Port Folio Objective 2.2

Objective 2.2

Recognises subtle differences & levels in literacy & numerical learning & development according to age, ability, culture & social circumstances.

Experience

Children love learning to swim; I know this as I am a swimming instructor and see the happiness on their faces when they arrive to the lesson. They are excited and always happy to see you helping make teaching so much more enjoyable and when the audience is enthusiastic. I teach a range of age groups and ability levels. My favourite level would be the water babies from 6 months – 2.5 years age group where teaching water safety with confidence and movement through the water is primarily the lesson. You would be amazed at the things a young baby can do in the water while not having these same movement abilities on land.

 Differences occur not only between land movements and those completed in water, but also as children grow, so do the understandings of instructions and skills. I will discuss the different age levels in this section and how the growth in understanding is affected by age

Name	Age	Size of Class
Water babies	6 months - 2.5 years	10 children with 1 accompany parent each

Literacy and numeracy are apparent in my swimming lessons at every moment with instructions being the core component for both. The water babies lesson begins with singing welcome songs, where children clap and splash along, quite often singing in time as well. This shows memory recall in action and is seen throughout the lesson with other songs that are sung. As children get older, memory increases with new babies only aware of the song being sung while toddlers can help me sing and dance along to the song they have learnt. All songs have a water aspect incorporated, whether it be splashing or kicking and the children know which component connects with each song just by naming the title of the song.

When we sing songs and perform actions, majority of them are completed in sets of three where older children count and quite often remind me that we have ‘one more’ to go showing an understanding of numerical value. Each song is completed in a circle, which teaches children about shape and then move to the wall where children ‘line up’ and use terminology such as rows to complete the instruction. Parents help the younger children in the beginning but as they increase in ability level it is amusing to hear the children telling their parents to move as they are in the ‘wrong’ position.

The submerging songs along with some others use a moving circle which not only includes shape but direction as well. We change directions and I use the vocabulary ‘clockwise’ and ‘counter clockwise’ along with other words that mean to change direction in order to increase their interest and knowledge. The submerging in particular has a counting cue that children learn indicates going under water, where they could understand the count to take a breath and close their mouth or get upset and not want to go under water. Either way they are making the connection between counting and the action that follows.

An important part of each lesson is water familiarization where each child gets an individual watering can to play with ‘wash’ with. In the activity we wash four things where children can get used to water around them and running onto their bodies. We start with washing out dirty hands where children get to feel and experience touch. The next two include children lying on their backs with their head on their parents shoulder ready to wash tummies and then toes which provides a different body position and therefore new experience sometimes hard to get used to. The last part we wash is the child’s hair where water dribbles down over their eyes and children learn to wipe their eyes and wipe the water away. Once children have completed this routine many times they learn it and can tell me and prepare for what part of the body they will be washing next. This is a visual sign that children can learn to seriate and understand order related to routine that they complete.

During this topic I have come to understand and appreciate that learning literacy and numeracy can happen anywhere and that majority of activities and subjects include some form of these skills. Swimming lessons include forms of both numeracy and literacy within the programs that even babies can understand and take part in. It is evident from experience that children grow with the programs as well as their understanding and abilities to follow instructions. Memory is the most noticeable improvement for me as song lyrics and counting cues are repeated and understood, proving it is not too early to teach children aspects of both numeracy and literacy.