How do you inspire reception children to enjoy writing?

[ptangyangkipperbang]

I work in a Reception Class and last week the class teacher told the children that as they were so good with their sounds they would be doing lots of writing this term. Nearly every child's head dropped and shoulders sagged. Ideally there wouldn't have to be such a push on writing at such a young age but the pressure is on to show how the children have progressed.

The class teacher uses a variety of strategies but the children are totally switching off.

If you are a teacher have you any tips to inspire the children to enjoy writing?

If you are a parent what inspires your child?

Thanks in advance.

[amidaiwish]

asking DD2 (reception) to write what she wants to me, no correction of what she writes. i get a lot of "I love mummy" notes or "I love my sister" both of which she can write correctly herself. But i try to get her to write other things she has done sounding out phonetically without helping her too much "i jump on the trampleen" "i am bizzy" etc...
birthday cards, postcards etc.. all good ways.
def not worksheet after worksheet of copying letters. nightmare.

[southofthethames]

Poor kids - sounds like they feel they are being punished for reading well! As a parent I am beginning to feel nowadays that schools (not just here but also the US and a few other industrialised countries) are pushing kids too early.

I didn't do any writing in school in reception age at all myself, but now other parents are stressing out because their children are being expected not just to write but write out their names in reception!! I remember being introduced to writing in year one and only being expected to write well in year two - but it was more like having writing practice from year 2 to 3, with stars for improving. Not being penalised for not doing well.

Incentives like stars drawn on the workbook, gold star stickers, and a prize at the end of the year worked very well for inspiring kids. And patience. My school was later known for having a particular style of very neat handwriting.......most of the school leavers had beautiful penmanship (while still having their own handwriting).....until we all started jobs as adults and it was downhill from there ;-)

[LifeInTheSlowLane]

My DS2 isn't keen on writing, his year 1 teacher suggested a scrap book where he could draw/write/stick whatever he wanted - like amidaiwish said, it's something he could write in without any fear of it being corrected or worrying if it was wrong. Also, there wasn't pressure to write reams and reams - he could illustrate it as he wished. School also used to have a teddy with a diary which went home with each child in turn and they could write what they did with teddy (although this can lead to a bit of competitive parenting and judgyness on other children's abilities )

[hocuspontas]

In reception last year our 'literacy lessons' consisted of things like Wanted posters, letters to famous people, Fire posters, descriptions of favourite animals, toys, friends etc.
To get the children interested in writing we believed in writing for a purpose so in their free play we encouraged lots of writing opportunities outside of the actual 'writing area'.
In the role play area there was always something to write. Vet, hospital, garage would have a book of appointments where the 'receptionists' wrote name, date and reason for booking. The travel agents, bus, or ship would have boarding tickets that needed to be written out. The shop had shopping lists.
Outdoor play had the children playing policemen and writing on a clipboard why they were arresting someone or writing out a parking ticket. Or writing lists of things they had spotted - animals, traffic, people. Or making a treasure map.

Hundreds of things in fact!

[amidaiwish]

hocuspontas post reminded me of a great activity they have just done - wrote a letter home (i got i love mummy again...) and posted it. they then brought the franked envelope back to school and learned all about stamps/post offices/postmen etc...
they have a pretend postbox in their home corner at school and busily write little notes/pics to each other, post them and the teacher puts them in their book bag. sweet.

[galois]

my ds1's favourite thing is writing!

At home we have a big box containing:

a zillion types of post it note.
a squillion types of sticky label ( big ones to write on and little dots and squares)
scissors (straight and wibbly)
blank postcards
envelopes
blue tak (very, very important)
nice pens and pencils.

I think it helps. particularly the sticky things, which seem to hold boys spellbound.

[SummerRain]

not correcting constantly, red pen all over something they've lovingly produced is a guaranteed way to demotivate.

getting them to write what they want to write as opposed to endless worksheets and workbooks. ds1 did more writing in one day than any other time i can remember when he took it into his head to write a list of words that we needed signs for to give to ds2's SALT/sign language teacher. It was illegible for the most part but he sat down for hours and worked on it so hard it was on the fridge for a month

reading is more fun than writing, even as adults most people would agree with that statement.... don't replace reading with lots of writing, do tonnes and tonnes of reading and work some writing into the reading work.... get them to write one or two line 'reports' describing the book they read, that sort of thing.

don't focus too much on handwriting, ds1 is enthusiastic about writing but can dissolve into a hysterical weeping puddle if told he's done the letter wrong... for example he was writing capitol Es for ages as he was nervous about the small e, suddenly one day he announced of his own accord 'I'm going to do the e properly mommy' and ever since he has written it properly with no prompting they get there on their own 9 times out of ten if just left get on with it.

[SummerRain]

......he has written it properly with no prompting. They get there on their own 9 times out of ten if just left get on with it.

punctuation fail there

[wordsmithsforever]

One thing I have found that works (as a home educator) is to hand out gold stars to my children before they start their work. I tell them that when they are finished, they must choose their most beautiful line of work or most perfectly written word and stick the star next to it. I'm not crazy about rewards in general but I like this because the child has the control.

[ptangyangkipperbang]

Sorry DS's birthday, so has taken me until now to get back to mumsnet! Thanks for all your ideas.

There is a mark making area in class where children choose to go and they love post it notes and writing on stickers. It's the more formal writing sessions that are more difficult.

At the moment they are growing seeds and we've taken photos of all them planting them and they've then written their own sentence about what they were doing. There is lots of support when they are writing and loads of praise but they still don't want to do it.

Wanted posters sound great. Shopping lists are usually greeted well.

Please keep the ideas coming. They are much appreciated.

[candyfloss66]

I didn't start writing until year one which started off with simple words not joined up. My dd is in reception so has just started to write in cursive I think it makes writing more difficult as she finds it difficult to lead in and is just starting to write letters correctly I think that the old away was the best way.

[HystericalMe]

captions on pictures, writing in sand, modeling words out of plasticine for displays, painting words - labelling pictures...

[mrz]

We do lots of talk for writing and compose class stories with an adult recording the children's ideas. Usually by this point in the year the children are writing their own short stories.
Have you seen www.andrelleducation.co.uk/shop/by-type/books/talk-the-big-talk/?

abcdoes.typepad.com/abc-does-a-blog/2010/11/jedi-writing-and-mark-making-laboritory.html
failing that ....chocolate

[wigglesrock]

In my dd1 reception class (we're in NI so think that would be her P1), they copied menus, pretended to be waiting staff, chefs etc. Took peoples orders, she and her friends loved it, some of them drew a picture of the food then wrote corresponding words, short sentences. It is still her favourite game and she has now roped in her younger sister, also helps with the concept of money which she started working on earlier in this P2 year.

[wordsmithsforever]

mrz: "failing that ....chocolate"

Absolutely! I say I'm not crazy about rewards (I'd rather the work was intrinsically rewarding and they just wanted to do it because it is interesting) but I confess I do keep a large jar of chocolate secreted away for those intractable situations - so let's not knock rewards altogether!

[mrz]

It's not a reward it's a bribe

[speakercorner]

At my dd's school, they got a prize every time they wrote in their books. It was all stuff that was bought ten-for-a-pound at the poundshop but the kids seemed to like it. DD loves writing so came home with loads of crap some great prizes.

[mycatoscar]

my reception class love a challenge

i have a boy heavy and summer born heavy class who were reluctant to write but a few weeks back we "recieved" a letter from a farmer who was having trouble with a fox eating his chickens, offering a prize for the best fox catching design sent back to him

they all made design sheets with lists, labels and instructions which were duly sent off and they were so excited to get a letter back telling them what had happened when the farmer tired out their designs LOL

also last week we made life cycle wheels about frogs, they loved writing labels for each life stage, this was after we had been out and looked at frogspawn and observed it etc

they need a reason to want to write (not chocolate or a sticker!)

[wheelsonthebus]

what about good old fashioned penfriends? can you link up with another school and get kids writing letters to each other. or the best thing, a class abroad (English speaking obviously!)

[mrz]

Not many 4 year olds are ready for that wheelsonthebus we normally wait until Y2.

[wordsmithsforever]

My DS has a scrapbook of his favourite things/stuff he finds fascinating that he wants to record. I try to catch him when he's chatting enthusiastically about something (usually electronics stuff/robotics ideas, etc) and then I suggest he draws a pic in his scrapbook and writes a sentence about it underneath, or labels the parts of the pic. Then we go through it periodically and read it all back. I suppose in the school context you could ask them to write down their favourite/most interesting/fun thing of the week or day?

[mycatoscar]

just a thought OP but since we both have reception classes maybe we could do a teddy swap or something? Each class could send a teddy to the other with a letter about him, then send the other schools teddy back with letters photos etc about what he did? It would give them purpose and I am happy to do this with you, we are in the southeast of england in a small rural school, how about you?

[wordfactory]

I recall that DD's teacher was very good at inspiring her to write.

There was a huge weather chart on the wall and each moring someone was given the responsibilty of 'weather presenter'. They would then decide what the weather was doing, draw a little picture then write underneath 'wind and rain' or 'snow' or whatever.

DD really looked forward to that.

Then there were lots of letters and posters as described above. Just a few words here and there until they could write confidently.

[colditz]

Dsd2's class does lots of letters to their parents/other family members.

They buy a load of cheap envelopes and get the children to write the letter, then address the envelope. The child can then bring this home.

(Parents usually love these, which is a good positive reinforcer)