Find out about, show interest in and legitimise children’s out-of-school writing practices and interests. Remember that not all writing formats go from left to right.
Talk to children about things they might write to support their play inside and outside, e.g. they might make a map for a journey, a job list for a builder, or spells for potion making.
Write stories, poems, jokes, lists, plans, maps etc. together with children on paper and using digital technology so that children they can see authorship and spelling in action.
Talk to children about the letters that represent the sounds they hear at the beginning of their own names and other familiar words.
Model how to segment the sounds(phonemes) in simple words and how the sounds are represented by letters (graphemes).
Encourage children to apply their own grapheme/phoneme knowledge to what they write in meaningful contexts.
Support and scaffold individual children’s writing as opportunities arise.
