Despite spending two years developing the office area of the nursery, children were not making use of it. So we decided to look for other ways of motivating them to write.
We sectioned this part of the nursery off with screens and gave the children a wide range of office equipment to play with. We then introduced individual message boxes, which gave children a 'real' purpose for writing.
Each child had their own named box that hung on a screen on the wall. They started writing messages to staff and friends, and within a week some of them recognised each other's names. Adults spent time in the area reading messages with the children and writing notes to individuals. Many children were eager to check their messages during the day.
A programme of circle time sessions was also planned for a group of foundation stage children. Jasper, the circle time puppet character, became a favourite in the nursery, and children looked forward to his visits. They began drawing pictures for Jasper and some wrote letters to him. Staff and children decided he should have his own message box, labelled with his name and a picture of him. By the time Jasper visited the nursery again, his message box was full and the children couldn't wait to read his mail to him.
Jasper has been coming for a few weeks now and interest in writing to him has not dwindled. We are thinking about adding a box for Father Christmas in December and one for our favourite book character, Kipper. The possibilities are endless!
Nursery managers Helen Kirby and Susie Prince spoke to Jane Drake, their partnership advisory teacher
