What short words would be useful to teach DD2 to write before starting reception?

[PlayingHouse]

Her nursery teacher said to start practising short words with DD2.

She mentioned 'was' and 'the'.

What else?

I know the phonic sounds. I knows it's a hard B and not BUH for example.

As it was suggested by the school I can't see the harm in helping her to spell basic words. I'd look up the 'letters and sounds tricky word' lists and use those.
If you are concerned about sounding out correctly you could look into the look, cover, say, write, check spelling method. This should also her her to recognise them in books.
Hope this helps.

I'd just see what she fancies. We find writing tends to come out of drawing a picture and then wanting to label it, or wanting to write a card to someone who has a birthday etc. So "To", "Mum", "Dad" and friends' names have featured high on DD's learning to write list. If she can already form letters she's off to a good head start. And [not a teacher but] surely these days they should be encouraging her to sound out any word she feels like writing, not memorising particular words at this stage.

Beyond her name I wouldn't worry about teaching her to write any words. It's worth checking the style of writing the school uses and teach the same way.

Agree with Catkind if she can write the letters representing sounds it's much better to teach her to listen to the sounds she can hear in words to spell rather than memorising lists.

Same as catkind really. Only writing I ever did was at her instigating, and then I'd do whichever word she wanted in dots for her to trace over ( good for fine motor control) and later I'd write the word and she'd copy it underneath. But only writing, or anything academic we ever did was when it just came up naturally as play

Anyone got any good recommendations for online phonics? Just recognising the letters....

The Sounds Write app is excellent if you have an iPad lots of the online programmes are American based and don't match UK methods for simple single letter recognition BBC Alphablocks is OK but would treat some parts with caution

I'd be worried if he school suggested learning to write words like "was" and "the".
Read to her lots, read with her - doesn't matter if she is remembering the words from before, does she know how a book works, that the words go left to right? Then do lots of poems and rhymes. songs and Nursery rhymes are great.
Playing with diplo, threading games, picking up small things and putting in a jar, colouring, dot to dot. And lots of big motor stuff - so running around, jumping etc.
Don't bother with online phonics etc. they might confuse, and they might become boring.
Also do lots of counting, talk about shapes and colours. Observe nature. Talk about weather. Talk about feelings.

And the practical stuff.

It will be a very busy summer if you do all that.

Hiya, not sure you want to start with was and the, since they are not phonetic. If you're going to do it, then stick with cvc words that are phonetically correct? (I.e., cat dog etc)

Was and the are phonetic but it would suggest that the nursery don't know that and are confusing high frequency words with sight words and use ineffective methods

I'd worry about "was" and "the" as they are also hard words to understand the meaning of, so it would be learning to write without meaning. "Cat" or "pin" has far more meaning (it's why I found "sin" in Joly Phonics a very odd word).

I think it's amusing that you can ask for word suggestions and get a list of 50 things to do in the outdoors, as though it's one or the other

There's nothing wrong with a child do writing practise if they are so inclined, IME you can't force a child to do something they don't wish to.

I'm not sure 'unteaching' - anything they learn before will surely be in addition to what they pick up at school. My son deosnt enjoy writing that much, and doesn't feel comfortable holding a pen correctly yet so I tell him the way but don't force him and let him have a go anyway when he fancies it with no pressure; he nowhere near forms letters correctly, I figure he will fine tune that at school, but I'm not going to stop him trying when he actually wants to. We also do loads of Lego and writing in sand with fingers etc

I learned to read before school in whatever haphazard way my mother encouraged it, not a phonic in sight (or earshot) I don't suppose, I didn't have to unlearn anything, I just carried on learning until I got my degree without realising I was doing it 'wrong'

It's counter productive to the idea of education being enjoyable that so many people separate 'writing' and 'reading' from 'all the fun stuff'. A child can have fun learning to write simple words as well as riding a bike, it depends on the inclination of the child, surely.

*doing. I could do with some writing practise.

But isn't there also an argument that anything educational done at home at preschool age will pop up naturally rather than being planned for in advance? I know in some families they might not interact enough for that to be the case, but I also doubt op or any other parent asking for educational tips at that age is the type who doesn't interact.

Well, yes, lurkedforever I think we're in agreement. It seems like in this case the OP's child has already been writing her name and maybe wants to write other stuff, there's no harm in a little query as to what to begin with, it doesn't mean she's lesson-planning the summer holidays.

If you're going to do writing do something meaningful to the child not stupid lists

Yes, but meaningful to my child would also be incredibly tricky to begin with:

Squid
Pterodactyl
Optimus Prime
Excavator

So mishmooshandmogwai's list straddles the line between simple and meaningful quite well. It's not stupid. "I", "me" and "we" are meaningful and crop up a lot, simple animal names are interesting and fun to write.

I would go with 'on' 'the' etc as they are easy 'wins' so she could progress to forming simple sentences, involving cats and mats and so forth

I would start by helping your child to write those words

It's a waste of effort to teach lists of words ... What exactly is the point?

soot that's what I mean, following on from the childs lead, so if they draw a picture and want to label it they can, or writing a card they've made etc. Even if the words they are writing aren't common ones. I think a child that has the fine motor control, being read to and has wrote even complex, non phonetic irregular words will find learning to read and write common words just as easy as a child that's began with the simple words like cat. If anything I'd say writing multi syllable long words that are relevant to them is a good thing because not only does it make it more fun, it prevents big words being off putting in the way they can be for some children learning to read and write

I
and
we me he she
the
one
to
go
is
they
are
my
this,that
like
play
...

High frequency words that jump start writing

Me is ok if it's a label for a self portrait pointless in a list

High frequency means common not that you need to learn lists

Please don't teach her to spell the high frequency words and please dont teach her Look, Say, Cover Write & Check.

If you really feel that you have to help her with spelling use the simple letter/sound correspondences that she has already learned; get her to break the spoken word into its component sounds and to spell each sound in the order in which it comes in the word. Don't use letter names at all... When she's written the word get her to check it by sounding out and blending it.

But, personally, I'd say don't bother with spelling at all. She'll learn soon enough in school (I hope...)