
Primary School Prep DIY Guide- Writing-Page 4
WRITING LETTERS AND WORDS
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Remain inside the lines  
The next stage, when your child is comfortable with tracing, is to repeat the same letters of the alphabet in a sheet, but instead of tracing, your child is to remain inside the lines. 
See an example from the downloadable sheets at Primary School Prep Done 4U

Free writing
When your child is comfortable with remaining inside the lines, the next stage is then to write the letters without any help of dots to trace or the shape of the letter for them to remain inside the line. 
The lines should still be there to show them the space within which they need to keep their letters.  A fully formed letter should also be present as an example of what they need to reproduce. 
 
You should have a video or example of the letters with arrows to remind your child how the letters are formed, just in case they need to refer to it. At Primary School Prep Done 4U, your child will have access to materials that will remind them how to form the letters. 
See an example of how the sheet can be laid out. The sheets are taken from the Primary School Prep Done 4U writing programme.


Free writing - reduce the size 
 
This stage is the same as the free writing stage, apart from the fact that the space of the lines should be reduced to the normal writing size of around a 0.8cm space per line. 
 
See an example of how the sheet can be laid out. The sheets are taken from Primary School Prep Done 4U writing programme.


Continue going through “a-z” practice until your child is comfortable forming all his or her letters. Do not move on until they are comfortable forming all their letters. 
Words
When your child is comfortable with writing letters then move your child onto writing words:  
Start with 3 letter words  
Then go onto 4 letter words 
Then to 5 letter words 
 
In preparing the sheets, present the information in the same way as the free writing with the reduced size.  
Phrases and Sentences
 
When your child is comfortable with words then move him or her onto phrases and sentences. 
Write the phrase or sentence on one line and then get your child to copy the sentence or phrase on the line below. 
Copy from book
The last stage is copying from books.
 
END OF PRIMARY SCHOOL PREP DIY WRITING GUIDE
