Soba noodles and tofu chunks

Spaghetti spaces between letters, meatball spaces between words.

Huh?

Explaining the need for spaces in and around words is a whole ‘nuther project. Until then, spaghetti and meatballs might help your students remember which spaces are used when.

‘Cept I work better with soba noodles and tofu chunks.

I’m waiting for my copy of Kid Writing: A Systematic Approach to Phonics, Journals, and Writing Workshop, because that’s where this spacey (ahem) idea apparently comes from (I found it elsewhere online). I like it and I want more.

See, spaces can be complicated. When I write in Japanese, I put nice big helpful-to-me spaces between each word, and, at the end of a sentence, place some sort of marker to indicate I need to catch my breath before moving on to the next sentence.

When my new-to-sentence-writing students write in English, they shove everything together, and stop for neither commas nor spaces. At the end of the sentence, they’re too excited about what’s next to remember ending punctuation marks.

To space? Ornottospace?