1. Writing

2. Developing early writing skills
Children’s capacity to develop their early writing skills are significantly influenced by:
Fine motor control
Letter formation – order and flow – progression and handwriting (Left and Right handed) joined, letter families
Progression of grip and how to strengthen
Develop fine motor skills – pegs, tweezers, threading, keys, wind up toys, playdough, weaving, bottles and tops, Lego, puzzles.
Consistently reinforce and remind correct grip/letter formation.
Bad habits are hard to break!

3. Developing early writing skills
“Magic” writing finger in flour, glitter, sand, jelly etc!
Cutting out pictures from catalogues, cutting out own pictures or along different wavy/zig-zag/straight lines
Modelling materials – clay/plasticine/playdough/sand
Painting and printing
Threading beads/pasta/buttons to a timer – can they beat their own score?
Use water pistols to reach a target or “paint” outdoor bricks with water or brushes and chalks, paint in the bath
Fix lego, screw and unscrew lids, post pennies in a box, sprinkle seeds
Fold paper to make shapes, envelopes
Wash walls with soap and brushes
Mop the floor! Or Sweep up leaves!
Dig in sand and soil!
Draw circles on large sheets of paper
Use large rollers/brushes
Pulling up bodies on ropes/climbing walls
Ribbon/scarf twirling

4. Understanding grip development

5. This is often referred to as the fist grip
This is often referred to as the fist grip. Most toddlers who begin mark making will use this grip.
Palmer supinate grip

6. 1. Palmer supinate grip
Most children start mark making by using the palm grip. The implement is held in the palm of the hand and the fingers curl around it to hold it in place. The movement is mainly controlled through the shoulder and wrist joints (gross motor) and children will typically make vertical, horizontal and round marks.
As you can see with a fist grip, the thumb is uppermost and children can see little of the marks they are making as they go.

7. This type of grip can look quite flat as the child controls the pen for mark-making.
Digital pronate grasp

8. 2. Digital pronate grasp
The next grip is often the digital pronate grasp, although not all children use this. The mark making implement in controlled by one digit, usually the index finger, and held in place by the thumb. To use this grasp the child needs to pivot from the wrist to get to the paper. Movement is limited and mark making is similar to that of the palm grip.

9. Children using this grip have developed greater stability in the movement of their pen and are able to mark-make quite effectively.
Static tripod grip

10. 3. Static tripod grip
The next stage is often the static tripod grip which is usually favoured by boys. The pencil is often pushed right to the end of the fingers. The movement is controlled by the little finger and clamped in place by the thumb although all the digits are in contact with the pencil. With this grip it is difficult for the child to see the marks they are making which hinders correct letter formation.

11. This is the grip we are aiming for!
Triangulation grip

12. 4. Triangulation grip
The triangulation grip is where the pencil is held between the forefinger and the thumb and supported from behind by the middle finger. Ideally only these three digits control the movement of the pencil. The movement (fine motor) is controlled by the joints of the fingers and thumb and allows for maximum range of movement and flexibility. This is the grip to aim for.
At school, we often refer to this as the pecky pen grip, encouraging children to use their thumb and index finger to create the beak and grip the pencil or pen, supporting their grip by using other fingers underneath/behind. Children know this is the grip they are aiming for, but alongside correct grip, good posture is vital for good control.

13. The stages of early writing
Children required to use multiple physical and mental processes.
It is a complicated process and will happen at each child’s own pace!
Learning to write requires children to use multiple physical and mental processes at the same time.
Writing combines many skills and relies on development in areas not just specific to writing. It requires well developed fine motor skills—the ability to use muscles in the fingers and hands; the attention to concentrate for periods of time; memory to generate ideas and remember what sounds look like to write words; and the language to be able to express themselves.
Let children see you write often. You're both a model and a teacher. If children never see adults write, they gain an impression that writing occurs only at school. What you do is as important as what you say. Have children see you writing notes to friends, letters to business firms, perhaps stories to share with the children. From time to time, read aloud what you have written and ask your children their opinion of what you've said. If it's not perfect, so much the better. Making changes in what you write confirms for the child that revision is a natural part of writing -which it is.
Complicated process will happen at own pace!

14. Talk! The writing journey
Start with talking: Believe it or not, learning to form letters is the easy part of writing. Thinking clearly and expressing their ideas is far more
important for young writers and much harder to achieve. The best way to get there is to talk to your child and, crucially, listen when they speak!
Build a climate of words at home. Go places and see things with your child, then talk about what has been seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched. The basis of good writing is good talk, and younger children especially grow into stronger control of language when loving adults -particularly parents -share experiences and rich talk about those experiences
Small world play
Talk!

15. Mark making across a page Marks to communicate meaning
Model being a writer! E.g. shopping lists
When your child has made marks, ask them what it says!
Point out print in the environment and read what it says.
Early mark making
May feature lots of random marks
Child may be unable to distinguish between his/her writing and his/her picture.
May be using a “fist grip”
Mark making across a page
Often zigzags and wavy lines
Child has clear idea of the marks they want to make and gives meaning to them.
Mark may communicate message or an idea.
Individual marks
May use letters from his/her own name to communicate a message.
Beginning to understand that drawing and writing are different and print carries a message.
Here are the stages your child may go through as they begin to write. It is important to remember though that children develop at their own rates and in their own ways.
Marks to communicate meaning
Clearly identifiable letters
May represent some sounds correctly and in sequence
Can hear and write initial sounds in words. .

16. The stages of early writing
caption writing
CVC words
Can hear and write words with initial, medial and final sounds.
Able to construct phrases and write a message (caption writing)
Writing CVC words – hearing all sounds
Applying phonics and keyword spelling as well as finger spaces etc to form simple sentences and captions
Say a sentence before writing it so they don’t get muddled!

17. The stages of early writing
Using phonic knowledge to write words in ways that match spoken sounds.
Can also write some common exception words.
Some words spelt correctly and others phonetically plausible.

18. Help! My child doesn’t want to write!
Football results table
Reluctant writers: Even the most reluctant writers enjoy new kinds of writing such as drawing on the ground outside with chalk, or on windows with special window-crayons, or even using bath crayons. Likewise, make it possible for your child to engage in writing or drawing in his play -after all pirates often need treasure maps, footballers need results tables and every astronaut could use a well kitted out cardboard rocket.
Label a treasure map

19. What does your child need to be able to do to achieve ARE?
Demarcate most sentence with:
Capital letters and full stops.
The tiger was asleep.
And some use of:
Question marks
Exclamation marks

20. What does your child need to be able to do to achieve ARE?
Using some expanded noun phrases to describe and specify.
The fluffy dog slept happily.
The beautiful, fluffy dog slept happily.

21. What does your child need to be able to do to achieve ARE?
Can use past and present tense consistently and correctly.

22. What does your child need to be able to do to achieve ARE?
Handwriting:
Capital letters and lower case letters of the correct size and orientation to one another.
Spaces between words that reflects the size of the letters.

23. Four types of sentences
In year 2 the children are taught how to identify and construct 4 types of sentences A statement A command A question An exclamation sentence Can you write one of each?

28. Conjunctions
Coordinative clause A clause which is used to join two short sentences which would still make sense on their own. I have a sister and Jane has a brother. A subordinate clause is a clause that would make no sense if taken out of the sentence. He took out a book that he had seen earlier.

29. What does your child need to be able to do to achieve greater depth?
Full range of punctuation:
Handwriting:
Commas to separate times in a list.
Diagonal and horizontal strokes to join some of their writing.
The ferocious, magnificent lion roared incredibly loudly because he was super hungry.
Spelling:
Spelling most common exception words.
Apostrophes to mark singular possession in nouns.
Spelling most words with contracted forms. (can’t, don’t).
The dog’s ball bounced quickly because he had dropped it when he was running.
Adding suffixes to spell most words correctly (ment, ness, ful, less, ly).

30. Activities you can do to help…
Writing
Practise cursive handwriting.
Make a photo book and get your child to write captions
Scrapbooks are fun, too. Old magazine or newspaper pictures about a favourite subject, dogs, your family, motorbikes or the latest toy craze, pasted on to blank pages – with room for captions or stories, too
Play with words. Finding and discussing interesting new words can help increase the words your child uses when they write. Look up words in the dictionary or on the Internet or talk to family and whänau to find out more about the meaning and the whakapapa (origins) of the words.
Write lists – ‘Things I need from the shop’, ‘Games to play when I am bored’, ‘Things I want to do in the holidays’. The last one can be cut up and go into a box or bag for a lucky dip when the holidays finally arrive
Write out recipes or instructions for other people to follow (especially fun if the instructions are for an adult)
Keep a diary, especially if you are doing something different and exciting. Your child can draw the pictures or stick in photos. Their diary could be a webpage on the computer
Write letters, cards, notes and s to friends and family and the Tooth Fairy – you might write replies sometimes, too
Make up a different ending for a favourite story together and get them to write it down
Ask them to write about pictures they draw. Get them to tell you the story.