Due to our multi-age classroom design, our pre-readers are constantly exposed to the children in the class who are already reading.  This helps to create a spontaneous interest in learning how to read.  Moveable Alphabets made up of easily manipulated letters are used for the early stages of phonetic word creation and spelling. They facilitate early reading and writing tasks during the period when young children are still not comfortable with their own writing skills. Even before the children are comfortable in their handwriting skills, they spell words, compose sentences and stories, and work on punctuation and capitalization with the moveable alphabets.  The children begin writing by tracing around metal insets, shapes cut out in metal to begin the process of straight and curved lines.  They progress up through the materials using journals to first write words and then to create their own stories.