QKLG 2024

Communicating: Learning and development area (QKLG 2024)

The foundation for children becoming effective citizens is their development of language, literacy and numeracy. Being able to communicate, including their ability to express their ideas and feelings, to question, learn, connect and interact with others, is fundamental to children’s everyday lives.

Children feel a strong sense of identity and connectedness when their diverse communication skills are valued in the kindergarten environment. Children may communicate through Standard Australian English (SAE), home language/s, signed language/s, visual communication such as gestures, or augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).

Building language and literacy capabilities — including self-expression, comprehension, vocabulary, and phonological and phonemic awareness — supports children to become effective communicators. Children interact, listen, speak, create, write, view and engage with a range of texts in personally meaningful ways to make meaning from the world around them.

Building numeracy capabilities supports children’s capacity, confidence and disposition to use mathematics in everyday situations. Exploring mathematical ideas such as number, patterns, measurement, space and spatial relationships in everyday situations supports children in their practical application of mathematical concepts, fostering numeracy development. Engaging in problem-solving with children provides meaningful opportunities to use mathematical thinking in real life contexts.

Kindergarten children who are becoming effective communicators are:

engaging with and expanding language
building literacy in personally meaningful ways
building numeracy in personally meaningful ways.

Critically reflecting on Communicating, teachers and educators may consider:

how they promote children’s communication skills and vocabulary development
the opportunities provided for children to engage with a range of texts
opportunities to build mathematical understandings and confidence to support children’s mathematical thinking through play- based learning.

Key focuses

Significant learnings	Emerging phase in familiar situations with explicit support	Exploring phase in familiar situations with occasional support	Extending phase in new situations with occasional prompting
communicates verbally and nonverbally with others	begins to use nonverbal strategies, spoken/ signed language/s or AAC to communicate e.g. uses modelled gestures or vocalisations to communicate wants or needs	communicates using nonverbal strategies, spoken/signed language/s or AAC e.g. uses gestures and vocalisations to make requests and express themselves	communicates confidently using nonverbal strategies, spoken/signed language/s or AAC to make meaning e.g. initiates an interaction to communicate interests, wants or requests using gestures and vocalisations that convey their meaning effectively
expands vocabulary	uses a small range of familiar words to express themselves e.g. uses single words to label familiar objects or people with adult modelling	uses an increasing range of words to express themselves e.g. uses familiar words to express their thoughts and experiments with using new modelled vocabulary in play and interactions with adult support	uses phrases to express themselves e.g. connects increasingly complex ideas drawing on a wider vocabulary modelled in texts and interactions
builds awareness of sounds and letters	notices sounds and letters in familiar words e.g. notices the beginning sound or letter (spoken or signed) of their name with explicit modelling and shows interest in repeating that sound or letter, developing correct pronunciation	explores sounds and letters in familiar words e.g. recognises the initial sound or letter (spoken or signed) of their name after adult modelling and experiments with that sound or letter in word play and rhyme, demonstrating increasingly accurate pronunciation, with encouragement	recognises a range of sounds and letters e.g. identifies initial sounds or letters (spoken or signed) and uses sounds or letters to invent and play with words, pronouncing them clearly, with prompting

Intentional teaching strategies to promote learning include:

modelling and identifying skills to engage in and sustain back-and-forth exchanges, e.g. listening, looking at signs, gestures or cues, seeking more information, relating to personal experiences
identifying new vocabulary and language patterns in songs, stories and rhymes
making connections to how language and communication are used for various purposes, e.g. describing and imagining
providing learning opportunities to purposefully practise language, communication and listening skills in a range of contexts
reflecting on and valuing culturally meaningful practices for communicating and listening.

Significant learnings	Emerging phase in familiar situations with explicit support	Exploring phase in familiar situations with occasional support	Extending phase in new situations with occasional prompting
interacts by communicating and responding purposefully with others	responds to a direct query e.g. attends to the person communicating and provides a response to show they have understood what has been communicated	responds to others during interactions e.g. listens to ideas shared by others and with assistance waits for their turn then shares an idea related to something they heard	engages in sustained interactions e.g. interacts with peers to collaboratively organise a game by sharing and listening to ideas with infrequent prompting
engages with a range of texts for purpose and meaning	responds to familiar texts e.g. frequently revisits a familiar, tactile lift-the-flap text and responds to explicit modelling to connect text images, language or ideas to the features	explores and responds to a range of texts e.g. views texts and responds through dramatic play experiences to understand language, ideas or events in texts by sequencing and retelling, with encouragement	engages with a range of texts e.g. listens to texts and responds to opportunities to question and share thoughts on language, ideas and purpose of text, with prompting
makes connections between texts and personal experiences	shares a personal connection to a familiar text e.g. responds to a request to share a personal experience after reading a story about pets, sharing they have a pet	considers connections between texts and personal experiences e.g. shares their experience caring for a pet after reading a pet story, with encouragement	identifies connections between texts and personal experiences e.g. describes a personal connection between a story and their own experiences, after an initial prompt
builds awareness of ways images add meaning to print	begins to notice images in texts e.g. points to and names a familiar image and, through explicit adult modelling, is made aware of a connection between the image and print in the text	recognises images in texts e.g. points to images that help to understand characters, feelings, places or events in a familiar story, with adult guidance to notice these	identifies images that add meaning to a text e.g. uses images to support their interpretation of a text and describes how the image helped them, with prompting
develops writing behaviours	experiments with writing implements and begins to make marks e.g. begins to show interest in making marks with an adult to create props for play experiences	explores using writing implements to make marks and convey meaning e.g. experiments with mark-making and ways to ‘write’ using lines, shapes and symbols. May attempt to copy some familiar letters from environmental print to create signs for dramatic play, with encouragement	uses mark-making and writing to convey meaning e.g. to support dramatic play, uses a combination of marks and familiar letters or words copied from environmental print, with prompting

Intentional teaching strategies to promote learning include:

imagining with children to promote creative storytelling through puppetry or dramatic play
identifying and playing with language features in texts such as rhyme
providing learning opportunities to engage with a range of cultural texts, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander oral storytelling traditions
making connections between sounds and letters, starting with initial sounds in children’s names
explaining how children can use sounds, letters, words and sentences to communicate
identifying the sounds, symbols and visual images that children attend to when ‘reading’
encouraging and reinforcing children’s attempts at writing.

Significant learnings	Emerging phase in familiar situations with explicit support	Exploring phase in familiar situations with occasional support	Extending phase in new situations with occasional prompting
uses everyday language to describe measurement	begins to notice length, mass, capacity and/or time in daily play or routines e.g. copies and repeats adult modelling of the language empty and full during water play with buckets. With direct adult support, connects the capacity concept to the language to describe it	attempts to describe attributes of length, mass, capacity and/or time in relation to familiar objects or events e.g. responds to adult questioning using modelled descriptive words such as empty and full as they explore the capacity of buckets during play	describes length, mass, capacity and/or time in relation to objects or events e.g. uses everyday language to describe the capacity of different containers and begins to compare which hold more or less during water play, with occasional prompting
uses everyday language to describe shapes and spatial relationships	understands the language of shapes, positions and directions e.g. locates objects when features of shapes such as round or pointy are described by an adult	describes shapes, positions and directions e.g. uses everyday language such as round or pointy to describe features of shapes in the environment, with scaffolding	describes and identifies shapes, positions and directions in a range of contexts e.g. recognises shapes in the environment and uses everyday language such as round, circle or pointy to describe the features with infrequent prompting
develops awareness of number and counting	uses number names that are personally familiar and attempts counting e.g. recalls numbers from familiar stories or rhymes in play	uses counting in play and is beginning to count in sequence e.g. uses numbers and counting in dramatic play with support to count in sequence	assesses sizes of sets, using one-to-one correspondence to count in sequence e.g. estimates how many items are in a collection then counts each item in sequence to check the total, with prompting
develops awareness of patterns	notices simple patterns e.g. pays attention to the patterns of bricks in the environment when directed by the teacher	notices and copies simple patterns e.g. collects and arranges natural items to copy a pattern modelled by the teacher with support to notice the sequence of repeating elements	describes created patterns e.g. recognises patterns they see, feel or hear in the environment and describes the sequence of repeating elements, with prompting
develops mathematical problem-solving skills	follows directions to recognise everyday problems and seeks help to resolve them e.g. attends to an adult identifying how block size, weight and order are causing problems in their construction then follows directions to use and stack blocks in a different way to solve the problem	describes problems and attempts to solve them using mathematical thinking e.g. notices a stability problem in construction play and responds to open-ended questions to consider the size, weight and order of blocks in the tower to solve the problem	describes and solves problems using mathematical thinking e.g. describes and experiments with size, weight, order and position of blocks to solve stability problems in construction play, with prompting

Intentional teaching strategies to promote learning include:

making connections to mathematical concepts in everyday situations
explaining connections between numbers and counting
pausing to allow time for children to consider and make connections between mathematical experiences to solve problems
modelling and encouraging children to use mathematical language
identifying similar features of objects to form small collections and practising counting to identify the number of objects in the collection
making connections to patterns in everyday environments, texts, constructions, dances and/or architecture.

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Last updated:: 31 July 2024

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QKLG 2024

Communicating: Learning and development area (QKLG 2024)

Key focuses

Resources

Videos

QKLG 2024

QKLG 2024

Communicating: Learning and development area (QKLG 2024)

Key focuses

Engaging with and expanding language

Building literacy in personally meaningful ways

Building numeracy in personally meaningful ways

Resources

Videos

QKLG 2024