Writing in year 1 - what's 'normal'

[chatworth]

What sort of length of writing (i.e. a sentence or two/ story of a few lines/ longer story), uniformity of letters and punctuation would be 'average' and 'higher ability' in year 1? Just curious really as I have no idea.

[OffToNarnia]

Not sure what is normal but my ds [who loves reading but not keen on writing] does the following. One sentence if he can get away with it or even just a couple of words! However when 'encouraged ' to write a story/book eg for homework project can do 2 x sentences and a picture per page quite happily. Will use capital letter at beginning of sentence and full stop at the end. Can use words like 'and', 'because' etc as he has been doing 'connectives' at school. I do notice others [especially girls] seem to write almost essays...gulp..
On the other hand my ds does write imaginative stuff when he gets going. Not a fast writer though and his hand gets tired. Have to stagger project over a few days. Just not writing for fun yet in the way he will read for fun. Writing still bit big compared to some. Teachers seem happy though..

[OffToNarnia]

Ds is 5 in year 1 by the way.

[Asinine]

DD2 year 1 but 6 hasn't yet decided which hand to use, often uses both, and loves writing "stories". Sometimes I can read them, sometimes not. I don't interfere because she is so enthusiastic. She has a fantastic imagination and good vocabulary. I'm not worried her writing it but school does get nervous when they are in year 2 because of SATS. My other three have also had terrible writing until year 3 when they suddenly start writing more neatly than I can.
Have you got a 5 year old OP?

[OffToNarnia]

My ds a leftie which I wonder if makes writing harder at 5. My handwriting pretty awful so maybe shouldn't have too high expectations of neatness!

[Runoutofideas]

DD1 is also left handed, and messy, and I do think it makes it harder for them. Also in dd's school they encourage them to join up their writing in yr 1 which, in my opinion, makes it messier. My dd does like to write though. She often starts stories for fun but doesn't finish them. Yesterday's story, in her own spelling and punctuation reads as follows:

"Once uponer time there was a little girl named Sara in her garden she had a wishing well. She wished on it everyday. One day she wished that she was a pickie (Pixie). And she turned into one she was very sprized (surprised) her dreams usualloy dident come true."

In answer to your original question, she in generally in the top groups of her class of 30.

[Asinine]

Runoutofideas that story was lovely and made me
i'm a leftie, too

[CharlieBoo]

Hi, my ds is the opposite, not a keen reader but loves writing and drawing. He had a piece of homework for halfterm to draw a picture of something he did and write about it. He did about 10 sentences and the spelling was ok, I could read it. I have no idea if thats good or not. There are also lots of V V V clever gorgeous girlies in his class....but we must not compare......ahem

[CharlieBoo]

He is almost 6 and in year 1 btw.

[chatworth]

Thanks so far - ds is a June birthday so still five and writing has been his weaker area so far (he is a very able reader even taking age into account). When he started school he couldn't write all of his name (and there are only five letters in it so it's not like it was 'Benjamin' or something). I was therefore interested to see where he's at as the teacher was a bit vague last parents evening.

He is much more likely to choose to read a book than to write but when he does write a story at home it is reasonably long but not very segmented into sentences (maybe a side or two of A4 but writing is not tiny - a centimetre high or so). Still does some mis-shaped letters occasionally too.

Sounds like he is doing fine then albeit not at the same level as other areas for him. Not a bad thing if he has to try harder with writing!

[MrsBrollyhook]

Your DS sounds just like my DD - June birthday, so still 5, just starting to write her 5 letter name when starting school, loves to read, but writing still big and only wants to do one ore 2 sentences.

I go in to help in her class once a week and would say she's somewhere in the middle of the range of abilities - from some writing long stories, to some with difficulty forming letters.

[emy72]

In DD's class (Y1) there is a massive range. Some children still struggling to form letters correctly and will write an almost unreadable sentence - some writing full stories with correct punctuation. Girls in DD's class way outperform boys in writing too - not sure whether this is the norm or not.

[TheClaw]

My DT's are 6 and in Y1.

One of the them writes A4 sides of stories with mostly correct spelling.

Her twin will barely write a sentence without some sort of thumb screws or bribery. Her spelling is coming along but would be mostly phonetic and often she has a habit of writing the first and last letter of a word.

I do worry about her but figure it will sort itself out eventually!