How To Help in Early Years Welcome to the session on writing. Just by being here we can see how much you wish to support you child in his/her learning and we hope that we are able to give you lots of ideas that you can use. As well as everything that we say in this session – there are also handouts and activities for you to explore or take home at the end of the session. Powerpoint Playdough recipe and playdough to use Tweezers and beads or trays of rice Beads to thread. Pegs on a washing line Trays of sand, flour, glitter, shaving foam for writing practise Letter formation sheets. Finger rhyme sheets. Writing in Reception

Handwriting In order to read, a child needs to understand that letters stand for sounds and that the sounds are put together to make words. Learning to write letters is an important part of this understanding. Cranford Park Primary are committed to this.

What are expectations for writing by the end of Reception? Children should be able to hold a pencil correctly and be able to write recognisable letters. Children should know all the starting points for every letter. Children should know the difference between lower and upper case letters.

Correct pencil grip Please note that the pencil needs to be held between the thumb, forefinger and the middle finger. This grip needs to be firm and confident so that they can write clearly, comfortably and with confidence. As the children are still very young they need help to build the muscles to assist them develop this skill. This is where you can also help – to help to build their fine motor skills. 4

Fine Motor Skills In order to build and strengthen the muscles needed to write your child to exercise them just as all muscles need exercise. These activities are cheap, fun and can be enjoyable to share with your child. All muscles need exercising but this can be boring. Around the room you will see several tables with ideas that you can use to help your child with this at home. These ideas are simple to carry out, fun, and do not require any expensive of specialist equipment.

Activities for Home Playdough – The children love this, it is great to build up the muscles in their hands and also gives them lots of opportunity to use their imagination. Tweezers – Once again this uses the muscles needed for handwriting. Your child could try to pick up grains of rice, dry pasta or anything quite small. Perhaps you could turn this into a race or could time him/her to see if they could beat a previous record. Threading beads or pegging out washing are some more ideas for getting those muscles moving. Playdough – doesn’t need to be messy if you use a tray and is cheap, quick and easy to make. Help yourself to a recipe at the end of the session and also why not have a play with some to see how good it feels! Tweezers – there are some examples on one of the tables for you to have try for the at the end of the session. Threading beads or pegging out washing.

Now those muscles are warm ……. Letter formation – This can be fun too. Encourage your child to write with his or her finger. You could try to write on a variety of different surfaces :- Flour Sand Glitter Talcum Powder Shaving Foam Why not have a go for yourself at the end of the session?

Correct Letter Formation All letters have a starting point for writing. This helps them when they start to join their writing in Year 2. Use the sheets to help support your child with this learning. Frequent reminding and good modelling will help ensure that your child learns to write correctly. Please remember that bad habits are hard to fix.

Top five tips for practising handwriting Play games that involve motor skills, e.g. playdough, tweezers and and glitter. Make it fun! Choose a quiet place for your child to write. Practise little and often, using the correct pencil grip. Take every opportunity to help your child to recognise the letter names and sounds that they are writing. 5. Be positive and build your child’s confidence. 9

Now to writing! Once your child has warmed up their muscles it is a good time to start writing with them. By the end of Reception we do like the children to be able to use the sounds they can hear to write their own words and for some to use these words to write a sentence or two!

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THE SPELLING DOES NOT HAVE TO BE RIGHT! 5 steps to writing Ask your child to think of something they want to write. Repeat back to them the words that they want to write. Repeat the first word SLOWLY to your child to allow them to hear the first sound in the word. Repeat the word several times to give your child several opportunities to hear any other sounds in the words. Encourage the children to write the letter sounds they can hear. Remind your child to leave a finger space before moving to the next word and repeat the process. Finish your sentence with a full stop. PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THE SPELLING DOES NOT HAVE TO BE RIGHT!

Any Questions?? Any questions? I hope we have given you lots of ideas and would now like you to explore some of these activities around the room where you can also collect some more handouts of ideas, including a recipe for homemade playdough. Thank you 12