Welcome At Milford School we aim to help children to develop a love of the English language through the spoken and written word. We believe that literacy provides the key to unlock all other areas of the curriculum enabling children to reach their goals as they embark on their learning journey.

Workshop aims To Investigate the development of gross and fine motor skills and the early stages of mark making To find out about the early strategies used to support children when learning to write To appreciate the difficulties children face in learning to write To find out about writing in Key Stage 1 To see some of the resources used to support Early Years and Key Stage 1 writing To enjoy, discuss and take home some ideas to support your child at home

Think big! For handwriting children need to be well co-ordinated through their whole body, not just their hands and fingers. Gross Motor Skills develop core, arm, leg strength and coordination climbing jumping balancing skipping batting swinging throwing/catching skywriting writing on backs water/paintbrushes chalks outside BIG painting/drawing Fine Motor Skills which help develop hand and finger muscles sewing threading tap a shape jigsaws playdough lego/building drawing colouring cutting/sticking patterns painting letter shapes Think big!

Pencil grip development 4 - 6 years

The most important thing is for them to enjoy writing. Early Writing Encourage your child to print the letters first BUT avoid over use of capitals. Your child will need to master writing letters in print form before they can move on to retracing lines which are essential for letters like a, d, h, y etc. The most important thing is for them to enjoy writing. scribbles letter like forms random letter strings key words invented spelling

Supporting children with their writing Children are encouraged to write as part of their purposeful play. They don’t need a pencil to write! Children write in a variety of role play situations that match their interests and stimulate talking. They experiment with writing by making marks, personal writing symbols and conventional script. They are given lots of praise and encouragement to have a go. We support the children’s writing by encouraging them to hear the sound at the beginning of the word in their writing. Then they progress in hearing other sounds in words in their writing.

Examples of print

Children learn to form their letters in the following formation groups: Long Ladders i l t j u y Curly Caterpillars c o a d g q e f s One-armed Robots h n m r b p k Zigzag Monsters v w x z

Writing in Key Stage 1 cursive pre-cursive As your child becomes more fluent at printing letters, we will encourage them to retrace lines to form letters correctly. Our aim is for your child to eventually join their letters together (cursive writing) as they move through Key Stage 1. pre-cursive cursive

Writing in Key Stage 1 As children become more confident forming letters we move on to the skills required to produce clear and accurate sentences. Children are encouraged to use capital letters, full stops and finger spaces between words.

Composition In Key Stage 1 we also focus on what the children are writing. Children are encouraged to write fiction and non fiction pieces. In Year 1 we work on familiar stories and use actions to help the children remember key words for their writing.

Year 2 In Year 2 we aim to make children confident and creative writers. We introduce superheroes to help them remember ways to ‘trap their reader!’ Violet Vocab Captain Connective Dr. Punctuation Incredible Opener Year 2

Spellings The majority of children will phonetically spell words in key stage 1 and on into key stage 2. Spellings homework is started in year 1 and continues into year 2 using the look, say, cover, write, check method. Our main aim is for children to spell key words correctly and reinforce spelling the sounds learnt in phonics lessons.

Ideas and activities to help your child at home Use different writing materials: chalk outside, sparkly pens, water and paint brushes. Write lists, letters, birthday cards. Give lots of praise and enjoy your child’s attempts at writing and spelling. When you write with your child try to use lower case (not capitals) except at the beginning of a sentence or name. Look at words together when you’re out shopping, on television or reading together. Talk about using WOW words to describe things. Count out the words in a sentence with your child. Encourage your child to use capital letters, full stops and finger spaces.

Finally… Once your child begins to write fluently then the whole curriculum opens up to them with a wealth of opportunities to express themselves. End of year expectations (Handwriting) Early Years (Year R) Use a pencil and hold it effectively to form recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed. Year 1 Correctly form all lower case letters (starting and finishing in the right place). Correctly form all capital letters. Year 2 Clear letter formation, with ascenders and descenders distinguished. Upper and lower case letters used correctly.

Thank you for coming along to our workshop. We hope you have found this workshop useful. Are there any questions? Now for the FUN part!! Please complete the short questionnaire so that we can ensure that the workshop was both useful and relevant.