Writing Everywhere
Why?
As you can see from the picture above, simply making writing supplies available to a child in unexpected places encourages them to enjoy and practice writing. These students are in the kitchen, but independently decided to write about the food they were making.
What to do:
1. Make writing an option for your child in every part of your life
2. How to incorporate writing (With all these examples, adults should be actively engaged in the child's writing to help make their independent writing experiences meaningful. If they've written something, but you do not acknowledge it, it may lose meaning to them over time).
The Kitchen: Keep a pad of paper, pencil, and crayons in a special place for your child in the kitchen. Explain that these writing materials can be used every day to write down recipes and the food that the family is eating.
The Bedroom: Keep paper, writing utensils, and a stapler in their room to encourage your child to make their OWN bedtime stories. As they complete these, they can be the author and illustrator of the story they read at night.
The Car: Keep a small notebook and pencil in the car (or a travel one for the bus/train) for your child to document the things he or she sees when traveling. Encourage them to talk about what they see and explain that it is important for them to document what they've witnessed.
The TV room: Before turning on the T.V, talk to your child about what they hope to watch that day. Explain that they can make some sort of a prediction about what they'll see. They can write and draw about their favorite characters and stories. This is a great exercise in getting better with story comprehension.
The Play room: Help make writing an important part of their play. Discuss with your child about how you see writing everywhere you go. Explain that every experience we have gives a chance to write about it
3. As I've stressed before, help their writing be based on your modeling, not correcting.
1: Model how you write. As they watch you, talk about exactly what your writing
2. When they've written something, instead of correcting, praise them and then remodel how you patiently write down EXACTLY what they've told you.
Preschool standards addressed through this activity:
15c. Notices and Discriminates Smaller and Smaller Units of Sound
16a: Identifies and Names Letters
16b. Uses letter-Sound Knowledge
17b. Uses print concepts
19b. Writes to convey meaning
As you can see from the picture above, simply making writing supplies available to a child in unexpected places encourages them to enjoy and practice writing. These students are in the kitchen, but independently decided to write about the food they were making.
What to do:
1. Make writing an option for your child in every part of your life
2. How to incorporate writing (With all these examples, adults should be actively engaged in the child's writing to help make their independent writing experiences meaningful. If they've written something, but you do not acknowledge it, it may lose meaning to them over time).
The Kitchen: Keep a pad of paper, pencil, and crayons in a special place for your child in the kitchen. Explain that these writing materials can be used every day to write down recipes and the food that the family is eating.
The Bedroom: Keep paper, writing utensils, and a stapler in their room to encourage your child to make their OWN bedtime stories. As they complete these, they can be the author and illustrator of the story they read at night.
The Car: Keep a small notebook and pencil in the car (or a travel one for the bus/train) for your child to document the things he or she sees when traveling. Encourage them to talk about what they see and explain that it is important for them to document what they've witnessed.
The TV room: Before turning on the T.V, talk to your child about what they hope to watch that day. Explain that they can make some sort of a prediction about what they'll see. They can write and draw about their favorite characters and stories. This is a great exercise in getting better with story comprehension.
The Play room: Help make writing an important part of their play. Discuss with your child about how you see writing everywhere you go. Explain that every experience we have gives a chance to write about it
3. As I've stressed before, help their writing be based on your modeling, not correcting.
1: Model how you write. As they watch you, talk about exactly what your writing
2. When they've written something, instead of correcting, praise them and then remodel how you patiently write down EXACTLY what they've told you.
Preschool standards addressed through this activity:
15c. Notices and Discriminates Smaller and Smaller Units of Sound
16a: Identifies and Names Letters
16b. Uses letter-Sound Knowledge
17b. Uses print concepts
19b. Writes to convey meaning