In preschool, we support our students’ development by giving them lots of time and opportunities to write. They have free access to paper, markers, crayons, and pencils at the writing center. To some people, their attempts at writing might seem like “scribbling” but the truth is, pretend writing is an essential and important step in learning to write.
When young children pretend to write, they show that they understand directionality. This little girl made her writing start in the top left, and go across the paper to the right, and then start again on the next line.
Recently, our dramatic play center was set up to be an Airport. The students had different roles in the center. This little guy was the travel agent, responsible for issuing tickets for our Play Air flight 123. He took down my information, and then gave me this boarding pass.
I’m not sure exactly where I was headed, but the ticket got me on the plane!
As our students get closer to the end of preschool and have an eye on kindergarten, their writing becomes more conventional. This little one is in the process of figuring out that there are spaces in between words. Look at the example above. She puts a period, an “S” for “Space” and a dash between her first name and her last name. There’s also a period at the end for good measure.
In the example below, she has reduced it to just a dash. Soon, a small space will be sufficient for marking the difference between the two words.
This ^^^ is good! This ^^^ means that your students are learning that print has meaning. This ^^^ means that they are on the road to becoming writers!
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