Writing has two components: the manual skill of holding the pencil and forming letters properly on paper, and the intellectual skill of knowing letter sounds, hearing the sounds that make up the words, and ordering them onto paper. These two skills are taught and practiced separately before the child eventually puts them together into what adults would call writing. Handwriting (the manual, fine motor skill) is practiced indirectly in the numerous works in the classroom that require fine motor skill and hand strength (i.e. sewing, clay, knobbed puzzles, etc.) and is directly addressed with sandpaper letter tracing, metal inset work, chalkboard practice, letter worksheets, etc. At the same time the child is developing using a pencil and forming letters, she is also working on the intellectual skill involved with writing, that is, knowing letter sounds and hearing and distinguishing the sounds that make up words. Phonemic awareness games, sandpaper letters, and the moveable alphabet all support this process. Once both skill sets are in place, children usually begin to want to write on paper, and writing becomes a natural expansion of all the work that has gone before. From there, the possibilities are endless, and the classroom continues to support and guide the child in joyful and confident writing.