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Literacy and numeracy learning begins as soon as we start to interact with the world and the people around us. As children begin to hear and connect sounds to meaning they start the journey of becoming literate. Similarly, as children begin to quantify and measure their environment they start to build their numeracy skills. While literacy and numeracy skills are foundational in English and mathematics, the Australian Curriculum recognises their importance across all learning areas. For example, numeracy is integral to both science and digital technologies, and literacy is vital to all elements of learning and comprehension. Being literate is not simply a function of English. As learners we need to develop a range of literacies with vocabularies and concepts particular to different aspects of the curriculum. For example, developing a digital literacy is important to understanding both the roles and functions of ICT and capacities in the digital technologies. There is a plethora of resources and activities to assist you in implementing literacy and numeracy across the curriculum. As a start, try using the ‘Browse by the Australian Curriculum’ menu on the Scootle website. In this edition of the ESA News, we’ve highlighted some of our most popular literacy and numeracy resources. Read on for more. Early yearsMy design: talking cat: create own text Middle yearsThe Metrix: new planet: decimals Upper yearsWhy Shakespeare is still relevant today What’s new in Scootle?This month's release includes history resources on significant Australians for Year 5; a student video defining the difference between formal and informal writing for years 8 to 10; practical hands-on lessons for engineering and science; and a series of topic-based collections from The Conversation for years 10 to 12. Supporting engagement with literacy and numeracy learning at homeLearning does not stop at the school gate, but finding practical and meaningful ideas and activities that parents can pick up and use to reinforce classroom learning can be difficult. Learning Potential Resources has a great collection of practical and user-friendly resources for primary school children that are designed to solve that problem. Find offline and online activities, all designed to support the Australian Curriculum. And best of all, they are free! Like to promote it in your school community? We can provide you with content for newsletters, flyers and social media posts. Create readers in your schoolThe following links provide ideas for creating readers and promoting literacy in your school. The Australian Reading Hour – a perfect fit for school libraries myfuture activities to help children learn about careersThe earliest and often the most powerful learning about careers is shaped by the adults in a child's life, particularly by parents. The Career insight section of the myfuture website contains articles that assist young people to learn about the world of work, and boost their confidence when making career choices. Implementation with Digital TechnologiesF–2This lesson idea takes a LEGO® building challenge where students interact with each other, develop listening skills, create, and follow instructions. The Digital Technologies focus is on algorithms: creating and following step-by-step instructions to achieve a desired outcome. Use Time to rhyme to retell a known nursery rhyme, using ScratchJr to create an interactive animation. See Spelling bee for how to write a set of instructions to program a Bee-Bot to move to letters that spell out a word on an alphabet grid. Years 3–4Use Plan a 'choose your own adventure' story to focus students on creating a storyboard to plan a story where the reader is provided with a number of decisions that lead to alternative endings. Years 5–6In the lesson Class blog, students unpack elements of English and Digital Technologies and investigate the concept, purpose, and critical features of a good blog. Scootle LoungeMoving pictures: video narratives for multimodal literacy The importance of school libraries in the Google Age ELLA programLanguage, culture, understanding. It all starts in preschool. That's why over 1,800 Australian preschools are currently learning one of seven languages within the Early Learning Languages Australia (ELLA) program. Playful ELLA apps for tablet devices reflect common childhood experiences of things such as playgrounds, birthday parties and animals. Educators say: 'I am in awe of how quickly the children learn and have loved this learning', and 'The program fits in well with our preschool program and routines'. Visit www.ella.edu.au to find out more about this exciting program. To be alerted when applications for 2018 open in October 2017, email ella@esa.edu.au. Have your say: Teaching the Digital Technologies curriculumCalling all Australian F–6 teachers and pre-service teachers. Please complete this survey, which explores your confidence in teaching the Digital Technologies subject of the Australian Curriculum. The survey should take 15–20 minutes to complete, and it is open to all Australian educators. Upcoming eventsConferences ESA is attending
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