Writing in Kindergarten

Kindergarten is a year full of incredible growth and learning on a child's part. Most children begin the year with some understanding of letters and sounds. Most are able to recognize and print their name, listen attentively to a story, and retell some details from that story. Many children have some experience with writing letters and "scribbles" to represent print. Because of all of these amazing things that kindergartners are able to do, writing time is always one of my favorite parts of the school day. Children make amazing connections between their ability to tell stories and record them on paper, using whatever form of print that they can, from scribbles, to letters, to writing complete sentences. Most of the early lessons during Writer's Workshop have focused on the core idea that writers think of something that has happened in their life, and then draw and write about that story. I was so amazed that, even on the very first day of Writer's Workshop, every single child was able to think of a story and draw a picture to represent that story. Some children were even able to add some sort of print to their story!

Writers hard at work!

We have also worked on telling our stories to a partner and adding letters and words to tell our story.

Evie adds words to her story.

Mia works on labeling her drawing.

Another form of writing instruction that happens in our classroom is interactive writing. This usually takes place during Morning Meeting. Most mornings, I ask children to help me write the daily note on the easel. We work together to stretch words out and listen for initial, middle, and ending sounds. Sometimes, we even "share the pen" and students help add the appropriate letter or punctuation mark. During this writing time, we focus on word awareness, voice-to-print matching, and letter sounds, as well as capitalization and punctuation. The children seem to really enjoy this form of writing, and I am seeing the skills learned during interactive writing applied to their writing during independent writing time.

Alaina shares the pen and adds to our Morning Message.

Thursday's Morning Message.

If you ever have time at home, you can write interactively with your child, too! Try having them help you stretch out the words you are writing on your grocery list or in a note to Grandma and Grandpa! You will be amazed at all that they are able to do!