Writing With Our Kinders

Writing can be difficult to do at home.  Parents and students alike can get frustrated, but it doesn't have to be a stressful event!  Your child writes every day.  Every day we are telling stories, and that is the first step.  

1. When your child is writing, they first need to come up with a story.  At this point we want their story to be about them, we are wanting them to make personal connections to things. Have them tell you the story first.  Ask them questions about their story.  Try to get them to verbally tell you a beginning, middle, and end.  Use phrases like; "Tell me more.", "What happened next?",  and "How did your story end?".

2. After they come up with a personal story, they need to illustrate it  We always draw with pencil so we can revise and edit.  Your child needs to add enough details so that a reader would have some sort of idea of what their story is about.  Have them pay close attention to facial expressions, people that were in the story, where their story takes place, and details from their story.  

Throughout this nine weeks we have been learning how to draw people, bikes, and animals.  If your child draws a stick figure, have them erase it and review how to draw a person.  We draw a head, body, arms, legs, and facial features.  Every child in our class can successfully draw a person! In the pictures below, we practiced drawing people.  I drew my person on the board, and they applied it to what they look like.

3. The next question we ask is, "How can you let the reader know more about your story?". Well, authors add words to tell the reader exactly what the story is about.  Some of our students are not ready for sentences, so we have been labeling to help the reader know what the story is about.    Labeling is also great practice for students sounding out words independently and writing the sounds they hear.  This will help your child so much when they start writing sentences.  

If your child has been practicing labeling and sounding out words independently, then it is time to move on to sentences.  A question you want to ask your child is, "What do you want your story to say?".  Make the connection to a book.  Show how words in a book go with the illustrations.  We talk about this in class, but it is great for them to make the home and school connection.  

Students can write the words on the lines, or if they are writing on a white piece of paper they need to pick out where the words will go.   

4. It is time to color!  We talk daily about 'quality work'.  This means they are taking their time and picking colors that bring meaning to their story.  A person should not be green from head to toe.  This usually tells me the student rushed through their work and did not try.  If your child needs to color a different day, that is fine!  We do not always complete a story in one day.  You know your child, and what they can handle after school.  Sometimes we have to separate the tasks to make sure they are benefiting from the practice.  

Warnings:

• Try to stay away from "I like ..." sentences.  When telling a story, one rarely says "I like...".  We want them to tell their own story and not to get attached to sentence stems.  
• Let them sound out their own words!  If your child is not ready, please only focus on them sounding words to label.  If you need to help them sound it out, let them write only the sounds they hear.  For example:  If the word they want to spell is tree, they will most likely write 'tre' because those are the sounds they hear.  This is a very good thing!  Giving them the 'correct' spelling can be very confusing to a student trying to understand the connection between letters, sounds, words, and sentences.  

I love to talk about writing and am always available to work with you and your student if writing is 'just not working' at home. Please feel free to contact me for any tips or suggestions you are needing!

Happy Writing!!

-Bennett