LITERACY/LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: Writing

In the Cardinals’ classroom, endless opportunities are provided to write for many purposes. As the children continue to be exposed to language and print and develop an understanding of how words work, they start to understand how to group letters into words.

Each child progresses at their own developmental writing level. The goal is not to tell the children how to write, but to help them sound out words by stretching the sounds. Allowing the child to write the words the way they sound will eventually help them as they learn to read.

Here we see an example of Audrey’s budding interest to write as she writes down her words to describe what she likes to eat for Thanksgiving. As Audrey was provided with help to sound out the words, she wrote:

“PASTA”

“CHICKEN”

“BREAD”

What also helped Audrey was displaying the HWT alphabet chart which enabled her to refer to it as she wrote the words. At times, Audrey knew the sound of the letter she needed to write next but she needed to find its form, so she used the chart as a reference. Along with teacher support, the chart helped Audrey make letter-sound connections to the words she wanted to write.

Eventually, with practice and formal teachings, Audrey will learn what are called the conventions of print, e.g., writing from left to right, the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters, how to put spaces between words, and how to use correct spelling and punctuation.