one language to another.

Lesson 3
Second Language Acquisition

Second language learning is more successful with a good L1 foundation. Learning a language
should come before learning through a language.
General Principles of 2LA:
 Comprehensible input is crucial – learners need to understand what the teacher is saying
in order to learn. Language learning is a result of meaningful interaction in the L2.
 Low anxiety situations enable the comprehensible input to be processed by the learner.
When high anxiety situations occur in the classroom even comprehensible input does not
get past the learners’ emotional filter.
  Social factors include societal support and opportunity to practice and use the L2 in a
(emotionally) safe environment affect language learning.
 Relationship between the learner, their cultural group and the dominant cultural group
(language status) can impact language learning.
 Beginning learning by developing BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills) for
meaningful conversation should come before cultivating CALP (Cognitive Academic
Language Proficiency).
 Basic L2 literacy helps develop cognitive process if L2 oracy – BICS is already developed.
Often development of BICS and literacy occur at the same time rather than sequentially.
 A child’s second language competence is partly dependent on the level of competence
already achieved in the first language. The more developed the first language, the easier it
will be to develop the second language.
 Use events and activities that the pupils are familiar with when using language and
learning new languages. Familiarity increases comprehension.
 Learning a language before learning in a language is crucial for educational achievement.
Five goals of language learning:
 Communication goals – using language for negotiating & sharing meaning with others.
 Language and cultural awareness goals – understanding ones own language and culture
better.
 Socio-cultural goals – understanding the target language and culture better.
 Learning how to learn goals – understanding how to learn in and through language.
 General knowledge goals – learning about the world.
Classroom Strategies
First language development
  Focus on meaning and
Focus on accuracy and correction
communication
 LISTEN Listening to understand, enjoy, Recognizing & distinguishing sounds;
appreciate recognizing parts of words; following
directions
 SPEAK Speaking to communicate thoughts, Using language correctly (pronunciation,
ideas, needs, experiences grammar)

READ Reading for meaning & understanding Decoding words by recognizing their parts

WRITE Writing to communicate thoughts & Forming letters properly, neatly, and spelling
feelings words correctly

Speaking and listening

Talk is basic to children's self-expression – that is, to personality growth. It is also, obviously,
basic to children's language growth:
 their talk and their thinking-in-language are inseparable – to silence their talk is to inhibit
their thinking;
 their early writing grows out of their 'speech written down' – so that confident talkers tend
to become confident writers;
 their early reading is largely listening with the inner ear to a writer's 'voice' – so that
confident talking also helps reading.
Talking is more than 'communication'; talking encourages learning. It is in finding words to
express ideas and feelings through talk that the child's thinking becomes clear, and confidence
grows. Talk fixes ideas in the mind better than silent thinking can do – even tentative, hesitating
talk produces more effective learning than when the child only listens. The speaker gains more
than the listeners thus the main purpose turns out to be 'talking to learn', 'not talking to
communicate'.
Every subject area offers scope for real-purpose talking and listening … real problems to solve, real
situations to explore:
 thinking up questions
 suggesting possible answers
 reflecting on experience
 Sorting ideas into order.
In every subject and every lesson there may be:
 whole class discussion
 small group discussion
 one to one discussion
 pupil reports to the class
 tape-recorded interviews
 use of radio and TV talks
 use of audio/video tapes, films.
Listening is also a means of learning, particularly when the listener adopts an interested,
expectant, critical attitude; but children, (even more than adults) find lecture-style listening
unendurable and so they lapse defensively into day dreaming or illicit talk. Talking and listening
should not be regarded as 'skills' to be 'practiced' but as language forms to be used – as adults use
them – to explore and solve problems. In this way, talking and listening, with writing and reading,
are indispensable tools of learning.
The main objective of classroom oral work is not fluency, or skill, or correctness, but to build
confidence. Fluency and other good qualities will follow. So a supportive and encouraging
classroom climate is essential and thus listening and speaking must occur first in the child’s first
language.

Kinds of Classroom Talk:

 Conversation. This is by far the most important form of talk – relatively spontaneous, and
undirected through the discussions that arise as children and teacher go about their
affairs. It does not need to be taught; but it does need to be given the opportunity to
flourish. For example use small groups and the provision of subjects within the range of
children's interests.
 Talk in 'Situations'. The teacher prescribes 'situations' such as those that are close to real
life (eg. telephone calls, greetings, real life problem solving such as “If you had).
 Talk in Drama. The simple real-life 'situations' merge into somewhat more structured
dramas of human conflict, from the role play of an improvised family squabble or the
'imaginative creations' of scenes from traditional stories.
 Reading Aloud. Whether thought of as 'reading' or 'speaking', the act of reading aloud is of
prime educational importance. Many suggest that teachers should read aloud to their class
every day (in both primary and secondary schools). The children too, when able, should get
the opportunities to read aloud, and that both these forms of reading will greatly encourage
the child's reading, writing, talking and listening abilities. Children can read aloud in pairs
or small groups, including reading their own written work, with discussion following. (But
no boring whole-class 'round robin' reading!).
 Choral Speaking. Speech-making. A group, or the whole class can prepare a poem or
rhyme, or the individual can make a speech before a group or whole class. The latter is
relatively stressful and advanced form needs a gentle approach. (Attentive listening is
cultivated by having pupils write one or two questions during the speech for asking at the
end.)
Developing Oral language for meaning and communication
Listen and respond to different kinds of questions.
 “Have you ever…?” questions.. Ask the child a question. Theme is rice. “Have you ever
planted rice?” Children talk about experience...
  Imagination questions. “If you were walking by the river and saw a tiger, what would you
do?”
o “If your small brother/sister fell into a deep hole, what would you do?”
o “If you found P100, what would you do?”
o “If you saw a friend steal someone’s money, what would you do?”
o “If you went to [name a place], what would you see?”
o Once the C understand the purpose of the game, they can make up questions for
each other.
 How & Why questions. Tell or read a story then ask “open-ended” questions about the
story.
 Prediction questions.
 Describing character questions.
Children develop their own oral stories focusing on meaning.
 Life Stories.
 Life Stories Relay.
 Guess our story
 Making stories with exaggeration
 Exaggeration relay story.
 Class story
 Students’ Skits
 Students’ report #1...
 From a picture...
Sharing ideas and information with partners or in small groups.
Focus on meaning using familiar songs, poems, riddles, wise sayings, creating new songs, creating
and achieving out songs, action songs.
Focus on meaning through listening and responding to stories.
 Listening stories
 Predict what comes next.
 Re-tell stories
 Change the ending of the story
 Act out the story.
 Listening for special words

Developing Reading and Writing in L1

Prereading and writing
• Sequencing – focus on meaning
• Sorting and matching – focus on meaning
• Talk about pictures – focus on meaning
• Making patterns – focus on accuracy
Theme pictures to develop children’s oral language skills and observation. The teacher asks
appropriate questions related to personal experiences associated with the picture.
Shared reading to encourage prediction in reading, helping learners understand the relationship
between print and speech, informally introduce print conventions provide and enjoyable learning
experience and teach sight vocabulary. Procedure:
 talk preparing for the reading, building suspense, setting the stage.
 Read to the learners while they listen or follow along.
 Talk – look at pictures, talk about the story, predict what might come next..
 Read
 Do and talk – retell, sequence, silent reading, paired reading, creative writing, keyword
lesson.
Big books to develop listening and talking, predicting, learning that print has meaning, learning
the conventions of the written word. Big books should have predictable text so that learners can
easily participate in reading with the teacher.
Listening Stories to develop hearing and communication skills and comprehension and interest in
listening and reading. Teacher reads a one page story – not more than five minute – then asks
comprehension questions about the story and leads in dialogue. As you are reading:
 ask what they think will happen next’
 ask learners to tell you something that has already happened
 ask when, where, who, how and why questions after reading.
Series Pictures for developing knowledge, vocabulary, observation and communication skills.
Teacher uses good questions to develop conversation around the pictures.
Experience stories for understanding that writing is merely our thoughts written down, that print
it intended for meaning, and to encourage creative writing and self expression. Procedure:
1. Do a group activity related to the weekly theme or talk about an activity they all know
about that related to the weekly theme.
2. Learners make up a story about that experience
3. Write the story on the board or chart paper as the learners dictate it to you. Encourage all
students to participate in creating the story. Write just what they say. Ask them “Is this
what you want to say?” and then adjust as they suggest (teaches editing).
4. Read the story back to the learners
5. Learners give their story a title
6. Read the entire story with the reading plan (below):
7. Later, copy the story onto manila paper and put it on the wall for display free reading

Reading Plan:
1. Read the entire story to all the learners
2. Read the entire story with all the learners
3. Read one part of the story (page or sentence) with one or two of the learners
4. Let one or two learners read the story by themselves
5. Read the entire story again with all the learners
Asking the right kinds of questions. Closed questions are those requiring only one word
answers or answers that are directly found in the text. These do not encourage deeper
thinking, analyzing, expressing opinion or strong learning. Open questions require complex
thinking and articulation of one’s thoughts in response. Open questions build thinking skills
and language skills while giving control of the conversation to the learner.

Second language acquisition – strengthening learning Filipino and English through TPR
TPR principles
The success of TPR is built upon these foundational principles of second language acquisition
theory: Languages are best learned when the learner receives lots of comprehensible
(understandable) input in a low anxiety situation. For young learners, listening to a teacher
give instructions in a still foreign language or listening to a radio broadcast in the L2 is not
understandable; listening to short chunks of the L2 followed by physical response is much
more understandable.
Beginning language learners can benefit greatly from a "silent period" in which they learn to
understand and respond to parts of the language without attempting to speak it. This is also
referred to as "delayed production," and reflects the way that children learn their first language.
The basic idea behind Total Physical Response is that a language learner learns to hear
something in the language and then physically respond to it. Often at first the segments
uttered in the L2 are commands such as "stand up," "sit down," "walk," "touch your nose," and
so on. However, as discussed in a section below, TPR is easily extended to other verb tenses
and more complicated sentence patterns. By using gestures and props, the teacher is able to
add enough context to his speech to help convey meaning to the learner. The teacher needs to
control the number of new items to be learned each day, limiting them to 2 -3 and reviewing all
items learned each day to ensure strong learning and building on previous lessons.
During this learning time, the students only listen and respond. Trying to speak too soon 1)
may distract them from rapid vocabulary development, 2) will likely cause their anxiety level to
rise which could decrease their ability to remember what they have learned aurally, and 3)
could harm long-term pronunciation if they develop bad habits before having heard lots of
language.
TPRB
TPR-B for "TPR with body", includes everything that can be done with general body movement:
stand up, sit down, turn around, turn right, turn left, lift up your arm, touch your nose, etc.
This is best done in a room with some space to move around.
TPR Object
TPR-O stands for "TPR with objects.” This is best done sitting at a table that has some objects
on it. For example, one day the teacher could bring produce from the market. That day the
students could not only learn the words for "apple," "banana," "orange," and so on, but also,
"give me," "take," "put," "smell," "bite," "roll," "peel," and "show me." For this activity, the
teacher could start off with: "This is an apple. This is an orange. This is an apple. This is an
orange. Where is the apple? (The students point.) Where is the orange?" Once again new words
can be fairly quickly built up one at a time. (Remember, only add two or three new items a day.
Once the new words are learned they can be combined with forms learned previously, building
on the language. For example, phrases previously learned such as put on top of, put
underneath can be used when learning the above names of fruit. The following day add the
other verbs such as give me, take, and smell etc. 2 or 3 a day only.)
When doing TPR-O, always remember to learn verbs that are associated with the objects they
are learning. For example, if the students are learning about a radio, they can learn the parts
of the instrument as well as words associated with its use, such as turn it on, turn it off, turn
up the volume, turn down the volume, change the station, open up the battery case, take out
the batteries, and so on.
TPR with Pictures
TPR-P stands for "TPR with pictures." Pictures are extremely effective language learning tools.
The teacher may have large photographs or could use cut out pictures from a newspaper or
magazine. If the pictures are from the community, it will be even more effective. The teacher
could go through and say "This is a man. This is a boy. This is a man. This is a boy. Where is
the man? Where is the boy?" Gradually both background and foreground objects in the
pictures could be learned, as well as verbs: "The carpenter is hitting the nail with a hammer,"
leading to requests such as "Show me the man who is hitting something." Even verb tenses can
be incorporated by the teacher talking about all of the pictures as if they happened last week,
or now, or next week. The actual physical response with pictures is fairly basic--pointing at
something--but the opportunity for vocabulary acquisition is as broad as the types of pictures
one can use. In addition to taking one’s own pictures, children's picture or story books can also
be used for this kind of learning.

TPR Storying
TPR-S was developed by Blaine Ray and is being used in classrooms throughout the United
States. It involves the teacher (and eventually the students) acting out simple stories as a
means of understanding the story and internalizing vocabulary.
What about Speaking?
At some point students will feel the urge to start speaking. Don't push it, but at some point
they can begin saying things for the teacher or their peers to do, from "stand up" to "turn the
volume down" to "show me the man who ate fish yesterday." They can also speak about a table
of objects: "This is a ball. This is a key. This is a book. The pen is on the book." And finally,
they can describe pictures in any tense: "The man ate fish. The boy read a book."
Things to Remember when Teaching with TPR
The most common mistake that teachers who are new to TPR make is to introduce new words
too quickly or to introduce them two or more at a time. Students will feel overwhelmed if they
don’t receive enough repetition. The teacher should learn to continually monitor and evaluate
the students’ progress and make minor adjustments as needed. The secret of TPR is to make it
a regular, ongoing part of the language study program, with great emphasis at the beginning
but continued use throughout the school years.
Math’s
As with pre reading and prewriting skills, children also need to become “number ready”.
Activities should be interesting and enjoyable and children require direct manipulation of
concrete objects to understand the mathematical concepts. Learning should therefore be
planned sequentially from real-life/concrete objects to abstract

• real-life objects
• pictures of objects
• pictures of shapes and figures

Concepts can be developed through matching, identification, naming objects and naming
pictures of objects.

Math skills in everyday life

Skills development focuses on training. The teacher will:
• teach by introducing drilling, and by demonstrating
• correct mistakes
• encourage mastery of skills
• stress accuracy
• help learners become competent
• aim to develop methodical behaviors, accurate thinking and problem solving.
Math is taught in the classroom in the context of the day-to-day lives of the children and by
focusing on understanding their uses in local culture and environment. The primary tool for
teaching is the theme and the five streams listed below will guide the activities, plus games and
number stories.
The teacher:
• teaches by doing
• builds confidence
• encourages creativity
• stresses understanding
• surrounds learners with meaningful materials
• aims to develop original and creative thinking and problem solving
These areas can be taught through activities related to the theme. The following provides some
ideas.

Classifying objects (sorting):

• sets of things
• color, shape, size

Activities:
• sorting objects on a certain set of criteria -
• sorting pictures of fruit, animals, color
• sorting fruit we peel and fruit we don't peel
• sorting leaves on basis of color, shape and texture
• sorting seeds, stones, etc

Making sets of numbers:

• sets of 3 stones
• sets of 5 leaves

Materials for sorting and counting: Stones, seeds, wooden shapes, counters

Sequencing:
• Stringing colored beads in sequence: 2 red, 1 blue, 2 yellow, 2 red, 1 blue, 2 yellow......
• Stories based on sequence (e.g. butterfly story)
• daily routines
• rhymes based on sequence
• pattern making
• Sorting from biggest to smallest
• Have pictures on cards – different sizes. Ask child to point to the smallest/largest, biggest
Problem solving:
• Maze: prepare a maze on a sheet or on the floor. Find the way through
• Puzzles: join the pieces together – start simple

Counting:
Number in sequence – start with concrete objects, then pictures of objects, then you can go on
to dots before using number symbols
• Use fingers and toes
• Concrete objects, stones, seeds etc... demonstrate the ability to count by touching each
stone
• Counting rhyme
• Count different things in the classroom
• Play counting games
• Count trees, houses etc...
• Clapping – how many times
• Sitting in a circle – each child says the next number starting at 1..... 10
• One to one correspondence: place 5 objects in a row. Ask child to put one seed/stone
under each object. (each glass with a spoon/straw). E.g. Ten hens with ten eggs. Five nests,
five birds. Laying a table with places – enough for each person.
• Set up rows of same number of things (stones, leaves, seeds, sweets....
• Teacher calls a number: children get into groups of that number. E.g. three.... children get
into groups of three.
• Clap when counting – e.g. count to 10, with 10 claps
• Cards with dots on: how many dots one each card.
• When children know the number symbols, play dominoes – one part number and one part
dots.
• Place number cards in order. Child should put the same number of beads on or beside the
card.
• Draw a number of objects on a sheet of paper. Ask child to color in a number of objects –
e.g. one tree, three birds....

Comparison:
• Big, small
• tall, short
• heavy, light
• long, short
• high, low
• more, less
• first, last
• left, right

Activities
• Give each child a stick with leaves – ask them to sort the big from the small
• Through stories (big lion, small mouse)
• Observation when going out... big house, tall tree
• Use cards with long short objects etc...
• compare heights of children -make marks on wall
• Using objects to measure (toothpicks along a ruler; hands to measure each other)
• Heavy and light objects – put in order
• Stand in a circle – reach up high. Now bend down low
• Meal times – who has more rice? Who has less dhal?
• Playing with water – containers of different sizes and shapes. Which holds more/less
water? How many cups does it take to fill the jug?
• How many boys, how many girls in the class?

Cultural math calendar activity

Develops language related to math. Procedure:
• Put the date on the calendar
• Count the days to any special event – birthdays, celebrations, holidays...
• Say the date together: Yesterday was Wednesday, February 17, 2010. Today is Thursday,
February 18, 2010. Tomorrow will be Friday, February 19, 2010.
• Together say the days of the week and the months of the year.
• Odd and even count – keep tally of dots in groups of two to show if the number of the day is
odd or even. Then count by twos.
• Fact family chart – call on a students to state a fact family of today’s date. On even days
ask them to think of doubles: 7+7=14...
• Tally chart – use tally marks to indicate the number of the current day. Count tallys by
fives and tens.
• Days of school number line – From the beginning of school keep a number line relating to
how many school days have gone by. Count the days by ones, twos, fives, tens, and backward
from 20. Use sticks or straws to indicate the number of days of school past. Bundle the sticks
by ten and eventually by 100s. Together count the tens and ones: 10, 20, 21, 22, 23... Write
the number with the tens and ones in the correct place value. Write the expanded notation of
the number: 20+3=23.
• Money chart: draw circles representing different denominations of coins. Sort and count the
proper coins representing the number of school days.