Writing In Kindergarten

 

During many of our November conferences, we discussed the importance of our students practicing both their reading and writing.  We wanted to further expand on some ideas discussed during the conferences about writing.

 

Many children have really been interested in writing stories.  We meet in Guided Writing groups with 1/2 the class, every other day.  We recently read the book, "Buster Bunny Writes a Story."  This story is about a bunny whose looking for ideas to write a story in his notebook.  As he meets his friends along the way, they help him create a story by contributing ideas for Buster.

 

We have been talking with the children about what a good writer does when they write a story.

 

First, a good writer thinks about what they want to write about, then they draw pictures, then add words and finally can go back and add details to their writing.

 

We have challenged the children to write stories that make sense and have a story line.  We are encouraging sentence writing, writing words and writing any sounds they may know.  For children who cannot yet write full words and sentences, we are encouraging them to write their name, draw an illustration to get their idea on paper, and to add letters on the line to tell their story.