Handwriting game ideas for reception child

[bluespiral]

DD4 is in reception. She's coming along well with phonics/reading but her handwriting isn't great and I want to come up with some fun ideas to sneak practise in by stealth. Anything where she can spell out phonetically herself too ideally, rather than just copying letters or words.

So far we've played cafes where she's been a waitress and has taken my order which she enjoyed. She's also helped me make a shopping list.

I'm lacking in imagination though! Any more ideas like those?

My ds is a very reluctant writer, so I tried a lot of things to encourage him.

How about encourage her to start writing diary? There are lots of nice ones in the shop, she might enjoy it. My ds used to write diary in reception, 80% drawing and 20% writing, but doing it regularly does make difference.
I also ask DS to write birthday card, thank you card, reply to invitation, Christmas card etc. all by himself.

He also used to make "my word book", he wrote down new word he learned in the little notebook. In yr2, he made it into reference notebook for himself for spelling and meaning, etc.

Thanks Irvine. Mentioning invitations gave me an idea - she could hold a party for her toys (she likes doing this anyway) and she could write invitations to them.

A scrap book, labeling anything she sticks or draws in it.

May just be my boys, but they went mad when I accidentally brought some post-its home from work once. They labelled everything in the house!

I get mine to add things to my shopping list when we run out, and to add things to our calendar.

No spelling involved, but you could play games like finger twister (draw coloured dots on paper and get her moving her fingers to land on precise dots), or get her to put her non-writing hand behind her back, then give her a sheet of paper to screw into a ball using her writing hand. Once it's in a ball, she has to try to make it flat again, only using her writing hand. You can do it at the same time to make it a fun little "competition". Basically any hand muscle exercise will help develop better control, which will help improve handwriting in the long run :)

Theres some ideas on this blog. The paint in a bag is popular with ds1 (age 6!)

Which blog is it Topsy?

Thanks for all the ideas. I think she'd enjoy labelling things with post it notes!

DD used to like playing schools when she was in Reception. We had a white board and a homemade 'register', and she had some phonic flash cards from school. Plus teddies for additional students, of course! She would pretend to be the teacher and lecture me at great length explain what words we were learning, write things on the board, write out the lunch menu, etc.