Writing in Kindergarten

 This week, I want to tell you about some of the work you will see your kids bring home.  I know it can be very hard to get a 5 or 6 year old to tell you accurate information about what they are doing in school. 

The pictures you see are examples of our 1st writing assignment.  The kids were told to draw a picture of something they did with their family over the weekend.  After the drawings were complete, I talked to them about labeling the people and things in the pictures.  I tell the kids all the time to just "do your best".  Everyone can do something.  The child that drew the picture at the top was able to label mom, me, rain, and rainbow.  This is a good example of listening to sounds and writing what you hear.  I never tell a child how to spell a word.  I want them to say words slowly, listen for and identify the sounds they hear.  In the beginning of Kindergarten, conventional spelling is not the goal.  Hearing and writing sounds is what we start with. 

 This child was also able to write names of family members.  These are words that have already been learned so the challenge for me is to have them get out of that comfort zone and try words they don't already know. 

The child that drew this picture told me a story about going to the swimming pool and going down the slide.  When I asked him what he wanted to label, he said, "swimming pool". Next I said the word slowly and asked him what sound he heard.  He said he heard a "p" for pool so that is what he wrote down.  For today, that was all I wanted.  As we keep learning I will challenge the kids to write more than just beginning sounds.

So, when you look at your child's writing, point to the letters that were written and see if he/she can remember what word they were thinking of when they wrote that letter.  They can also tell you about what they drew.You can offer suggestions of other things they can label and talk about the beginning sound.  I don't want any child to feel anxiety about not being able to spell words the "right" way.  Please encourage and praise these beginning efforts at writing.

You are going to amazed at what they can write by the end of the year.