Writing

At Towers Federation we believe each child will develop a love and passion for words, that will empower and excite them to enter the limitless world that is their imagination. We provide them with the progressive skills needed to become independent writers. It is crucial we keep key elements of our children's writing development consistent. Below are resources and information that provide you with a better understanding of how you can support your child at home. 

Letter Formation

In handwriting lessons we teach children to form letters starting and finishing in the correct place, to support the children with this we match a ditty/slogan to each letter. Each letter begins with the term "whoosh" for the lead in stroke. Please see the below document which shows the ditty/slogan for each letter:

Pencil Grip

A good pencil grasp/ grip allows the children to keep the wrist steady and make small movements of the fingers to move the pen tip in different directions to create short straight and curved lines. In the document below it shows four different types of pencil grip. We encourage the children to hold their pencil grip like style one and two. If you need ways to support your child's pencil grip development please see your class teacher. 

Here are some examples of different pencil grips:

 We aim for children to hold the pencil effectively, good examples of this are the two pictures on the right. 

Pre-handwriting Patterns

Before children are ready to learn to from letters we teach pre-handwriting patterns. Patterns are the important first step in handwriting. Pre-handwriting patterns help a child to learn the shapes and directional pushes and pulls of the writing tools required to form letters. All letters are a combination of these shapes and lines. Below are patterns/ shapes you can practise either before letters are taught or alongside.

 

Writing in EYFS

Below you will find the age expectations for writing here at Towers - we appreciate all children develop at different rates however this offers the progression between each stage of writing. 

Each year we hold a Writing Workshop for parents/ families to attend. This is an opportunity to share strategies and activities that you can use at home to support with mark making moving onto letter formation and word/ sentence writing.