The children are progressing quickly with their phonics learning and reading. Alongside blending to read, the children also need to segment words to spell. Children often find this harder and lack confidence in their ability to write.
In Reception, the children take part in shared writing activities where they can ‘have a go’ on whiteboards with the support of adults. We then encourage independent writing in all the areas of provision. This includes writing a label for their model, writing a shopping list in the role-play shop or writing a letter to a friend. At the moment the children are busy writing spells! We value all the children’s attempts at writing and model writing (and making mistakes) to them.
You can help at home by:
- providing plenty of different types of pens and pencils and encouraging your child to use a correct grip
- encouraging them to use the school’s handwriting style and to use lower case letters; we teach that a capital letter is required for the first letter in a name and at the beginning of a sentence
- praising – spelling is harder than reading words so praise, don’t criticise. Little whiteboards and pens are a good way for children to try out spellings and practise their handwriting
Don’t forget our learning workshop this week and our phonics mornings next week.