Activities

For Children

Activities

For Nursery and Reception (3-5 year olds)

Writing should be seen as an enjoyable experience, as a fun activity, not as something to be feared or dreaded. In the early stages, what children produce often bears little resemblance to standard writing. A child's idea of writing may be a series of lines and squiggles. It may not look like 'conventional writing' to adults, but we must remember that this writing is not merely 'scribble', but their attempts at making sense of a very complicated system of recording that we call writing. It is important to recognise that this early mark-making is a vital stage in the process of learning to write.

The following downloadable activities were devised to be completed either within a reception/nursery class setting, or at home. Children will need different amounts of help, depending on their ability, confidence and on the task. The main emphasis is that the child will have fun while doing them - and the adult as well.

Some children enjoy the sheer joy of mark-making over and over again. They may look for ways to imitate adult writing behaviour. Other children are reluctant even to pick up a pencil, and so these activities are designed to help encourage children to write for enjoyment. It is important that the child's work will not be 'judged' or 'marked' for technical achievement, but that any 'end results' are appreciated for themselves. The children need to be encouraged to 'have-a-go' and not be inhibited by having to think about spellings or handwriting etc. These activities are not meant to be part of a scheme to 'teach' children how to write, but opportunities for them to experience the act of writing in meaningful situations and form one part of the whole process of learning to write.

The activities are all based in 'role play' settings, and are designed very much with the child at the centre of the activity, drawing on their own experiences of life, and extending their knowledge of the world. They seek to develop the child's imagination, fine motor skills, and their confidence. These activities also give a range of different styles of writing, different purposes for writing, and writing to different people. All of these things will contribute to their development in literacy.

When writing with young children, remember that they should write with a variety of different implements - pencils, felt tip pens, wax crayons, chalk, fingers, to name but a few! They also need to write on different surfaces - paper, card, sand, flour, chalk board etc (not the walls, table top or your best table cloth!)

These writing activities are intended to be a first step on the road to help children become confident, independent and accomplished writers.