Kindergarten Writing - Foster Your Little Shakespeare

Our school held a kindergarten curriculum information session. The session provided parents with some helpful information about writing expectations. At the beginning of the school year, the focus was on an idea not the writing. Expectations have shifted. Our teachers briefly discussed what they expect and do not expect from kindergartners.

A kindergarten student should be able to perform the following functions when writing:

Proof work. Kindergartners should reread their work and self-monitor for meaning and structure.

Use upper and lower case letters. A sentence begins with an uppercase letter. Upper case letters should not be present in the remainder of the sentence unless it is a proper noun.

Use spacing. Use your pointer finger to create a space between words in a sentence. Make sure letters within a word are close together.

Use punctuation. Convey a complete idea using punctuation. They should mark the end of their idea with an explanation mark, period or question mark. Also, they should use punctuation to separate ideas.

For example,

Wrong: I like to go the park and play with my friends and play kickball.

Correct: I like to go to the park. I like to play with my friends. I like to play kickball.

Construct idea. Students should construct an idea using multiple sentences; explain a picture with more than one sentence.

Spell sight words correctly. The kindergarten sight words should be spelled correctly. Students should use phonics to spell unknown words. Each word should have a beginning, middle and ending sound. They were very quick to point out not all words will likely be spelled correctly as this would not be a realistic expectation. They further stated that some sounds are developmental (e.g. sh, ch and th).

Draw detailed pictures. Students should illustrate with detail. Their pictures should reflect on their sentences and provide additional information. No stick figures!

Check work. Students proof their work before, during and after the writing process to check for the meaning and structure.

Every child prior to handing in work should perform the following check list:

Reread – good writers reread their work

Abcd – 1st letter of a sentence is a capital letter and the remainder are lowercase letters

Spacing – make sure there is spacing between words

Punctuation - ! . ?

Spelling – did you spell the sight words correctly

Reread – check corrections and continue process until no errors

Let your child self-monitor using the above checklist and parents should double check their work. The teachers also gave us a helpful hint to assist our children in writing more – ask questions!