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This resource offers an activity educators and children could embark on to improve a child's phonemic awareness.

Phonemic awareness is defined as the ability to articulate and sound individual sounds of the letters. Al Otaiba et al. (2010), as cited in Durst & Joseph (2016), states that phonemic awareness and segmentation is the most predictive and vital skill in order for the child to achieve phonological awareness.

Writing is believed to integrate phonological awareness and letter knowledge as well. Studies have shown that continuities in children's writing in elementary school is highly associated with child's phonemic awareness (Diamond et al., 2008).

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This resource offers a list of name-writing activities that educators and parents can implement in class and at home. Children gain knowledge and an interest in writing if they are continuously exposed to print and writing in their environment. As such, the best way to conduct writing daily is to involve children in writing their names as names are meaningful to them. It provides a sense of ownership to the children and gives them a sense of belonging.

Apart from that, name writing proficiency provides a foundation for other literacy knowledge and skills in which is associated with alphabet knowledge, letter writing, print concepts, and spelling (Cabell et al. 2009; Drouin & Harmon 2009).

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Give your preschooler a little boost in school with easy and fun ways to practice name writing! They'll be ready to go for the first day of school!

One of the first things your preschooler will learn is how to spell and recognize their own name. Your little learner will be discovering how to spell it.

And that means writing it down.

Instead of using a name writing practice sheet or worksheet, add a little bit of fun to name writing practice.

Hands-on writing is much more exciting for preschoolers than putting pen to paper and writing the same thing over and over again.

Plus, preschoolers might not be ready to grip the pencil and be able to write in this way yet.

And that's okay.

Okay, quick disclaimer, I know that just sounded like I know what I'm talking about, and kind of sounds like it's from a teacher's perspective, but it's not.

I'm a parent, not a teacher. I never have been a teacher.

This is just information that I've gathered through experience and through researching for many years on my own.

Practice Name Writing in 12 Fun Ways for Preschoolers

Making name writing practice a hands-on experience can be so much more meaningful.

Over the years, I've done many of these in some shape or form. I hope you enjoy these 12 ways that kids can practice name writing.

Best of all, you can use these ideas at home or school. It will make learning fun for them without adding pressure!

Ways for Preschoolers to Practice Name Writing:

1. Highlighters are awesome for tracing anything! Add in glue and yarn and it's a hands-on experience, or triple the name tracing fun!

2. Buggy and Buddy loves to rainbow write their names! Writing their name over and over again in different colors to make a rainbow. Make it big and fun!

3. Another twist on rainbow writing is rainbow name painting from NurtureStore! Paint over and over in different colors!

4. Discover Explore Learn traces letters with paint and Q-tips, put this to their name and the kids will love it!

5. Jen's OT for Kids uses glitter glue to practice name writing! (Get glitter glue here, affiliate link)

6. Practice writing their name on the chalkboard, but with water to erase it away!

7. Make a sensory bag to practice pre-writing skills to write the letters of their name (from Play at Home Mom)

8. Fingerpaint their name! This idea from Creative Tots is a great one for kids struggling to grip a pencil yet.

9. Practice writing their name in a salt sensory tray! Great idea from Bounce Back Parenting. No salt? Try flour!

10. Get out the watercolors and trace the letters of their name with a paintbrush! This is a pretty one from Play to Learn Preschool!

11. Teach Preschool has a fun name writing game to do on the whiteboard.

12. When all else fails, break out a can of shaving cream. This idea from Gift of Curiosity always wins! Write their name in a tray!

12 Ways to Practice Name Writing
Not quite ready to practice name writing yet? Try some of these name activities to start recognizing and spelling their name first.

What are your favorite ways to help your child practice name writing?

These affiliate products are non-worksheet ways for kids to practice writing their name.

Here are 10 more ways to prepare your little ones for school (that have nothing to do with academics!), from TheSaltyMamas.com.

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Not Interested in Learning to Write Their Name? Try These.

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Give your preschooler a little boost in school with easy and fun ways to practice name writing! They'll be ready to go for the first day of school! One of the first things your preschooler will learn is how to spell and recognize their own name.

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Adding meaningful writing materials in Learning Corners

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Adding meaningful writing materials in Learning Corners

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This resource offers a list of writing activities, materials and literacy props that can be prepared by educators to promote writing in all learning corners.

Pool & Carter's (2011) literature believed that writing can become an important component of every learning center in the preschool classroom if teachers strategically place a variety of writing materials throughout the classroom and offer specific guidance on using the materials (Mayer 2007).

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EDF 3034- Children's Literacy Development Team Kaya Toast Done by: Nur Hardeena and Nurliana

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Creating a conducive writing environment

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Creating a conducive writing environment

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This resource offers an idea as to how educators can create an environment to encourage children to engage in literacy activities, in exact, writing; as environment is the third teacher in an early childhood setting for educational provocation and insights (Wilson & Elis, 2009).

Extensive research by Cunningham (2008) has found that the quality of a child's preschool literacy environments affects their attitudes towards reading and writing.

Therefore, the resource attached would assist educators in creating a conducive writing environment for children.

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How to Create a Writing Center Students Will LOVE

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Do you want your students to love writing? Get tips on how to create a writing center that your students will WANT to go to!

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This resource documents the different stages of spelling development. This resource can be beneficial for parents to understand the process that children has to undergo to develop their spelling skills.

In one of the first major studies of children beginning attempts at learning to spell, linguist Charles Read (1975) examined the writing of thirty preschoolers who were able to identify, name and relate the letter names to the sounds of words. The students had "invented" spellings for several words by rearranging its letters. Through this, he began to understand that learning to spell is not a matter of merely memorizing letter sequences, but involves a child's ability in developing and applying linguistic knowledge, knowledge of letter-sound relationships and vowel patterns.

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This resource offers educators with a strategy in relation to conducting inventive spelling with the children in class.

Educators can conduct instructional games to allow children to engage in inventive spelling as children acquire language from their alertness to language through these activities. According to Hodges (1981), language games can be used to enhance a young child's growing awareness of words and how they are spelled. Hence, this video is a resourceful tip for educators.

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This resource offers a spelling application that parents can download for their children to learn spelling through play. It is a fun application that will entice the children and build their confidence in spelling words themselves.

According to Carol Chomsky (1976), the major need of inventive spellers who are beginning to read is to have someone to answer their questions and correct their mistakes. These mistakes often includes misreading or misspelling of the words. Hence, parental involvement is important in a child's development.

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Do you teach beginning readers and spellers? You're sure to LOVE our beginning spelling app for word study called Alphabetic Spellers!

It's FULL of word study activities for letter sounds and short vowel words. It's PERFECT for advanced preschoolers or Kindergartners or any child in the Alphabetic Spelling Stage.

And now, you can easily share data from your device to all your learners!

Beginning Spelling App for Word Study

We have 5 learning apps already, so what makes this one different?

It covers all of the phonics skills that beginning readers and spellers need including beginning sounds, ending sounds, middle short vowel sounds, word families, CVC words, and longer short vowel words.

It's designed for more than one user, similar to our Sight Word Games App.

It tracks what your learners do. {You asked for it and we heard you!} Read more later in this post.

You can customize sorts specifically for each learner. While we have TONS of pre-made sorts in the app, you can customize the phonics categories, which makes differentiation a breeze! Woohoo!

One of the best parts about this app is that I've created PAPER resources to that go hand-in-hand with it. The pictures and words from the app are identical to the sorts in my Alphabet Spellers Printable Pack. There are other activities and editable pages, too!

The paper resource is a must, in my opinion. While the app is comprehensive, I highly recommend that you introduce the sort and include other spelling activities, like having the learner write the words from the sort.

These printable activities give you the resources you need to make word study for your Alphabetic Spellers even more effective and robust!

Beginning Spelling App in Action

One of the cool things about this app is that YOU get to assign the phonics skills your learners interacts with in the app!

You can choose between beginning sounds (pictures), ending sounds (pictures), short vowel sounds (pictures), beginning blends (pictures), beginning digraphs (pictures), word families, CVC words, longer short vowel words, and the exciting My Sorts, where learners interact with the custom sorts you've built for them (more on this later)!

On this one page, you can quickly glance at the number of sorts you have assigned to your learners under each phonics category. For each sort, the learner sorts the items (pictures or words), does a timed sort, does a blind sort, and types the words or parts of words (like a spelling test).

1- Sorting - There are sorts for pictures, like this beginning blend sort and sorts for words. With these sorts, the app will not allow the learner to put the picture/word in the wrong column. This works well when you can't be right there to offer immediate feedback yourself. Learners are able to sort and re-sort, like you do with a paper sort.

2- Timed Sorts - There are timed sorts for all the sorts. In this activity, the learner taps GO and sorts the items as fast as she can. The timed sort allows for incorrect answers at first. Once all the items have been sorted, it pulls out the incorrect answers and asks the learner to sort them again. When all items have been sorted correctly, the timer stops.

The learner then does the timed sort once more, trying to beat her own time. After the second time, the learner has the option to try again or continue to a different activity.

3- Blind Sort - In the blind sorts, the word (or picture for picture sorts) is called out and the learner has to tap the column where the word belongs. If she is correct, she hears a ding sound. If the learner taps the wrong column, the word is put back into the "deck" to try again.

4- Written Sorts - The paper word study resource allows for paper/pencil written sorts. On the app, learners type words (or parts of words) as a spelling test. This info is tracked so you'll know exactly what each word was on the "test" and the word they typed in.

(The QW at the bottom of the screen gives you the option for the QWERTY keyboard instead.)

When you go into the section for adults on the app, you can view what the learner has finished or not finished for each activity. If the learner has finished it, the circles will be filled in green.

For the Written Sorts, you can find the percentage of words spelled correctly. If you want to see details, click on the eye icon next to the percentage (83% in image above). On this screen, you can see exactly how the learner spelled every word on the written sort.

You can also email yourself the data collected from the app for each user. This is such great information to help inform your spelling instruction!

5- BONUS - Write it Anytime! - On the menu screen for the user, all four activities are listed. You get to choose which ones you want your learner to do, but I recommend all of them! We've also included a "Practice Writing Anytime" feature at the bottom of the screen. With one tap, the learner can practice spelling the words from the word sort.

Customizing Sorts for Beginning Spellers

The app has TONS of pre-made sorts for pictures and words. But let's say that your learner needs something that's not offered. You can design your own sorts!!

When you enter the "Adult" section, not only can you create/edit users and assign sorts, but you can build your own sorts, too!

You can choose what kind of sort (picture or word sorts), how many columns you want to include, and if you want oddball words or not. If you want to use these same words in my printable pack, they can be typed into the editable fields. Woohoo!

Once you've built the sort, you can assign it to users and easily share it with all your learners' devices. Sorting, Timed Sorts, Blind Sorts, & Written Sorts can be done with the custom sorts, too!

NEW Sharing Feature!

In the "For Adults" section, there's a NEW sharing feature, which allows you to quickly export and sync sorting activities to every device you have! Talk about awesomeness!
Ready to snag this AWESOME APP?!?
Hop over to iTunes or Google Play and grab your copy!
Enjoy!
~Becky

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Beginning Spelling App for Word Study - This Reading Mama

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Do you teach beginning readers and spellers? You're sure to LOVE our beginning spelling app for word study called Alphabetic Spellers! It's FULL of word study activities for letter sounds and short vowel words. It's PERFECT for advanced preschoolers or Kindergartners or any child in the Alphabetic Spelling Stage.

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This resource offers a list of applications parents are able to download for free to aid children in their writing ability. According to Holloway & Valentine (2003), children are now living in a cyber world, surrounding with a variety of technology.

As children are more technology savvy these days, using these applications will entice them to complete the different writing activities.

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Many school systems nationwide are incorporating the iPad into their classrooms. But there are a slew of writing apps available that parents can put to use for at-home learning, as well, helping students become stronger, more motivated writers. Best of all, many of them are free.

We all know that writing takes practice - and the best way to get kids to practice is on a medium that they both enjoy and are familiar with. Younger kids seem to have an affinity for operating tablets, making them a relevant and useful piece of early educational technology. There are a host of free writing apps which range widely in quality, so we've put together a list of our top 8 favorite picks.

The selected apps below cover a wide age-range, with apps geared towards pre-schoolers, grade-school children and teenagers alike. Look over the following options to find the free writing app that best fits your child's needs.

Our 8 Favorite Free Writing Apps for iPad:

Designed primarily for younger students, Letter School is one of the better writing apps for iPad when it comes to learning the most efficient ways to hand write words. Kids are prompted to trace capital and lowercase letters, as well as numerals. They use their index figure to outline each number or letter, until they created a satisfactory representation. A demonstration shows kids where they must begin and end each letter - a progression that must be followed if they wish to move on to the next letter. Learn ways to implement the app in your home by reading our Letter School review.

Like Letter School, iWriteWords is a handwriting app designed for younger kids, helping them to practice writing letters and numbers at their own pace. The cartoon graphics and whimsical sound effects, as well as the simplicity of the words, make the app great for younger age groups. It's purpose it simple too: helping kids to become more familiar with the basic sounds and structures of individual letters. An image also accompanies each letter, which aids in the association of letter with words, and words with images. More information can be found in our iWriteWords review.

MONKEY WORD SCHOOL ADVENTURE:

Best suited for students who have outgrown the need for apps like iWriteWords and Letter School, Monkey Word School Adventure tasks kids to apply the their word association skills to a series of mini-games. There are rhyming games, word search activities, and a host of other engaging and entertaining games which increase in difficulty as kids demonstrate proficiency. While most of the app deals with different variations of spelling exercises, it utilizes visual and auditory teaching strategies to encourage kids to take what they learn in class and apply it to a fun game-like environment. In our extended Monkey Word School Adventure review, you will learn more ways to practice writing skills using the app.

As children advance through grade school, they'll be tasked with spelling increasingly difficult words. Poor spelling can lead an otherwise decent piece of writing to receive poor marks, so consider using Miss Spell's Class as a way to offer fun and interactive ways to boost spelling skills at home. The app tasks users with identifying incorrectly and correctly spelled words, which increase in difficulty as they advance.Check out our Miss Spell's Class review for details.

Vocabulary skills become an increasingly intrinsic element of good writing as children advance into higher levels of education. A limited vocabulary set can lead to dull, repetitive writing, while a wider vocabulary set allows children to tap into more expressive language and produce more dynamic prose. The multi-faceted focus of Spelling City seeks to improve vocabulary and spelling skills, making it a viable tool for boosting at-home learning in kids of all ages. Learn more in our Spelling City review.

For those who struggle with handwriting or typing to the point of it hindering their ability to produce complete works of writing, speech-to-text services like Dragon Dictation can go a long way to improving their ability to capture thoughts and ideas and combine them into a cohesive whole. This free app is fully functional, allowing users to pop out their iPad and start recording speech in an instant. The app then transcribes the audio to text, allowing users to copy and paste it into text-editing programs for further refinement. Our Dragon Dictation review has the rundown.

Writing Dynamo:
[update: Writing Dynamo has been discontinued by its developer, Dictionary.com]
A Novel Idea is the place for kids to explore more creative avenues in their writing. Think of the app as a step-by-step guide to writing a short story. Kids will input important information about the setting and plot, and will be prompted to give a detailed analysis of characters and their traits. It provides the framework for an original story, and keeps kids from omitting important elements of a narrative. The free app helps kids organize their writing. It's like a more interactive graphic organizer for prose. In our A Novel Idea review, there is a more detailed description of the app, as well as a variety of activities in which A Novel Idea can be incorporated.

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8 Free Writing Apps for iPad Your Kids will Love - LearningWorks for Kids

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Many school systems nationwide are incorporating the iPad into their classrooms. But there are a slew of writing apps available that parents can put to use for at-home learning, as well, helping students become stronger, more motivated writers. Best of all, many of them are free.

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Teaching Phonemic Awareness through scaffolding

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Teaching Phonemic Awareness through scaffolding

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This resource offers tips for educators to teach phonemic awareness in class after identifying the child's ability.

Scaffolding is a term developed by Vygotsky in his Zone of Proximal Development. He believed that children are able to reach the maximum of their Zone of Proximal Development with scaffolding from more experienced peers or adults (1978).

This is supported by the Nurturing Early Learner - A Curriculum Framework for kindergartens in Singapore which believes that in order for children to be curious, active and competent learners, teachers have to take on the role as a facilitator in the child's learning and scaffold them through observations and monitoring (Ministry of Education, 2013).

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This resource offers a strategy and an idea, in exact, morning message for educators to use in the classroom context to promote writing as writing and reading is inter-related.

Children shows a critical writing development when they are able to represent sounds that they hear in spoken language (Cabell et al., 2013). Therefore, morning message creates opportunities for children to represent spoken language to writing as children are able to make connections between the words they hear and the word written on the whiteboard. Children are able to respond to the morning message afterwards through speech and writings (Cabell et al., 2013).

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This video is about Morning Message: Student Writing

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Using storytelling as a tool to improve writing

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Using storytelling as a tool to improve writing

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This resource offers educators and caregivers the different benefits of storytelling. Page 39 of the resource highlights how storytelling intertwines with writing. According to the resource, storytelling not only allows the child to learn new vocabularies but also allows children to empathise and encourage children to be their own writer.

As mentioned by Ministry of Education (2013) in Nurturing Early Learner - A Curriculum for Kindergartens in Singapore: Language and Literacy, in order to successfully acquire the skills for reading and writing a child need to attain speaking and listening skills first.

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This resource offers an opportunity for educators and parents to educate children on the appropriate way of holding a pencil through a catchy song.

According to Schneck (1991), pencil grasp has a significant role in a child's handwriting ability, including speed and legibility. Hence, by integrating meaningful songs in lessons, children would be more interested in learning the right grasp.

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Learn Correct Pencil Grasp ( pencil pick up) Teaches Functional Dynamic Tripod Grasp

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Are the children competent in  writing yet?

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Are the children competent in  writing yet?

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This resource serves as a guide and an assessment tool for educators to roughly gauge the stage children are at.

The resource underlines the importance of noting the stage of writing the child is in before working towards a attainable goal for the child as children develops differently and it is our responsibilities as educators to respect each child within their diversity (AECES, 2010).

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This resource offers educators and parents a platform to understand the six different stages of writing in children's early years.

Writing involves children in constructing a message that conveys meaning to others.  According to Sulzby and Teale (1985), although there are six stages, these stages may not develop in any particular order.

This resource documents the different features that may be observed in the different stages of writing, from beginning to extended writing.

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As educators and parents, we need to be sensitive to preschoolers’ varying levels of fine motor skills and promote the joy of experimenting with the art of writing, regardless of a child’s current skill level and regardless of age.

This resource offers an interesting sensorial activity that educators and parents can create to entice the children to write. According to the Nurturing Early Learner - A Curriculum for Kindergartens in Singapore: Language and Literacy, before the children learn to write conventionally, they need to develop their fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination so as to hold and use writing tools. (Ministry of Education, 2013)

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Strategies to educate children of punctuations

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Strategies to educate children of punctuations

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This video is a song that explains the different usage and rules of punctuations. It is a resource that educators is able to use during lessons to educate children of the different punctuations.

By using songs and videos, children will be more interested in learning and will be able to remember better.

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This resource offers as a guide for parents and educator to set realistic and attainable goals for children in terms of writing.

Bandura (1986, 1997) in his Self-Efficacy theory believes that self- efficacy relates to one ability to perform at a particular level. Research has proven that capitalising on the children's ability would not only increase their self-esteem and resilience (Robert & Sam, 2001) but will also affect their reading and writing abilities.

Pages 11-13 of the attached resource highlights the Writing Achievements and how self-efficacy can be applied to teaching.

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This resource offers educators and parents a strategy to overcome the issue of visual motor coordinations in children.

Visual motor coordinations is defined as the ability to coordinate the movement of one's fingers and visual perception to complete a tracing or copying activity (Beery, 2004). Research has shown that a child's visual motor coordination has a direct impact on their handwriting (Weintraub & Graham 2000).

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Great glue tracing pre-writing activity for kids .

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Pincer Grasp activity to improve handwriting

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Pincer Grasp activity to improve handwriting

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This resource offers a strategy for educators and parents to improve a child's pincer grasp during writing. According to Son and Meisels (2006), as cited in Gerde et al. (2012), writing requires coordination of a child's motor skills (handwriting) and letter knowledge (orthography). Writing, according to Huffman & Fortenberry (2011), involves the movement of a child's whole arm to the fine motor control at his finger tip.

Further, studies have shown that lack of fine motor control often causes errors in common writings (Feder & Majnemer, 2007).

As such, embedded in this post is a video to improve a child's fine motor control  and spatial awareness while writing.

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Planning Playtime - Learning Through Play

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Planning Playtime - Learning Through Play

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Perfect activity to get kids ready to write!

Details and instructions here: http://planningplaytime.com/2017/04/push-pin-pre-writing-activity-for-kids.html

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Writing is all about communicating ideas. It is important for children to note that their writing must make meaning and be understood by others. By using and having the generative knowledge of punctuation, it helps to translate spoken words into writing.

According to Puranik & Lonigan (2014), generative knowledge refers to a child's ability to write phrases and sentences that convey meaning. It is also the ability to translate thoughts into writing that goes beyond the word level.

As such, this resource offers educators and parents an insight of the uses and the rules of each punctuation to educate and instil in the children.