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Authentic Early Writing: Literacy Foundations 5

Writing is the connection between symbols, language, and print. It pulls together all the concepts about language sounds and print carrying meaning. Research says the focus for preschoolers should be on modeling and using writing for authentic reasons daily and in many different contexts. 


Developmentally, young children who are learning to write begin with scribbles, lines, or random marks on the paper. As children gain experience with print, they begin to form letter-like symbols and random strings of letters on the page. Eventually this transitions into spellings connected to the sounds of language and then more conventional spelling. A mom shared her kindergarten child’s writing with me this year: “WOCE TOCE”. Can you read that? (answer at the bottom of the email)


Here are some high-leverage tips for supporting children with early writing skills:

  • Offer drawing and writing opportunities that are meaningful such as stories, signs, lists, thank you letters, social stories and cards to families. It was so friendly of the custodians to have fixed our steps. Can you help me to write a thank you letter?

  • Think about making a class book to share: Class books could show pictures and facts about each child in the class, memorialize a field trip or learning experience, be used to describe a typical day at school, or be based off another book like My Many Colored Days by Dr Seuss. We had such a good time at the apple orchard. I’ve put some photos into this book. Can you help me write the words? 

  • Celebrate all developmental levels of writing. If a child isn’t yet ready to write letters or words, they will need a different kind of support than a child who knows letter sounds and regularly writes messages.Scaffold and encourage each child at their individual level of writing development with positive and encouraging activities that keep writing FUN!

  • Be a daily model for writing: Transcribe children’s stories, help create treasure maps, write a message or question of the day to prompt children’s thinking, make signs, write notes or invitations to families, and call attention to other times when you are writing and explain the purpose: I’m going to write a list of whose turn it will be next, so I don’t forget. Look, there’s your name!

  • Build writing into your daily routines. Offer sign-in opportunities with a jobs chart, use name tags when a visitor comes, label items in children’s home languages and English, write children’s names on the whiteboard to transition from circle, write the snack menu, or give children time to journal during quiet time. Start a classroom “mailbox” that children can check every day for special notes from the teacher, family, or classmates. 

  • Incorporate a variety of writing materials into every area of the classroom: Use provocations to spark interest in writing. Tools and surfaces like paintbrushes, crayons, markers, pencils, pens, dry erase boards, chalkboards, easels, clipboards, notebooks/journals, envelopes, cards, stencils, cardboard, sidewalk chalk, sticks in snow or sand, and paper of all kinds, colors and sizes should be available to children to spark interest in writing. What do you have outside that you could write with? How do you incorporate writing materials into the dramatic play area? Into the manipulatives space?

  • Offer daily opportunities to build fine motor skills and hand strength including sewing, cutting with scissors, using eye droppers or tweezers, building with little Legos, painting with finger paint, cotton balls, or Q-tips, beading necklaces, kneading bread dough, using paper punches or spray bottles, hammering nails, and practicing fingerplays like Where is Thumbkin? Think about which children are most likely to avoid the art or writing centers. What fine motor activities will appeal to them?

  • Make it sensory - Draw and write with crayons over sandpaper, with popsicle sticks in playdough, and with fingers in sand/snow/shaving cream to help build a sensory experience of forming letters. Bend playdough snakes, WikiSticks and pipe cleaners into letter shapes. Arrange letters with sticks and rocks outside or blocks and loose parts inside. Big body movements when drawing or writing letters on an easel or poster board can also help children develop hand-eye coordination needed for writing. 

  • Help with proper letter formation and pencil grip when children are ready. If children are routinely writing their names or other words, it’s helpful to teach them how to grip the pencil and how to form the letters correctly! It is easier to learn the skills correctly than to UN-learn later. Two standard rules to keep in mind: letter-writing ALWAYS starts at the top of the letter and names are written with a capital letter at the beginning and lowercase letters after that. 


Sample Book List for Early Writing:

  • Bunny Cakes by Rosemary Wells

  • The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

  • Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin

  • A Squiggly Story by Andrew Larsen 

  • A Letter to Amy by Ezra Jack Keats

  • Follow the Line by Laura Ljungkvist 

  • Bearnard's Book by Deborah Underwood

  • Rocket Writes a Story by Tad Hills

  • Can I Be Your Dog? By Troy Cummings

  • The Post Office Book: Mail and How It Moves by Gail Gibbons

  • A Perfectly Messed-Up Story by Patrick McDonnell

  • Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson


Dig Deeper:

*WOCE TOCE - is “Walkie talkie”. This child is showing so much knowledge of letter sounds! They’ve gotten the /w/ sound and a short /o/ sound is a really reasonable guess based on the sounds in /fox/ and /top/. The /c/ sound is made by the K in this word, but again a C also makes that sound as in the word /cat/. And the word ends in a long /e/ sound like /coffee/. As adults with knowledge of conventional spelling, this might be hard to read, but it is a perfect example of invented or phonetic spelling!

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