NCERT Guidelines

SCHOOL READINESS PROGRAMME

( Resources – NCERT- Little Steps- Readiness for Reading, Writing and Number Work)

IMPORTANCE OF READINESS

Children universally pass through identifiable stages of development. In each stage there are certain limitations and capacities to the child’s potentiality of learning.

The development and skills to be attained have to be rooted in and correlated with the developmental stage of every child. The most important  consideration when a child is readied for learning is what the child already knows. And hence, the child may be readied for learning by making use of what she / he already knows.

Readiness is a state of receptiveness and the ability to receive. A teacher cannot make the child learn unless he/ she is ready to learn. The Teacher is, therefore, expected to make the child receptive to learning in general and then make her/ him ready to learn specific items in particular.

IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT CHILDREN AGED 3-6 YEARS

      Children aged 3-6 years cannot sit still for long time.

      They tend to learn through concrete objects and first hand experiences since the ability for abstract thinking and reasoning has not yet developed

      They are curious and eager to learn.

      They are spontaneous and demonstrative in their emotional readiness towards others

      They respond readily to music, rhyme and rhythm

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE ?

GENERAL READINESS-

1.      Have adequate social, independence, communication, fine motor, cognitive skills

2.      Familiarisation with the school environment

3.      Ability to see and hear distinctly. Children having difficulty   in these faculties  need to be identified and attended to

4.      Physical fitness of children is another area of readiness to learn. Sick, undernourished children cannot learn to the extent required.

5.      Socio-emotional well-being needs to  be attended to. Children under stress, anxiety and   with different linguistic background  are not ready   for learning

SPECFIC READINESS- READINESS TO LEARN

A proper development of ‘Readiness Programme’ should be designed  for the preparation of formal reading, writing and mathematics- ie structured programmes for

·         Reading Readiness,

·         Writing Readiness

·         Number readiness

 

               

 

The following  resources, activities and recommendations are for the age group- 4- 5+ years which is the target group for Class I in KVs. Students in Class I of KVs by and large have attended pre-school, particularly in large towns and Metropolitan cities.  SRP is relevant even to that context because, it is necessary to prepare children to learning  according to the Constructivist methodology which begins with whole language to the basics- the same as how a child learns a mother tongue. Contexts in learning are important.

Therefore , designing  an environment conducive to learning readiness is  very important.

                                                                                                                 READING READINESS- PREPARING CHILDREN TO READ

SEC.	Parameter	Activities	Resources
ENABLING THE ENVIRONMENT FOR READING	Developing desirable interest and aptitude	Showing pictures of people reading Reading Aloud a story Story making	Big books of NBT Illustrated books Picture cards
	Print rich environment	Reading corner with display of illustrated picture/ story books Flannel/display  board displayed with characters from the story being read aloud / being made up Preparing an early literacy album- name, list of toys, food, wishes, dreams, family, friends drawn by the  child him/herself Food packets ( liked by children) labels	WELL ILLUSTRATED STORY BOOKS FLANNEL BOARD/DISPLAY BOARD Labels of food, food packets
	Developing vocabulary	Playing recorded stories, simple role-play, picture-reading, chain games such as, children seated in a circle with the teacher and begin - I went shopping and bought biscuits..the  next child adds on- I went shopping, bought biscuits and cake.. continued bythe next child by adding one more item Picture reading, retell known stories individually or in groups Playing shop-shop, welcoming visitors Simulated telephone conversation using a devised telephone- string and plastic cups. Songs, rhyming games Feely box activity ( guideline in TLM resource) View a muted video and speak about it Story time-	CDs, audio /video filesfiles of stories Simple class room articles for shop play, bits of paper for currency Toy telephone ,Feely Box
EVELOPING SKILLS
	PARAMETER	ACTIVITY	RESOURCES
	Auditory Discrimination- To be able to identify  and make fine discriminations between the sounds	Follow Oral directions- For ex-  Pat your head, touch your nose, turn around, pull your ear,… Game:  Rama says: Hop on one foot. Children should follow the direction only if preceded by ‘ Rama says’ otherwise they should remain in position Find the odd one in a list of  rhyming words called out Make sound boxes and arrange from softest to loudest. Activity may be adapted for students with good vocabulary by introducing sound words such bang, tinkle.. Another adaptation is using improvised /actual musical instruments and introduce words. Children may be asked to close their eyes and identify the sounds. Match objects / picture cards with same beginning sounds ex- chair-chalk, box-block Wall- window Sort out picture cards with  the same sounds from an assorted pile Antakshari- Play of words with  the last sound of the word told Riddles and Jokes GAME; FRUIT BASKET/LETTER BAG- Each child is given a letter/ name of a fruit. A pair of names are called out and they  have to exchange the seats. He/She tries to capture one of the seats and the  child without a seat becomes the ‘den’. The den calls out fruit basket ‘upset’and all players must change their seats	Sound Boxes  Small boxes with  different articles such as, grains, sands, pebbles, coins etc can be made for sound boxes Picture cards/ objects  of words beginning with same sound
	Visual Discrimination-Skill to identify, objects, pictures, letters , blends etc	Odd Man out- Make strips of  series of letters – three same and one different Arrange picture cards in proper sequence to a story Cause and effect matching  and speaking about it- ex- showing a cloudy day and the effects of it Dominoes of letters and pictures- it can  be designed  for easy and complex activities  Collect two sets of food labels keep one displayed,  one out of the other set is given to students and they are asked to  find the match. For higher order skills, picture cards with slight differences may be displayed and students asked to find an exact match Nature Walk- visits and talk about the things seen	ODD MAN OUT  CARDs Story  Sequence Cards Dominoes
	Auditory-Visual Discrimination- to establish association  between sounds and pictures	Sound  letter match- Spread out alphabet cards on the  mat and call out a sound. Students should pick out the  corresponding alphabet. Adaptation- Call out words and students find the corresponding picture card/object/sample/ realia etc. Odd Man Out- Make a series card with three words that begin with the same sound  and one that is different Flash Card Match_ Make a picture & word card- ex- picture of a cat with CAT printed on it. Another with   only the word printed on it. Students must match the picture word card to the word card. Game: pick and do- Action words with  pictures are written on cards- The cards are put  face down in a box, mixed up in a basket. Students in  turns pull out one and do the action. Others guess and speak/spell Self -Corrective Puzzles of words and pictures in jigsaw puzzle shape- Students find the match Book Talk-  Show a book, point to  the title, discuss the letters and sounds, talk about  the illustration. Then read aloud the story
	Directionality- to acquire the skill of working from left  to right direction as in Hindi and English	Book Handling- Children  will be led to quickly go through the books left to write Today’s Story- A simple 2-3 line story is written on one side of the Blackboard and children take turns to read it left to  right. Pattern Making, sequencing, ordering etc- children should be encouraged to work from left to right.	illustrated books with simple one line story Picture card or worksheets for sequencing, pattern making, ordering
Using Humour to Stimulate reading Growth		Make a Funny Book_ composed of things that thy think funny- pictures, cartoons, comic strips, funny faces, funny characters, funny songs etc	Drawings, cuttings from newspapers, magazines,

                                                                                                                 READING READINESS- PREPARING CHILDREN TO READ SUMMING UP

1.       All the activities  to  be based in the context of children’s interests, knowledge and play

2.       Readiness activities should be based on their  curriculum so that the transition to text based learning is natural and effortless.

3.       Worksheets can be designed keeping in view the skills listed

4.       A variety of TLMs  need to be used during SRP as children of that age learn mainly through sensory methods .

5.       Fun, games, movement, suspense and a spirit of adventure draw children’s attention

WRITING  READINESS- PREPARING CHILDREN TO WRITE

SEC.	Parameter	Activities	Resources
ENABLING THE ENVIRONMENT FOR    WRITING	Developing  interest and  seeing relevance of writing in Daily Life situations -          Promote the desire to learn to write on her/ his own	Giving focus to the written word Teacher calls to attention as he/she writes the everyday details on the boards Displaying pictures of writing ,as seen by the child in  daily life, and discussing about it  - mother writing a shopping list, children writing, clerk writing a bill, etc Displaying different kinds of written materials- lists, letters, bills, messages, prescriptions, Writing captions  and displaying around the classroom Changing the displays in the class display board with more text. Note:  Use thick colours crayons for writing in large , clear  print  manuscript.  These are used to arouse interest in the written word and not used for copying or reading practice.	Falsh cards Picture cards of people engaged in writing as part of their daily life activity   Samples of Messages, letters, bills, advertisements
	Writing Tool- Material pre- requisite for writing: writing with and writing on	Name  writing attempts and writing names of his her own things   Using/drawing pictures of simple traffic signals and writing, street signs, nameboards of shops, nameboard  of the class,	Large crayons paper
CREATING A NEED TO EXPRESS THROUGH WRITING	PRINT RICH ENVIRONMENT-  An environment rich in print is where children see adults reading and writing and where they are given opportunities to make sense out of print and to express their thoughts orally and in writing	LOTTO GAME- Matching  games with letters of the alphabet Making a Post Office out of a carton- dropping messages, letters, invitations, birthday cards into it and looking at it over and over again Daily WEATHER CARD – Draw the weather and write a word describing  it. Labelling storage areas in the classroom in bold letters – FAVOURITE FIRST LIST –prepared in front of the children such as First Book, First name called, First activity, List of students Birthdays, names, telephone number, Greeting Cards for special holidays and birthdays Invitations and advertisements from cards received and clippings from the newspaper, handbills etc	Boxes, advertisement clippings, alphabets, Name labels, weather cards, greeting cards, Letters , invitations
	LETTER PERCEPTION-Noticing similarities and differences and recognising the form of letters	Clay /Atta  ( wheat Flour)letters- shaping out letters and words out of plasticine ( non-toxic) / Atta PEG BOARDS WITH WIDE ARRNAGEMENT AND THEN NARROW ARRANGEMENT_ Children can thread the letter shapes using twine Bread Letters- Cutting out letters and eating them Letter Collage- Make various sizes of the same letters from cut outs from newspapers, periodicals, cut out pictures of things that begin with them and make a collage Textured/ Sensory /Feely letters/ - For children having difficulty, make a textured letter  with sand, felt paper, brush bristles Picture Writing their name- Spelling their name with pictures which begin with the letters in their name . For ex- Pari is written as  a picture name with pot, apple, ring, ice-cream	Non-toxic plasticine, home - made clay with wheat flour, bread, sensory materials such as fleece, felt, brush, sand paper
	BASIC STROKES- Drawing lines in various forms and shapes is a pre-requisite to wrting	Finger Painting Copying down patterns from the blackboard Story strokes- It’s raining lightly   /    /   /    /   /   /  / It’s raining heavily/////////////////// //////////////////////////////////// Raindrops falling on the umbrella ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Raindrops rolling under the tree Green grass that was looking fresh and greener  IIIIIIIIIIIIII   IIIIIII   IIIIIIIII	Paints, colours
DEVELOOPING SKILLS	SMALL MUSCLE DEVELOPMENT Development of small muscles so as the child may hold and move the writing instrument in a desired manner	Making a paper lace design- Fold a piece of plain coloured paper in half and then fold once more to make quarters. The folds can be triangle shaped. Then cut along the four edges, just nipping in and cut to form a lace when opened out Buttoning, unbuttoning, zipping and unzipping Tying different knots with thick ropes ( short length for safety) Simple paper folding Stencil drawing  ( TLM guide)	Blunt craft scissors Paper  Short lengths of Thick rope Origami paper Stencils of alphabets
	EYE – HAND COORDINATION- control, strengthening and coordination of hand, fingers and eye muscles	HOT BALL GAME- Children sit in a circle.A large ball is rolled from hand to hand as if it is hot and then it is rolled to one of the children, the one who gets the ball, repeats  the  hot ball action and rolls it over to another. Weaving through perforated stencils/ slotted frames Chalkboard writing  Copying letters from letter cards, stencils Writing their name on their work My Alphabet book- Children draw their own  large alphabets  and words beginning with them, containing them Completing mazes, Jig saw puzzles	Large ball Perforated stencils Slotted  frames Letter card stencils Activity sheets of mazes/ floor drawn mazes Jig saw puzzles

WRITING READINESS- PREPARING CHILDREN TO WRITE- SUMMING UP

1.       Assigning blind writing activities before the children have learnt to read  creates blocks for children

2.       The activities should provide feedback to the teacher about the skills of each child.

3.       Children who face difficulty in writing should be given more attention and engagement to orient them to write.

4.       The contexts of the readiness activities need to be based in the curriculum for transition to text based writing smoothly

READINESS FOR NUMERACY- PREPARING CHILDREN FOR NUMBER WORK

INTRODUCTION:

Like their mother tongue, children come to school with a broad background of experience in mathematical learning. One needs to plan a Number readiness Programme with these points in mind:

-          Activities should be interesting and enjoyable

-          Should involve direct manipulation of concrete objects by children

-          Activities should be sequential from the concrete to the abstract

FOR CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITES THE PROGRAMME SHOULD BE SEQUENCED THROUGH THE FOLLOWING STAGES-

Matching

Identification

Naming

STEPS AND TECHNIQUES

1.       Developing Curiosity, Interest and Strengthening of Cognitive Skills in Relation to Mathematics as a natural part of daily living to the Classroom

2.       Developing Conceptual readiness

SEC.	PARAMETER	ACTIVITY	RESOURCES
DEVELOPING CURIOSITY, INTEREST  AND  STRENGTHENING OF COGNITIVE SKILLS  IN RELATION  TO  MATHEMATICS  AS  EVERYDAY ACTIVITY IN THE CLASSRROOM	DEVELOP INTEREST  IN MATHEMATICSDesire to learn numbers and about number on one’s own        CLASSIFYING OBJECTS	Make number sets from assorted items- set of four colour pencils, set of  four red buttons/ beads, set of six seeds etc Sorting thematic collections into groups- for examples-  small stones, large stones, rough stones, smooth stones, sorting on any given or one’s own criteria	Stones, plastic toys, counters, bottle caps, beads, shapes, beans, buttons, egg trays, twigs, leaves, shells, wrappers, threads of different colours, ribbons, pieces of cloth/ fabric
	SEQUENTIAL THINKING- ability to arrange things meaningfully by oneself	Story card sequence integrating numbers/quantities, Talking about daily routine  in relation to time Rhymes based on sequence Pattern Making- follow the pattern, complete the pattern	Story  sequence cards Daily routine charts with clock face Pattern cards- Activity sheets    cut outs of shapes
	PROBLEM SOLVING- Ability to solve simple day-to-day problems	Complex mazes on activity sheets or floors Adaptation- Mazes can be drawn on large plastic sheets and spread in open areas Puzzles	Activity sheets Mazes Jigsaw Puzzles ( Guidelines in TLM Guide)
	COUNTING UP TO NINE- Ordering of vocabulary words ( numbers in sequence)	Start by counting aloud real concrete objects such as  beads, seeds etc, move on to pictures and then counting silently Counting Sounds- How many claps/ bell rings in a set time- ask a child to be a clapper- go out of the door and clap and the other children count and tell Counting circle- Children sit in a sequence and start counting . Children whose turn is to say 2/4/6 etc give a clap or thums up sign. The next child again begins with number one	Real objects  Picture cards  bell

SEC.	PARAMETER
DEVELOPING CONCEPTUAL READINESS	PRE- NUMBER  CONCEPTS- Big-small, tall-short, heavy-light, high-low, more-less ,first-last, Left-right and so on Significance of Pre- number Concepts It helps  a child in making the correct assessment about value of number before he/she Understands the more complex mathematical principles. If mathematics is imposed on children before they have developed these pre- number concepts They end up learning by rote and cannot apply /link it to contexts. Therefore children should master the pre- number concepts before proceeding to learn numbers
	PRE- NUMBER CONCEPT	ACTIVITY	RESOURCES
	BIG-SMALL	AROUND THE CLASSROOM- Collect various articles around the classroom. In groups arrange them from big to small  Play Fire on the mountain- When the music stops form groups of tall short. Find the tallest and the shortest	Articles in the class
	LONG-SHORT	Children measure each other with yarn or string Give a set of ice-cream sticks/tooth picks. Ask children to find how many make a length of a scale	Yarn, string, toothpick, ice-cream sticks
	HEAVY-LIGHT	Feely bags- provide different  weights of feely bags and ask children to classify Give an assorted group of items and ask children to classify into light and heavy, things that weigh the same Arrange objects from the  lightest to the heaviest Give children large light objects ( Cotton bags, filled balloons and small heavy objects and ask them to classify into heavy and light	Feely bags Assorted items Light and heavy objects
	HIGH-LOW	CALL- RESPONSE  ACTIVITY- Make children stand in a circle. Ask children to stand on toes and raise their arms above their heads when the teacher says ‘high’ and to bend down with hands when she says ‘low
	MORE-LESS	WATER PLAY-  Varying shape but similar size- Ask questions such as Which one holds more water? How many cups of water does it take to fill a bucket BOYS- GIRLS- Ask children to count the  number of boys and girls in the class and find more or less	Containers of different shapes Containers for water-  paper cups,  paper glasses, buckets etc
	FIRST- LAST	RUNNING RACE- Organize a short race in groups for the  class and find first and last Student Line-up- Identify the first and the last Student Seating- Identify who is sitting on the  first bench and the last bench  Identify the First bell and the Last Bell in school

SEC.	PARAMETER
DEVELOPING CONCEPTUAL READINESS	SPACE  CONCEPTS- IN-OUT, UP-DOWN, FRONT-BACK, FULL-EMPTY, ABOVE-BELOW, TOP-BOTTOM, OVER-UNDER, OPEN-CLOSE,LEFT-RIGHT It helps to develop a basic sense of space and also to recognise and identify relative positions and use appropriate vocabulary
	SPACE CONCEPTS	ACTIVITY	RESOURCES
	SERIATING THINGS IN ORDER	Collect assorted sizes of leaves , preferably same kind , first  arrange from small to big. Then  give any three cards and ask them to arrange, add three more, go on increasing the number as the child repeatedly arranges and rearranges. Ask the child to arrange always from left to right. Adaptation_ Write any number in different sizes   on cards. Let the child pick the smallest and the largest. Next give the child any three and continue. The activity can be assigned in small groups	Leaves, number cards
	ONE TO ONE CORRESPONDENCE- the method to determine if one set of objects contain the same number, more or fewer than another set is by matching each object in one set with an object in the second set.	Place five leaves in a row and place  a stone below each leaf. The teacher demonstrates this. Next give sets of objects to children and let them ascertain if there’s one to one correspondence- Paper cups and drinking straws, paper plates and plastic spoons Sharing- Ask a child to distribute one paper plate to each child, another to distribute one napkin to each and another  abiscuit / food item to each. Count each child by  touch and calling out first, second..	Leaves, stones Paper cups, plates. Straws, plastic spoons Toy kitchen set or  disposable cutlery
	NUMBER CONCEPT- Number is an idea. It is an abstract concept which comes to our mind after counting things.	Number dominoes- a domino is a card with a number on one side and representation/ pictures on the other. It can also be a number card. Children play  by matching one side to another domino- either the picture or the number Types of Dominoes- number dominoes, number object dominoes, Dot dominoes, dot number dominoes Arrange random number cards on the  floor- ask children to arrange matching number of beads below each card Write number on envelopes. Children are asked to place the  corresponding number card or the number of beads/ stones etc in the envelope  Make an identical set of number cards of two/4/6 sets. Arrange them face down. Children find pairs by turning them up.	4                        A dot number domino