In the early and primary school years of a child’s education, literacy and numeracy serve as the bedrock of learning. These essential skills are more than just the ability to read, write, and solve basic math problems—they are the keys that unlock a lifetime of knowledge, curiosity, and opportunities.
Literacy equips young learners to communicate effectively, explore new ideas, and navigate the world around them. Numeracy, on the other hand, empowers them to think logically, solve problems, and develop critical reasoning skills. Together, these foundational abilities set the stage for academic success, personal growth, and lifelong learning.
In this blog, we have compiled resources that illustrate how we help students build literacy and numeracy skills, empowering them to thrive in the interconnected world of the 21st century.
Literacy
Recommended Storybooks for Preschoolers
Reading is a foundation skill taught through our International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP). But to make English lessons more engaging for young learners, our early childhood educators use fun, age-appropriate books in the classroom. Here are some of their favourite storybooks for preschoolers.
Interesting Activities Based on ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’
Literacy is about more than simply reading — it’s about engaging with the reading material. With this in mind, our early childhood educators planned engaging, hands-on activities inspired by the classic storybook, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle. This blog offers more insight into these lessons.
How To Make Instruction Writing Fun
Instruction writing helps children develop their ability to communicate clearly and effectively. They learn to express their thoughts in a structured manner, which is crucial for effective communication in both academic and professional settings. To help students develop this crucial skill, Grade 1 teachers fostered a seed-planting exercise.
Book Week
Every year, students at OWIS celebrate their love of reading during Book Week. A crowd favourite, the week-long festivity features age-appropriate activities for all grade levels. Primary school learners may dress up as their favourite storybook character. Meanwhile, older students may write a compelling poem or read aloud to younger peers.
How We Foster a Love of Reading
In this blog, we offer insight into how we foster a love of reading among our early childhood and primary school learners. In the younger grades, for example, teachers usually incorporate read-aloud sessions into daily programming. Additionally, all grade levels participate in DEAR — Drop Everything and Read. Silent, independent reading helps children build lifelong reading habits.
Scripting Engaging Learning Opportunities
Writing can be fun. Grade 1 students learned this during an exercise in which they compared the script for ‘Toy Story 4’ to the opening scene of the movie. Through this activity, children realised the important role of writing in filmmaking. They learned how to write a script, too.
Integrating Language Skills in Early Childhood
To communicate effectively, young learners must master four language skills: listening, speaking and presenting, reading and writing. In this blog, we discuss how our educators nurture these skills through engaging, play-based activities. Examples of these activities include journaling, show and tell, library time and storytelling.
Why Are Language Skills Important for STEM Knowledge?
In this blog, we offer insight into how educators incorporate literacy lessons into your child’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths education. For example, students may write formal reports about a technical subject, such as pollution or global warming. Or, they decipher technical language and vocabulary for scientific equipment and software tools. This multidisciplinary approach ensures that your child is future-ready.
Early Childhood Learners: Approaches to Writing at OWIS
At OWIS, we don’t just teach children how to write; we teach them how to write well. In this blog, we discuss techniques for introducing these literacy skills to our early childhood learners. For example, children often work in small focus groups with teachers, benefiting from more individualised instruction.
Researching Famous Personalities Through Biography Writing
Writing and research go hand-in-hand. Grade 3 students realised this while writing biographies about famous personalities such as Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein and Anne Frank. Students focused on information such as early life, family background, major events in life, lifetime accomplishments and lasting impact on society, and then presented the information to the class while dressed up as their subject.
Numeracy
The Power of Hands-On Maths Activities
Mathematics has a reputation for being dull and boring. At OWIS, we want to change that by incorporating fun, hands-on activities into our Maths lessons. In this blog, we offer examples of these inquiry-based activities — from archery games to outdoor learning tasks involving chalk.
Maths Day
Hosted every spring, Maths Day is a school-wide celebration of numbers. During this festivity, students engage in age-appropriate activities that reinforce classroom concepts like capacity, coordinates, number skills, fractions, measurement and probability. To make the day even more exciting, students spend much of it outdoors. You can learn more about Maths Day by reading this blog.
What Will Your Child Learn in English and Maths in Early Childhood
Through personalised instruction and play-based learning, students enrolled in our early childhood programme develop essential language and Maths skills. In this blog, we provide more insight into exactly which skills your child will master. During Maths lessons, for example, they will study numbers, patterns and functions, measurement, space and shape and data handling.
The Importance of Outdoor Learning in Maths
Not all learning takes place in the classroom. Realising this, our educators often move Maths lessons outdoors. This allows students to explore mathematical concepts in the real world instead of just sitting at a desk. For example, they may collect data from their environment, such as the number of red cars versus blue cars. Or, they may draw shapes using chalk.
How We Make Maths Interesting and Engaging in Secondary School
Student engagement is key to academic mastery. With this in mind, our secondary school teachers model Maths lessons around multiple intelligences. To appeal to students with interpersonal intelligence, for example, educators may incorporate group presentations into the lesson. Meanwhile, to appeal to students with linguistic intelligence, educators may ask that students write poems about Maths.
Maths Morning
On Maths Morning, students of all grade levels celebrate their love of numeracy by participating in fun activities. In the past, early childhood learners cut out 2D shapes and made creative artwork; primary school learners played Maths-related games; and secondary students explored Maths from a transdisciplinary perspective by deconstructing word problems, exploring the Golden Ratio, examining geographical data and more.
Mathematics in the PYP Curriculum
In this blog, we discuss the mathematical concepts introduced through our IB PYP curriculum and how our educators ensure academic engagement and mastery. Specifically, we offer insight into how children are provided with opportunities to apply mathematical concepts to real-world situations.
As these blogs illustrate, literacy and numeracy are at the core of what we teach at OWIS. If you want to learn more about our English and Maths curriculum, book a school tour today!
