Thrive Group Tasmania recognises that childhood is a vital period in children’s learning and development. We are committed to providing children with opportunities to maximise their potential and develop a foundation for life long success.

Here at Thrive Group we understand that the first five years of life offer an important period of time, with rapid brain development that does not occur at any other stage.  It is during this time that we are able to provide many opportunities for children to use literacy and numeracy skills to explore, be exposed to and participate in, by embedding rich and meaningful learning experiences within our programs.

Literacy

During the early years, children acquire the ability to think, speak, learn, and reason. Young children’s ability to use language and understand the meaning of spoken and written words is related to later achievement in reading, writing, and spelling.  Children develop literacy as they engage in everyday experiences such as singing, cooking (looking at recipes), and going to the supermarket (looking at signs and labels), developing the skills for learning and engaging with society. 

At Thrive group we encourage children to take part in conversations, chatting, listening to peers and learning from each other in positive ways. We have fun with language by making up stories, reading a vast assortment of familiar and unfamiliar books, repeating and memorising songs, rhymes, poetry and jokes. We love listening and watching children’s stories as they transfer their knowledge from one context to another in puppet/finger play and dramatic play. We use props to re-enact our favourite stories such as ‘Going on a Bear Hunt’, ‘Wombat Stew’ and ‘Tiddalik The Frog’. We provide experiences such as drawing, painting and modelling where children are free to communicate their thoughts. Many opportunities arise from a painting activity leading to exchanges in conversations between educators/peers and children. 

“Reading is a passport to countless adventures.” – Mary Pope Osborne

Numeracy

Numeracy is the ability to recognise and apply maths concepts in all areas of life. In early childhood, children can be exposed to numeracy through everyday activities such as going to the supermarket (using money or recognising shapes and sizes of fruit or packaging), cooking (measuring or weighing out ingredients) or assisting with the washing (counting how many pegs are being put on the clothes line).  

At Thrive Group we use numeracy within our programs and routines on a daily basis. We provide areas where children can sort and classify a range of objects such as leaves, rocks and shells, putting them into sizes/shapes and colours. Children are able to symbolise when participating in dramatic play using pretend money and recognising labels on packaging. Cooking with their peers assists children to measure out ingredients and think about time when preparing or cooking. Creating architectural designs using different assortments of blocks or cardboard boxes enables children to measure, reason, visualise and problem solve. Water play teaches children about volume, measurement and capacity.

“Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about understanding.” –  William Paul Thurston