Fun ways to practice writing?

[babyt2020]

We have two sons who are 5 and 6, our 6 year old is very bright and enjoying learning, he loves to read and draw and has recently really got into maths. His writing however is really poor and his teachers have been great encouraging him but I’d like to help him more at home. He loves to make up stories so Ive sat with him and encouraged him to write these but does anyone have any ideas of what else I can do?

mira a bit of a boring thing for him to practice so I’d like to make it fun, he loves dinosaurs, animals and space. He has spelling tests at school but as his writing can be illegible his teacher is marking words wrong that he can spell but they’re so hard to read they dont look right.

I used to play a game with my kids where we’d each start with a piece of paper. One person picks a subject or a theme (eg dinosaur, alien, superhero, Halloween, fairy). Or one person picks a mood or vibe - eg living in an ocean world or jungle; magical; etc
First each person draw a head (or heads!) with a neck, and folds the paper over so just a bit of neck is showing.

Pass your paper to the person on your left.

Now draw a body and arms/wings joined onto the neck. Fold again, leaving just a bit of the waist showing.

Pass the paper to the person on your left again.

Now draw legs/tails/whatever bottom half you like.

Pass the papers one more time, and unfold the paper.

This gets the creative juices going and the moment of reveal is so funny! At that point - you can stick your creature in a notebook and write about it.

Sometimes we would just do a “fact file” - name it, imagine its habitat, its diet, whether it’s a mammal or a fish or a reptile or a humanoid, its special powers or unique abilities, and so on. In time you get pretty good at inventing ideas and writing about them.

Sometimes we would write a whole story together or dc would have a go on their own. Kids age 6 rarely finish stories on their own!

Also to be honest there’s no substitute for handwriting practice - ask him what sentence he wants to write then write if to him and get him to copy it out into his story book.

There is too much cognitive load to think of the idea, get the spelling right, and write neatly at this age

Activities that use the whole body and not just the fingers:

BIG drawing and writing on rolls of wallpaper.
Writing/ drawing standing up at a chalkboard.
'Painting' with a paintbrush and bucket of water on a dry surface like a path.
Draw a letter with a finger on someone's back. They gave to guess what the letter is.

Smaller movements:
Provide post it notes, labels and small pieces of paper to make their own notes and signs while playing.
Different sizes and shapes of pens, crayons and chalkboard that feel different in the hands.

Agree, it doesn't sound like he needs to be focusing on stories but on actual handwriting. Sometimes spending time focusing on the 'worst' elements (e.g. letters like d not having a long ascender) can make a massive difference in a few minutes here and there but there just isn't time for that level of individual focus on school.

As dull as letter formation is, it would be a good idea to incorporate this into at home practice.
As for fun ideas, try to give the writing a purpose eg write a letter to a soace man to find out what life is like in space, I magazine and wrote about your own visit to space, drawn then write about a dinosaur them, write a set of instructions for how to look after an animal. Just a few idea.

We did all sorts. Had paper with different coloured lines to size the letters correctly. Playdoh for finger strength. Wipe clean books and all the hand writing sheets. Turns out he has dyslexia and can still barely write at 14. He touch types instead.
The teaching assistant could support him with spelling tests and scribe for him.

Ds's writing was appalling and it turned out he's dyspraxic. Might be worth considering an assessment. We missed it for a few years because he could tie his laces, cycle, play hurling, etc.

Don’t let him free write until he has sorted formation or you are just consolidating misconceptions. Encourage storytelling orally but practise transcription skills and keep it simple until he does it well.

I'm not sure if it's letter formation or dexterity but DS2 had problems with the latter (he is young in year and also a bit physically immature) and we did a term of funky fingers - basically lots of dexterity fames (loads of ideas if you google it) and coupled that with writing practice in a book and it really brought him on.

Little and Often. I wish I had done it but I read the book too late.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0HMG895WB

Have him design a menu for meals, or write out shopping lists, or jobs to do around the house. Or get him to play restaurants where he’s a waiter and has to ask everyone what they would like and write it down. Obviously you would have to spell out the words for him.

Chalk, writing in sand, an erasable writing tablet.

Letter formation families – the ONLY way to teach handwriting https://share.google/OrK8y4B8KtahIgbAW

Has he been taught his letters using the formation families method? It makes a lot more sense than other approaches.