Sep 6, 2026 · 45 min · 10 segments
We don't always think of play as offering opportunities to learn in the traditional sense but what if it was actually the most powerful tool we had at our disposal, not only creating learning…
If they're maybe not interested in pen and pencil shaping of the letters.
I'm guessing that's when you might bring in like flower you know the flower trays or whatever it is where you kind of form the letters in a big way or blackboards or chalkboards or whatever they're called now right where you kind of like you're not so reliant on like
you know the pressure of picking up a pen or pencil can feel quite a lot and you don't want them to feel in that pressurized situation so you know your fun one is spraying shaving foam on a tray and getting them to even just early mark making before they're even forming letters you know having a go at forming zigzags different shapes curvy lines spirals they're all sort of movements that will help them with when it comes to that letter formation a tray of rice or sand is a good one a nice low pressure one outside on a hot day you've got a paintbrush and a pot of water you know having a go at again you could start with shapes and patterns and then move on to letters and it feels quite low pressure because it it disappears so you know they're not quite so worried about making a mistake
would you teach a lowercase first or would you introduce them to to the lowercase letters or do you do you know like what's what's your advice when it comes to lowercase versus uppercase
And then for me, I'd say as you get to a stage where you're, you know, building up to writing sentences and you're talking about beginning a sentence with a capital letter, you
know,
once they're pretty secure with a lot of their lowercase letters, then you can start talking about capital letters.
I mean, my son's not quite there with writing yet, but in terms of just him putting marks on paper or with other materials, like you say, having the writing tools available to them alongside their play.
era at the moment, so I might link to
Having a bit of paper and some pens or something alongside a training track, they might actually choose to... to put marks to paper or write a little ticket or a sign.
And as an adult sort of being present alongside their play, you can sort of make suggestions that they might want to create a ticket.
And, you know, initially that doesn't even have to look like actually forming letters.
It can be, for them, it might just be a mark on paper and that's an okay first step.
earliest interventions, if you like, where you put the shaving foam on a tray and then they have to draw out Sort of shapes and something that's approximating towards letters.
And then, as you say, matching sounds to other sounds.
So all the things that begin with a suh sound, for example.
What are the sort, what's the vague age we're talking about there?
That kind of thing, that earliest bit that we were just talking about.
If they're maybe not interested in pen and pencil shaping of the letters.
I'm guessing that's when you might bring in like flower you know the flower trays or whatever it is where you kind of form the letters in a big way or blackboards or chalkboards or whatever they're called now right where you kind of like you're not so reliant on like
you know the pressure of picking up a pen or pencil can feel quite a lot and you don't want them to feel in that pressurized situation so you know your fun one is spraying shaving foam on a tray and getting them to even just early mark making before they're even forming letters you know having a go at forming zigzags different shapes curvy lines spirals they're all sort of movements that will help them with when it comes to that letter formation a tray of rice or sand is a good one a nice low pressure one outside on a hot day you've got a paintbrush and a pot of water you know having a go at again you could start with shapes and patterns and then move on to letters and it feels quite low pressure because it it disappears so you know they're not quite so worried about making a mistake
would you teach a lowercase first or would you introduce them to to the lowercase letters or do you do you know like what's what's your advice when it comes to lowercase versus uppercase
And then for me, I'd say as you get to a stage where you're, you know, building up to writing sentences and you're talking about beginning a sentence with a capital letter, you
know,
once they're pretty secure with a lot of their lowercase letters, then you can start talking about capital letters.
I mean, my son's not quite there with writing yet, but in terms of just him putting marks on paper or with other materials, like you say, having the writing tools available to them alongside their play.
era at the moment, so I might link to
Having a bit of paper and some pens or something alongside a training track, they might actually choose to... to put marks to paper or write a little ticket or a sign.
And as an adult sort of being present alongside their play, you can sort of make suggestions that they might want to create a ticket.
And, you know, initially that doesn't even have to look like actually forming letters.
It can be, for them, it might just be a mark on paper and that's an okay first step.
earliest interventions, if you like, where you put the shaving foam on a tray and then they have to draw out Sort of shapes and something that's approximating towards letters.
And then, as you say, matching sounds to other sounds.
So all the things that begin with a suh sound, for example.
What are the sort, what's the vague age we're talking about there?
That kind of thing, that earliest bit that we were just talking about.
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