Post Office Week
provided abundant opportunities for both writing and role playing. The children wrote letters, stuffed envelopes
and stuck stamps at our Postal Table.
They wrote, stamped
and mailed "real letters" to all of you! Hopefully, your mail arrived safely!
Thank you to Rieny, Parker's own mail
carrier, for giving us a close up look at a real mail truck!
Looking Deeper: Exploration and Learning through Play
This Week let's
take a closer look at the purpose of "Authentic Writing" activities.
Young children
instinctively know that "writing" is different than
"drawing". Subsequently, even
children who are not yet able to form letters will make
"writing-like" symbols when
given the opportunity to use pencil and paper as opposed to makers, crayons or
chalk. We have therefore provided the
children with a wide variety of authentic writing opportunities that have been
both teacher directed and child initiated.
Over the course of the school year, the children have (with teacher
assistance) "written" invitations, thank you notes, stories and
books. Within their dramatic play
scenarios, they have made notations in our office, written shopping lists for
our Grocery Store, and jotted patient notes in our Doctor Office. This week the children have "written"
a multitude of letters that they mailed and delivered within our classroom Post
Office!
Over the course of
the year, many of the children have moved from making "writing-like"
symbols to actually printing letters.
Some of the children routinely print their name on their work, and
others are simply printing some of the letters from their name.
Providing the
children with on-going, open-ended opportunities for "authentic
writing" is not only crucial to their development of writing skills, but
it also facilitates their conceptual understanding of the "purpose of
writing" which is communication of spoken word through symbols.
Have a fun and restful weekend!
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