1. Early Education / Addysg Gynnar
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Early Education / Addysg Gynnar
Exploring Mark Making
September 2013

2. Early Education / Addysg Gynnar
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Early Education / Addysg Gynnar
Useful Information

3. EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making
Edrych ar Greu Marciau
Aim:
To explore how children develop mark making skills and look at practical ways to facilitate this in your setting.

4. Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar greu Marciau
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar greu Marciau
Provide an overview of the developmental stages of Mark Making in order to inform next steps.
Role of the adult in supporting children to become confident Mark Makers.
Explore Mark Making opportunities through practical workshop.
Gwenfro Playgroup- one setting’s approach to Mark making.
Plenary

5. Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
What does a child need to become a confident and successful Mark Maker?
Physical skills:
Gross motor skills
Fine motor skills
Development of physical skills linked with:
Perception
Visual skills
Cognitive skills
Spatial relationships
Oracy
Children need to be able to communicate to make purposeful marks
Motivation
Balance, breadth and depth of indoors outdoor experiences
Time
Space
Practise
Consolidation
Body Strength
Posture
Hand/Eye Coordination

6. Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
Self esteem, Self Motivation and a Sense of Well Being.

7. EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making
Edrych ar Greu Marciau
The developmental stages of mark making
Generally, children follow a similar sequence in their development
Knowledge of this sequence enables us to provide appropriate opportunities to help each child progress
Stage rather than age related

8. EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making
Edrych ar Greu Marciau
Early writing begins when babies explore making their own marks on surfaces. Jam, chocolate, milk… on a table… or on themselves! 8

9. Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
At their earliest stages children are already…
Exploring a wide range of media with fingers and palms of hands, including food and drink
Gripping objects using the palm of their hands
Beginning to use finger and thumb in a pincer movement to pick up small objects

10. Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
At the next stage the child….
Holds a pencil/crayon in the palm of the hand in a fist like grip
Makes early attempts at mark making which feature lots of random marks, ’scribbles’
Is usually unable to distinguish between his/her writing or picture
May even be looking elsewhere whilst mark making jj

11. Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
At this stage…
The joy is in the movement for the child
No need to assign meaning to the end product
The child needs to repeat this many times in many different contexts
Like trying to teach a babbling baby to pronounce words correctly
Big mark making 11

12. EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making
Edrych ar Greu Marciau
Next you may observe the child…
Holding the pencil/crayon in a pincer grip between the thumb and index finger
Making a definite attempt to make individual marks
Attempting to close shapes; these shapes are often circular
After plenty of practice these marks become representative

13. EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making
Edrych ar Greu Marciau
At the next stage the child…
Copies adults and makes marks going across the page; these are often zigzags and wavy lines
Has a clearer idea of the marks he/she wants to make
May still use either hand for writing

14. Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
The child will move on to…
Making individual marks and using some letters from own name to communicate a message
Beginning to understand that drawing and writing are different
Beginning to assign meaning to their marks
Importance of child writing own name

15. EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making
Edrych ar Greu Marciau
In time, the child progresses on to…
Forming familiar letter like shapes and symbols
‘Writing’ left to right
Becoming aware that writing conveys meaning and may ‘read’ own writing
Showing increasing interest in writing own name

16. Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
Each stage of children’s mark making is important and needs to be valued.
The child needs time and freedom to explore and develop at their own pace.
Every child is unique.

18. Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
The Role of the Adult
What is your role in creating confident mark makers?

19. Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
Mark Making Friendly Environment
Pictures of environment

20. EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making
Edrych ar Greu Marciau
Adults Modelling Mark Making
Adults modelling writing – Bradley video

22. Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
Observe and Listen to children as they Mark Make
Movement of a bee picture
Movement of a Wasp
Jumping

23. Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
Writing for a Purpose
Context/purpose of writing

24. Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
Celebrating Children’s Mark Making
Ways to celebrate children’s work

25. Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
Role model
Environment
Maintaining resources
Listen to/support children
Make observations and plan next steps
The role of the adult in creating confident mark makers.
Train children to use and look after tools/resources
Use language to facilitate mark making
Create context and purpose for writing
Celebrate children’s work

26. Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
Workshop
The workshop is next door in room 1
You have 40 minutes to explore – when we ring the bell please return to this room
You are welcome to take photographs
Help yourselves to water and juice
Feel free to take notes, however, each setting will be given a CD-Rom with ideas sheets included

27. Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar Greu Marciau

28. Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar greu Marciau
EARLY EDUCATION WREXHAM
ADDYSG GYNNAR WRECSAM
Exploring Mark Making Edrych ar greu Marciau
Provide an overview of the developmental stages of Mark Making in order to inform next steps.
Role of the adult in supporting children to become confident Mark Makers.
Explore Mark Making opportunities through practical workshop.
Gwenfro Playgroup- one setting’s approach to Mark making.
Plenary