Reception Wonderful Writing Workshop

Writing in Early Years There are many different stages to the writing development process. Children progress through these stages at different rates. Thank you for coming this morning. This will just be a brief introduction into the writing development process in early years and a explanation of the writing project which we have introduced to support emergent writing here at keston.

Progression of Writing Development Drawing - the child’s drawing represents writing Scribbling - the child scribbles but intends for it to be writing Drawing Scribbling There are six categories of writing development that begin with drawing and continue through conventional spelling (Sulzby, 1985). The first stage is drawing where a child’s drawing represents writing. In the scribbling stage, a child’s writing is now separate from their drawing, almost acting as a label for their picture. The scribble is intended to be ‘read’ as writing.

Progression of Writing Development Letter-like forms - the child’s letters may not be the standard letters, but may look like letters Letter strings - the child writes strings of letters, but they do not create real words Letter-like forms Letter strings The next stage is letter-like forms and tends to be known as mark making in early years. Here, writing begins to greater resemble the shapes of letters. Stage 4 is letter strings. At this point children would have begun learning some single sounds in phonics and will write strings of letters together, however, the letters do not spell real words at this point. Children often select letters from their name to write during this stage.

Progression of Writing Development Invented spelling - the child tries different ways of representing sounds in words Conventional spelling - the child’s writing uses correct spelling Invented spelling Conventional spelling Stage 5 is invented spelling. At this stage, children are attempting to spell words phonetically. The children would now be attempting to combine the single sounds they’ve learnt in phonics lessons in the correct order. Here we often see initial and end sounds combined to make words. In the final stage, children will have mastered segmenting words for spelling i.e. c-a-t to spell cat. Children will continue to learn more complex sounds in phonics (digraphs and trigraphs, 2 and 3 letter sounds) and be making phonetically plausible attempts at writing.

Gross motor writing Children in the earliest stages of writing need to be exposed to gross motor activities (whole body movements). In order to assist children in the writing development process, we have to provide them with activities that help them develop the physical muscles needed for writing. These begin with gross motor activities which are whole body movements. These include activities such as: using ribbon sticks to make large circular and zig zag movements in the air swinging and hanging from climbing frames lifting and moving heavy objects painting with large rollers and brushes on a vertical surface (like a wall or easel) Basically anything that encourages children to stretch their arms above their heads.

Fine motor development Next we want children to master fine motor manipulation so they are able to hold and control a pencil effectively. These activities encourage chn to push, pull, squeeze, pat and grasp in order to strengthen the specific muscles in their hands and wrists needed for writing. We have a finger gym areas in each eyfs classroom that change weekly. Fine motor activities include: Picking things up with tweezers Threading beads / string etc Using pipettes to transfer liquid Cutting paper Pegging objects Playdough

Purposeful writing Although we encourage children to continue with gross and fine motor skills activities throughout Reception, we aim to introduce purposeful writing opportunities early on in the year. These activities aim to gather evidence of writing in a ‘purposeful way’ i.e. stemming from the children’s play. Activities include: Writing in the role play area Building a model and writing about it Watching their beans grow and writing a bean diary Purposeful writing is all about providing the children with a context for writing.

Purposeful writing These activities aim to gather evidence of writing in a ‘purposeful way’ i.e. stemming from the children’s play. Activities include: Writing in the role play area Building a model and writing about it Watching their beans grow and writing a bean diary I.e. giving the writing a context

The Writing Project We introduced the Writing Project into Nursery and Reception last year at Keston. Aim of the project = to raise engagement and motivation for writing in Early Years. Key principle of the project = steering away from traditional methods of teaching writing. It’s about going to where the children are playing and encouraging writing based on their own interests. Ultimately about giving the children ownership over their own learning! i.e. the children being called over once a week to complete a writing activity with the teacher. e.g. writing a recipe after playing in the mud kitchen/drawing a picture of their model and writing about how they made it/encouraging chn to retell the story when playing with small world

The Writing Project We provide different resources inside and outside the classroom to encourage writing to take place anywhere and everywhere! We have self-select resources, writing belts and toolboxes for the children to pick up a pencil and write on the move.