Dear Families,
Remember how excited you were when you heard your child's first spoken word? You eagerly accepted variations and simplifications your child used for that treasured word. You were very instrumental in bringing about that word and the many that followed. By listening, echoing, modeling, accepting, and elaborating, you taught your child language with no lesson plans. Just as you helped your child to speak, you can lead him or her to literacy by encouraging writing.
The work in your child's journal represents the beginning phases of your child as writer. We encourage children to represent their ideas by writing playfully and joyfully. Through this format, their usual progression is through scribbles, lines and circles, shapes, discernible drawings, letters, numbers, consonant spelling, and finally what we refer to as "temporary" spelling. The children love to call it their "magic writing." Do not be disturbed by lots of reversals or even words written on top of each other. Written language also follows predictable stages.
We hope you will value this document as we do. We support your child's efforts by providing lots of opportunities and encouragement for writing. Whenever fear and criticism are absent, children are more willing to try and take risks. What you can do at home is to offer encouragement and materials for your little one to write. Remember to model writing grocery lists and "things to do" lists and read them to your child. Praise and support their efforts to write, and have them read their messages to you. What they really need now is time and support in learning to convey meaning by writing.
We hope you can see growth in the writing development of your child. We are hopeful he or she will continue to use magic writing to work in their journals and to record all their special thoughts.
P.S. Tnk u! U r a bg hlp. If U kn reed tss, u r on yer wa!
Remember how excited you were when you heard your child's first spoken word? You eagerly accepted variations and simplifications your child used for that treasured word. You were very instrumental in bringing about that word and the many that followed. By listening, echoing, modeling, accepting, and elaborating, you taught your child language with no lesson plans. Just as you helped your child to speak, you can lead him or her to literacy by encouraging writing.
The work in your child's journal represents the beginning phases of your child as writer. We encourage children to represent their ideas by writing playfully and joyfully. Through this format, their usual progression is through scribbles, lines and circles, shapes, discernible drawings, letters, numbers, consonant spelling, and finally what we refer to as "temporary" spelling. The children love to call it their "magic writing." Do not be disturbed by lots of reversals or even words written on top of each other. Written language also follows predictable stages.
We hope you will value this document as we do. We support your child's efforts by providing lots of opportunities and encouragement for writing. Whenever fear and criticism are absent, children are more willing to try and take risks. What you can do at home is to offer encouragement and materials for your little one to write. Remember to model writing grocery lists and "things to do" lists and read them to your child. Praise and support their efforts to write, and have them read their messages to you. What they really need now is time and support in learning to convey meaning by writing.
We hope you can see growth in the writing development of your child. We are hopeful he or she will continue to use magic writing to work in their journals and to record all their special thoughts.
P.S. Tnk u! U r a bg hlp. If U kn reed tss, u r on yer wa!