Writing can be a challenge for many first graders at this time of year. We have been practicing a lot in the classroom and I would like to see it continued at home for additional practice.
A few fun and easy ways to help your child practice writing at home is to involve them with things you are already doing. For example, let them write out your grocery list, write a message in or sign a card you may be sending, write a letter to a family member, write a story about their favorite TV show, write out their chores list, etc. There are many small and fun opportunities for writing, you just have to watch out for them!
Here are some writing strategies we have been practicing at school that you can try at home:
1) Stretch out your words and write down the sounds that you hear. For example, if they are trying to write the word candy, I would expect to see something like “kande,” for these are the sounds they should be hearing.
2) If they write a word that they really had a hard time sounding out, I tell them to underline it and come back later. The point is to get their ideas out onto paper, I don’t want them getting caught up in spelling and forgetting their ideas. They can come back to underlined words later and use additional tools to fix their spelling.
3) Basic writing conventions – Only one capital at the beginning of sentences, finger spaces and periods at the end (or the correct punctuation).
I hope this helps your child with writing at home – as always, if you have any questions, just let me know!  🙂