More ideas for parents to help their children become confident, skilled writers

Writing develops through play.
Contributed by Linda Luzar, Teacher Consultant, Bay Area Writing Project, UC Berkeley

Children learn through observing and mimicking the world around them. As they become aware of the roles adults play, children also begin to incorporate writing and environmental print in their play.

Writing in dramatic play activities -

Noticing that writing is everywhere

Children love to take on adult roles whether in a playhouse or in a pretend store such as a grocery store, shoe store, hat shop, or a beauty parlor. All children need is a space where they can be creative—arranging furniture (boxes, blankets, pieces of cardboard), using paint or markers, paper, and money (pretend or real pennies). Families can take their children to a real store and help them notice the written signs and writing activities that are necessary to running the business. Back home, children can be encouraged to create their own business names and signs, write important guidelines and instructions, such as business hours and limitations of service, and develop advertisements and receipts. Of course, parents can be the first customers until neighborhood children become involved. Children become more aware of print and writing in their environment and the importance of communication.

Using writing for organization and play

Setting up a restaurant or a lemonade stand teaches children that writing is a critical part of the organization necessary in the food business. Like other businesses, signs, money, advertisements, and receipts are necessary. Children also need to make supply and food lists that fit the family’s budget. Remember, children do not need something expensive to make it fun. They can set up a tea shop or a peanut butter sandwich shop, or they can sell pretend food. They will need to write out menus, which are categorized and organized clearly for customers. The customers can write out their own orders on order forms developed by the children. Simple organizational tasks like this will help children be more organized in other writing projects.

Persuasive writing in play

Children can also learn about persuasive writing by creating posters or songs advertising their restaurant or stores. To help children gather ideas, families can help their children look at advertisements in the newspaper or on coupons. Children will definitely enjoy the artistic process involved in creating advertisements. All they’ll need are large pieces of cardboard from boxes or the backs of heavy poster paper. When they write their ads, children can learn how to use interesting words to describe their products. Taking jingles they already know or nursery rhymes, children can change the words to create their own advertisement or jingle.

Making maps

Maps are another fun activity for children. This connection of art to writing can be very simple or more complex. As a part of the store or restaurant play, children can make maps of their business location. They can include drawings of nearby reference points, directions showing north, south, east, and west and written directions from a specific location. Maps are difficult for young children to understand though. Therefore, making three-dimensional maps of their bedroom with blocks or paper boxes first might be helpful. Maps help children use pictures as a way of gathering information from text and are often used in early reading instruction.

Integrating other talents with writing

Many children have other talents not always recognized in school such as dancing, drama, music, and gymnastics. Some children love to perform for their peers. Families can encourage their children to set up their own stage performance in the backyard. Like the business writing activities, children can advertise, sell tickets, write descriptions of their show and the performers. This does not have to be elaborate and should come from the children’s interests. Again, children will see the connection of writing and communication

Writing reports

Children can see that writing a report can be fun if it is part of their own newspaper business, or parents can encourage their children to help write a family newspaper. Each family member can take a different part of the newspaper. Children can report on the family events for the week. Perhaps another choice might be to make a comic strip of something humorous that happened as a family or to a family member. Or children can write articles for the sports section on family competitions and children’s sports activities. Report writing must be factual and accurate, and parents can help children organize their ideas into simple, short paragraphs using the daily newspaper as a model.