Encouraging Writing at School and Home

Here are a few suggestions of ways to encourage writing at home.

• Have a mini writing center in the house - Have an area in the home where your student can go to and write. Have a little table set up with paper, pencils, crayons, markers, etc. It might also be useful to have some books and magazines in the writing center to help give your child ideas of what to write about when they are stuck for a topic.
• Keep a journal - This is one of the best ways for a child to write. This enables them to write about their own thoughts and feelings. It gives your child a chance to write about things they might not want to talk about. It is important to remember that you should only read the journal if your child invites you to.
• Writing letters - Have your child write letters to family members, friends, or even other kids in the neighborhood! This gives children great practice writing, and others are always excited to receive letters in the mail! This is an activity that makes writing fun for children!

Here are a couple activities that your child will be participating in during this school year to help improve their writing.

• Pen Pals - Each student in the class will have a pen pal from Kahului School; the elementary school across town. Each student will correspond with their pen pal at least once a month. This will continue throughout the entire school year.
• Class newsletter - Each month the class will write a class newsletter to send home to parents. The children will work in groups to write about activities that are happening in the classroom.