Why I LOVE This Time of Year in Kindergarten {Writing}

I LOVE this time of year for SO many reasons, but one of my **favorite** things to reflect on this time of year is my kids’ writing and all the progress they’ve made since the beginning.  I know that writing is an area I’d LOVE to improve…I hope that as long as I’m teaching, I’ll want to improve the way I’m doing things to make them better for the kids.  I’ve taken bits and pieces of writing training I’ve had over the past 10 years and combined them altogether into how I teach writing today. 

In my classroom, we write EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.  We write in response to our guided readers {this is during small group…4-5 kids at a time, give or take…maybe just a sentence to reinforce sight words or repetitive phrases in the book, or maybe a thinking map/graphic organizer and/or text to self/text connection}  Writing during our guided reading gives me the chance to model correct sentence structure {capital letter at the beginning, meatball spaces, punctuation, stretching out sounds, etc.}  In addition to writing in response to our guided readers, we also have a Writer’s Workshop block of time built into our day.  Most days, my kids are writing from their hearts, about their own personal feelings and/or stories.  Some days my kids complete sentence prompts in response to shared reading.  Whatever the case, my kids are writing EVERY.SINGLE.DAY!!!  And not just during these times…they write during math, literacy rotations, theme, etc. 

When my kids are writing from their hearts, they’re telling their own personal *stories*.  Something that’s important to them.  Something they want to say.  Sometimes they even make things up…and I’m totally okay with that because they’re WRITING!!!!!!  We have a long way to go with our writing, but looking back at the progress they’ve made since October, I’m just blown away.  And so very PROUD of them!!! 

When this little sweetie came to me in August, she had a very limited knowledge of the alphabet.  She didn’t recognize most letters and/or sounds and didn’t understand letter to sound relationships.  In October, she started to make some big strides.  Her writing started out consisting of only one word…the only word she knew how to spell by heart.  Once she started learning sight words & beginning & ending sounds, she started to write a little more.  Now it’s hard to get her to stop writing at all!!!!  Look at the progress!!!!!! 

 

        “I am a princess.”                          “I played with my friends the road with our bikes."

One thing we continue to work on in our writing is transferring what we know to paper.  Letter reversals continue to occur, especially when the kids are so engrossed in their writing that they don’t take the time to self correct.  We’re working on this daily!!!  More often than not, my kids are writing more than just one sentence.   This little sweetie just makes me smile.  She’s doing SO amazing and her progress astounds me!

 

    “I went to the football game.”          “I am fixing to play baseball.  My cousin is going to teach me.”

Here’s an example of a sweet little friend who had a good letter/sound foundation when she started the year.  You can see that her writing is more controlled now and she’s doing an awesome job of using her two-finger spaces and spelling most of her sight words correctly.  I just LOVE this!!!!

 

     “I am going trick-or-treating.”             “When I was at my Mimi & Popo’s, we went to the lake.”

This little guy could identify most letters in August, but he was still learning how to associate those letters to sounds.   Once he grasped that concept, he couldn’t wait to write.  We worked REALLY hard in the beginning to remember our two-finger spaces without and help or reminders.  It didn’t take long for him to *get it*!  I absolutely LOVE reading his writing!!!  Now we’re working on *adding on*.

 

            “I like my shed.”                                  “My agenda is wet and it is dry now.

“They are fighting for the trophy.”

As the year progresses, even my most reluctant writers have a lot to say.  At the beginning, it was hard for my kids to understand that they could write about ANYTHING.  Even with our heart maps, that was tricky to understand!  Now they’re on a roll and most days they’ll ask, “do we get to write about whatever we want in Writer’s Workshop today?!?!?”  Music to my ears!!!!  And I love that they have MORE to say than just a simple statement.  LOVE!

 

             “I caught a frog.”                      “When it was Christmas, I got some gum and lots of presents.”

And what might look like a little friend who’s having a little trouble writing looks like a Mona Lisa to me.  Honestly.  I could cry with this right here.  My little sweetie could identify most of his letters at the beginning of the year, but had a lot of trouble with letter sounds and fine motor control.  Now he’s seriously BLOWING me away on a daily basis.  Look at his progress!!!!  I could seriously kiss his cute little face!!!  We’re still working on our fine motor skills, but ohmiword.  I could cry!!!  I’m SO proud of him!

 

         “I went to the zoo.”                 “I am going to Joseph’s party and I will have some fun and it will

                                                       be a balloon party for the whole people in the class.” 

Each of my kids has their very own writing *portfolio* that houses ALL of their writer’s workshop writing pieces.  I like to keep these to track progress and share with parents at conferences, etc.  And I think it’s extremely powerful for the kids to see how much progress they’ve made since they started writing months ago. 

Like I said, we still have a long way to go on our writing journey, but I am so proud of the progress they’ve made this far.  I recently bought Katie Wood Ray’s In Pictures and In Words and Writing Workshop with Our Youngest Writers and I’m excited to dive in {when I get a spare minute to read!!! HA!}.  Thank you, DeeDee, for the suggestion!  If you want to see some AMAZING writer’s workshop examples, head on over to DeeDee’s page…she’s my go-to girl for all things writing!