Sky, grass and root letters

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
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Hi teachers,

Can you please tell me about grass, sky and root letters? I couldn’t find them.

Many thanks.

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I had never heard of this concept before either. This article seems pretty good: montessoriexpert.com/2013/02/28/ … the-child/

The lowercase letters that don’t go above or below the lines, like aeruoscvnm are “grass letters”

The ones that go above the lines are “sky letters”, like klhfdb

The ones that go below the lines are “ground letters”, like ypjg

I am not really sure what this is supposed to teach kids - my kids never encountered this.

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It teaches them about the correct orientation of letters when they are writing. When young children write (not type) they will often make common errors:
make all letters the same height
start lowercase letters on ‘the line’.
now take uppercase letters above the height of letters such as a, c and s
make letters such as e and s (these two are particularly problematical in my experience) the same height as capital and uppercase letters.

Referring to them in this way (and if necessary giving them a brown, green and blue coloured background on which to practice the letters can really help, particularly if the child is a so-called ‘visual learner’.

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Thanks Beeesneees, your explanation is very convincing.

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Hello.

I was wondering if you could advise by what age the child should be able to write the letters correctly? My 4 year old can write the letters but not in their correct level. Should I start enforcing this now or just continue educating her about these letters right now?

Thanks

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Hi Imran, welcome to our forum. I suggest you start pointing out to your daughter where she is making a mistake and show her how to correct it from time to time. If you do this one mistake at a time and give her enough freedom to recognize her mistake and correct it herself she will probably make progress fast.

Let’s see what @Sumejja, @Andrea and @Tamar think.

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Hi @Imran_Abbas, welcome to the forum. Which country are you in? Usually at about 4 years old, children would be writing letters. Remember, she is still very young so don’t expect everything to be perfect. The more time she practices, the better the letters will get. Let her have fun with letters. Remember the pencil grip is important to be able to write properly. Maybe you can download resources and print them out for her to practice.

Try Alphablocks https://www.alphablocks.tv/
Try Jollyphonics A programme that grows with your children - Jolly Phonics

Hope this helps,
Andrea

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Hi @Imran_Abbas and welcome to the forum!

I’d like to add that teaching your child about sky/grass/root letters is best done with lined notebooks. Many young children (pre-school age) who are able to write usually do so on unlined papers, so there is nothing to actually correct there. On the other hand, if you’re not too concerned about that, you could let her write the way she wants to (with minor corrections), as she’ll be taught the correct way in school anyway. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide as the parent!

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Thank you all for your wishes and suggestions. We live in Tanzania :tanzania:. Much appreciated.

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Hello Imran!

I agree with Andrea and Sumejja. I just wanted to add an extra note:

I’ve volunteered countless times in my mom’s first grade classroom (which is typically made up of ESL and non-ESL children ages 5-6) and I’ve watched how the kids learn. It seems to me that by the age of 5, the kids already know their alphabet and may even know how to write out all the letters (and if they’re super eager, even write out small three-lettered words). This is typical for native English-speaking children. However, regardless of whether English is the student’s first language or not, my mom still makes it a point to start from the beginning of each school year by teaching the kids the letters of the alphabet, the sounds the letters make, how to write them out, how to spell small words, and how to construct simple sentences. These are the basics of learning to speak, read, listen, and write in English and it provides an excellent foundation for both native and non-native English speakers.

I say all of this so that you can put your mind at ease and know that your daughter seems to be right on track. :smiley: Kids learn very quickly!

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Hello @Tamar, thank you so much for your response which is very valuable and very interesting too because a couple of hours ago @Sumejja and @tim_m where having a meeting in which we exchanged ideas on how revive the forum and I said that you will probably respond if I tag you since you are very social and helpful person whose mom also works a teacher and together with @Andrea and @Elida we have the potential to build a team. It’s interesting to see how people can connect regardless of their current geographical location just by sharing thoughts.

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Haha yeah, I sometimes get caught up in my editing work and I forget to check the forum if I’m not tagged in any posts :smile: but I’m always happy to engage or give ideas and feedback at any time. I agree with you @Torsten —I think it’s also pretty cool that we are from different parts of the world but are working together for a common goal :blush:

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