Children naturally progress through different stages in their writing development throughout the school year.  We use this natural progress to promote student growth by following the children’s readiness cues. 

Children are provided with encouragement, modeling, and instruction according to what they have demonstrated they are ready for.  This helps them make progress though these natural stages and become better writers. Children will sound out words the best that they can- we call this "invented" spelling. I will use their writing to determine where to guide children in further instruction. It is such fun to see their progress from September to May…just wait and see! Your support and extra practice at home will help your child continue to make progress as they become more proficient writers and readers.

I will praise all attempts at writing no matter what stage your child may be demonstrating! We write very OFTEN, so that we can practice and apply our knowledge and skills! Watch our writing come home and watch us grow!

Children may use scribbles, strange invented symbols, or even pictures in their writing. Even at this stage, children are "writing"- they are demonstrating knowledge that writing means something and that something must be written in some way.

At this stage, children may begin to use accurately formed letters, but have often not yet discovered the idea that letters represent the speech sounds we hear in words. The letter strings may look like writing, but they do not demonstrate actual letter sounds heard in the words.  For example: house may be spelled "brdprdpmsdp." Again, even at this stage, children are STILL writing, even if we can’t yet read it.

Children will begin to write words with letter sounds they hear, or think they hear.  They may write one or two letters for the sounds in each word, often the beginning sounds of words.  Sometimes they may correctly write down one or two sounds in a word and then finish the word with letter strings.  House may be spelled simply "h" or "hblp."

Children continue to write words with letter sounds they hear, or think they hear. At this stage, beginning and ending sounds may be demonstrated in your child’s writing. Some middle sounds may emerge, especially if those sounds are consonants. For example: carrot may be spelled "crt" or "ct." Children may still just write strings of words: " ct dg red" for cat, dog, red. Some children may start to write simple sentences such as, "I lk crt" for I like carrots.

Children’s writing becomes more and more "readable" as they start to more correctly represent letter sounds heard in words. Writing is more often in sentence form, rather than just strings of words. Words are still not all spelled correctly, though some may be. House may be written as: hows. A sentence might be written as: "I like the lfnt" for I like the elephant.

It is important to note that at this stage, children may begin to say they can’t read their sentence. This is because they understand more now how letters and letter sounds work and they are often beginning to read as well. They may now "believe" that "crt" cannot possibly say "carrot"; crt says kart or kert as far as they are concerned. As with anything else, they will work through it- be patient and don’t worry! Keep giving them the support they need- they are still readers and writers!

Children at this stage are very aware of sentence mechanics, and start to use capitalization and punctuation correctly. Their sentences are very readable with many, not all, words often spelled correctly. Sometimes, sentences become more creative and longer.

Note: Children may start saying they can’t spell and this is a very real, very natural part of their development. Again, these children are reading more and know more about how words look, so when they write a word and it looks incorrect, they start to doubt themselves. Be patient- continue to encourage invented spelling and ask your child what sounds they hear. Any way they spell is OKAY! We just want them to share their ideas!