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Writing As parents you can support your child significantly with their writing skills by doing simple activities at home. It takes time and practise for children to learn letter formation and be able to write words and sentences independently.
In order for your child to start learning to write they firstly need to learn how to hold a pencil correctly. This skill takes time to master and it can prove helpful to use a triangular pencil with a special pencil grip to begin with. Firstly, demonstrate to your child how they should hold their pencil and give them time to practise. You may decide to provide a range of coloured paper or felt tip pens for them to refine this skill in an exiting and appealing way.
Once your child is able to hold a pencil,
you can begin by teaching them how to write their name. Start by
practising in informal ways such using a paintbrush and tray with paint,
sand or shaving foam. Allow your child to explore the tripod grip and
practise holding a paintbrush correctly first. Encourage your child to
practise holding felt pens, crayons and pencil colours, by providing
them with a colouring book or coloured paper. Give them time to explore
and develop their fine motor skills. Model the correct way to hold pens
and pencils so your child becomes use to using the tripod grip. Your
child can also develop their pencil control using numbers and alphabet stencils Once your child is showing confidence with the tripod grip and has some degree of control when using writing implements, you could begin introducing them to writing. You child needs to show interest and be ready for this stage. The first step is for you to write in pen and your child to try going over each letter with their pencil. Explain to your child how each letter is formed i.e. where they should start and finish. Once they are able to write over your writing, let them practise writing over dotted words and then progress onto writing their name independently. Children gain a great deal of self esteem and confidence by being able to write and recognise their own name and it helps them immensely when starting school.
The
easiest way to teach letter formation and letter sounds is through
following the steps below and using the
Jolly Phonics Workbooks: Books 1-7 Step 1 Once your child is confident with holding a pencil and has some degree of control and coordination they can begin learning letter formation skills. The initial step is to ensure your child is able to recognise and then write the 42 letter sounds in the Jolly Phonics scheme. Some sounds are written with two letter such as 'ee' and 'or', these are called diagraphs. The easiest way to teach letter formation is though fun and practical ways which engage your child. You may choose to introduce one or two letter sounds a day or one a week depending on the ability and age of your child. Remember make sure you reinforce each letter sound everyday before introducing the new letter. Develop letter formation through plenty of practise using informal methods such as trays of coloured sand, glitter, paint or shaving foam. Children love using their fingers to practise letter formation and the experience is far more sensory and visual. Ask your child to say the sound, write it and then sing the accompanying song. Each of the Jolly Phonics letter sounds has a Jolly Song to accompany it, with actions to aid memory.
Tip-
A lovely way to teach letter formation is using Brightly Coloured Chunky Chalks Step 2 The letter sounds are divided up into seven sets, so it is best to focus on one set of letters at a time i.e. the first set being ‘s,a,t,i,p,n’. The letter sounds are not introduced in alphabetical order. The letters are taught in specific sets with the first set 's, a, t, i, p, n', choosing because it allows one to make more three letter words than any other six letters. Once your child is able to read and write the first set of letters, they can practise word building and reading using these letters. For example, ‘s, a, t, i, p, n’ Work with your child and think of as many words as you can using the first set of Jolly Phonics* letters. If they need prompting to find a word, sound out the word clearly emphasising and elongating each letter sound clearly e.g ‘s’ – ‘a’ – ‘t’ is ‘sat’. An ideal way to practise word building is through using large Magnetic Wooden Letters. Give your child a set of letters from the Jolly phonics scheme and let them try making as many words as they can.
Encourage your child to say each letter sound and then read the word as
this will develop their skills of blending and segmenting sounds,
necessary for both reading and writing. Once
your child is confident with word building encourage them to try writing
down the words so they become more confident
with their
independent writing e.g. sat, pat, pan, pin, tin, tip. It would be
easiest if they had their own Magnetic Whiteboard and pen Step 3
When your child is competent with the
first set of letter sounds move on to focusing on the next set of Jolly
Phonics letter sounds. The seven sets of Jolly Phonics letter sounds. Complete step 2 with each set
of letters and letter sounds, until your child is familiar with all seven sets
of the Jolly Phonics letters.
To develop writing you might choose to use
Stencilets Step 4 Once you have learnt the letter sounds and your child is competent with identifying and writing the letters you can move on to teaching them the tricky words identified by the Jolly Phonics scheme. You could start with teaching one tricky word every two days and learning how to read and write it correctly. Tricky words will need to be learnt for your child to be able to read successfully as not all words can be sounded out. The spelling of these words will need to be taught, so it is best to take time and learn these slowly. Step 5
Once
you have worked through the seven sets of letter sounds with your child
and they are competent at writing simple words you can provide
opportunities to extend their writing further.
You may want to start
teaching them some of the
Tricky Words, which cannot be sounded
out using the standard segmenting and blending approach.
Tricky Words Magnets
The seven sets of Jolly Phonics* letter sounds are normally taught in this order, focusing on one set at a time. 1) s, a, t, i, p, n 2) ck, e, h, r, m, d 3) g, o, u , l , f , b 4) ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or 5) z, w, ng, v, oo, oo 6) y, x, ch, sh, th, th 7) qu, ou, oi, ue, er, ar
The
easiest way to teach letter formation and letter sounds is through
following the steps below and using the
Jolly Phonics Workbooks: Books 1-7 * Jolly Phonics is a reading and writing scheme which was developed by Sue Lloyd and Sara Wernham.
By providing your child with a diary, they can begin to record daily events and write their own sentences. You may wish to sit with your child every other day and write their diary together. This way you give your child the opportunity to explore writing themselves but also give them the guidance they need to progress. Whilst writing encourage your child to sound out words and think about the letter sounds that build up each word.
It would be best to start with a picture diary for each day, so your child gets used to the purpose and format of a diary. As they become more competent they could write a word to accompany the picture. As their writing and ability to sound out words improves encourage them to write a sentence. This can then lead onto your child writing their diary more independently and in greater detail.
A simple way to develop your child’s writing in a meaningful context is to get them to write the weekly shopping list. This is a meaningful context for them to write and allows them to see the purpose and importance of writing. Encourage your child to sound out words as accurately as they can. Only correct your child if the word is not phonetically plausible and you are unable to make it out. You may decide to teach them one new word a week, so they are learning how to spell more complex words correctly. When you go shopping encourage your child to read out the items on the list.
You may ask your child to write a list of the children in their class in preparation for a party. Let your child write the invitations too, so they become familiar with different purposes and formats of writing. You may wish to use a copy of the alphabet for your child to refer to if unsure of letter formation or capital letters. Talk about simple features of an invitation such as where their friend's name is written, where their name is written, and where to write their contact number. Remember to explain that names of people and places always start with a capital letter.
Being able to create and write their own stories is an essential skill which children need to develop. It will give them confidence in their abilities and develop not just their literacy skills but also imagination and creativity. Story writing should be introduced slowly to begin with. Perhaps by reading a story to your child and then pausing half way through and asking them to talk to you about what might happen next. When they have gathered their ideas, give them the opportunity to record them in picture form as this will aid memory once they start writing. The next stage is to help them write down their ideas and continue the story themselves. Offer them guidance on how they might start and help them to sound out more difficult words. The first attempt at this will be challenging so even if your child only manages a sentence give them praise and show enthusiasm for what they have achieved. To improve their reading ask your child to read back what they have written. When your child is able to continue stories they have had read to them, start introducing the features of good writing. Emphasis the need for capital letters at the start of their sentences and full stops at the end. Talk about how stories have a beginning, middle and end, and discuss what might happen in each part of a story. Try and ensure they incorporate this in their future writing. As they become more competent encourage them to make up their own stories. They could also illustrate the main parts of their story.
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