Play is the vehicle for learning and development in preschool children.  The more interested children are, the more they learn. Simple games often have the biggest educational benefits as children are able to explore and learn during the dynamic process.

The Nursery 2 children love to sing the song ‘1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Once I caught a fish alive’. Yes, let’s go fishing! The song inspired them to catch the correct number of plastic fish and paste them under the correct number.  After the fishing job was done, they could see for themselves and understand the value of each number.

Counting can be a enjoyable experience when done through pretend play!  The teacher started off the play scenario by showing Lego brick towers to the children.  Then, she randomly placed towers of different heights inside a hula hoop each. The children wearing a number card round their neck pretended to be fire fighters.  They were anxious to rescue the tower which was on fire.  Which tower should they rescue?

The fire fighters had to check the number card that were around their necks. They then had to count the number of Lego bricks on each tower and look for the tower built with the corresponding number of bricks they were assigned to.  For example, the fire fighter with number card ‘5’ had to put out the fire in the tower built with five bricks.  They were also able to correct one another when someone made a mistake.  As they played along, they practised counting and became more confident and accurate in it.  Most of the children were able to tell that number eight was the tallest tower.  The concrete objects gave a good visual representation to help the children observe the value of each number.  Bravo to the fire fighters from N2!

 

Counting is never a chore for the N2 children. They enjoy the counting process through such engaging activities. They also learned that they can do counting in real life. Don’t forget to count the number of steps when you climb them!