Kid Writing!

The Kindergarten students have started to write in their journals. We started by talking about how 'Kid Writing' looks different than 'adult' or 'book' writing and that we all have to keep practicing until we can one day write like our parents and teachers!

The important part to stress is that we are rewarding the students' attempts to sound out and write words in their journals to match their pictures.

The students choose what to write about by first drawing a picture. They should choose topics that they're interested in and know well. Then they can use our A is for Apple song visuals to help them remember the letter sounds that they might want to write.

Sometimes children's first attempts at writing might look like scribbles or symbols. Other times they may consist of a string of letters that the students knows how to write. Typically we start with labeling our pictures, as attempting a sentence would be overwhelming! This is all a step on the way to 'book' writing as the student is demonstrating that they recognize that letters are symbols and that words have meaning when we see them in a book or in our environment. We should encourage their progress and support them in developing accuracy as they move along.

Here are some examples of our Kid Writing! I have gone through and added in the 'book' writing below the kid writing so the students know what they will eventually be able to do:)

The students have also continued to recognize the letters in their names and participate in a variety of name-building activities during centers. We even used AlphaBits for a fun, hands-on way to recognize the letters of our names and put them in order. Other activities include beading with letter beads, building with foam letter shapes, building with stickers (this also helps our fine motor skills!) and circling the letters on the SmartBoard.

Here are some pictures of the students practicing this skill!