Your child has learned some or all of the phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters) on your sound mat. Maybe they are awesome at reading them, but writing is a whole other ball game.
The steps for writing that a child must develop…
Am I holding my pencil correctly?
Am I sat comfortably?
Is my pencil sharp?
Where do I need to write it?
Which way do I write across the page?
What is my sentence?
What was the first word?
Have I used a capital letter?
What did my word begin with?
How do I write that letter?
Where do I start to form it correctly?
Which way round does my letter go?
What is the next letter?
What was my word again?
Have I done my finger space?
What was the next word? Can I remember my sentence?
REPEAT UNTIL EACH WORD IS COMPLETE.
Do I need a full stop?
Have I read my sentence back to myself?
Does it make sense?
Are my words in the right order?
Did I miss a word?
Did I remember all of my finger spaces?
Wow! How exhausting. Not just to read, but that is possibly what goes through your child’s head every time they write a word or phrase or sentence… that’s assuming there’s nothing around them to distract them too.
How do you use a sound mat to support writing?
So! How can we make the process easier for them? SOUND MATS!
Give me an example…
hop on a log
Once your child is comfortable and has decided what they are writing, count the words with them. Practise saying the phrase or sentence with them so it almost rolls of their tongue. This means they can focus on the writing and not recalling the words.
Ask them what the first word is. Ask them to sound it out.
Ask them what the first sound is. If they are not sure how to write the letter, ask them to find it on the sound mat to help them recognise the shape of the letter.
Continue until they have finished.
Voila!
The more your child uses their sound mat, the quicker they will become at finding the letters or sounds needed. Try out some of our fun sound mat games ideas to help your child become more and more familiar with their sound mat.
How can we use our sound mat to support reading?
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