Lighting Up Literacy in Early Years

In Reception we try to make writing fun and engaging for all of our learners. We like to make sure all of our children's marks are valued and celebrated. In our learning environment, we provide a rich range of mark-making opportunities through both adult-led and child-initiated experiences. This helps our children to develop imaginatively, creatively and physically.

Interventions like 'Squiggle whilst you Wiggle' help to enhance gross motor movements. We first dance the patterns using props and then make our marks using both hands on paper. 'Dough Disco' helps to improve fine motor control and strengthen finger muscles to support letter and number formation. In our learning environment, we always have 'Funky Finger' activities available to develop our fine motor control. This will help the children to manipulate small and fiddly tools and hold a pencil effectively.

Here are some photos when Mrs Land took part in a 'Lighting Up Literacy' Babcock project last year, which resulted in lots of motivated and excited writers.