A few months ago we had some friends over for a formal lunch. Cam was desperate to help as her dad and I frantically worked to get the house ready. Her dad had a brilliant idea and asked her to create place settings for the guests.
I loved her place cards and put them away in a special place as a keepsake of one of Cam’s first writing records. I recently fished them out when I decided that they’d make great additions to our Christmas lunch table.
Cam is still in the pre-writing phase (although she has progressed from cursive scribbling to symbols and letter attempts), but I still encourage her to write. You can read more about the importance of pre-writing.
My main aim is to make sure that writing is enjoyable and meaningful for Cam, so I don’t give her formal pre-writing tasks to complete. Instead, I give her opportunities to write, and I let her write at her own pace. She attempts to write letters that she has come to recognize through our reading and her observations of the environment around her.
What she is learning is that her writing (symbols) has meaning and conveys a message- and she’s having fun in the process.
What you need
- Heavy-stock paper or cardboard (cut into small rectangles and folded)
- Pencils, pens, or textas
- Stickers for decoration
Our approach
- One letter at a time, I simply told Cam which letters she needed to write to create each guest’s name
- Cam wrote the letters on the place cards based on her knowledge and recognition of the letters (If you wanted to, you could provide your child with a copy of the alphabet)
- She then decorated the cards with stickers
- She was so proud of her place cards that she couldn’t wait to show the guests when they arrived.
- To make Christmas Table Setting Place-cards, simply provide your children with festive colored paper (e.g. red and green) and Christmas-themed stickers.
