Your Kindergartner and Writing
Kindergartners begin to learn about writing by learning the sounds that letters make. They are introduced to handwriting through many tactile activities.
In Your Child's Classroom
What will my kindergartner learn about writing?
Many children get their first writing experiences in kindergarten. That's why teachers usually begin the year by introducing the letters of the alphabet — the most basic building blocks of writing. Children learn how to form the letters, what sounds the letters make and then, how to put the letters together to make words.
Students often study the sound and form of a letter at the same time. Throughout the year, kindergartners also participate in activities that help them begin to understand the purpose of writing, such as:
- Listening to literature
- Participating in shared writing, in which the teacher writes and students contribute to the story orally.
- Doing interactive writing, in which students and teacher compose and write text together
- Writing in journals
Nicola Salvatico, our consulting teacher and Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year in 2005, explains: "Kindergarten begins to expand the journey of writing from 'magic writing,' where the child can only read it (such as scribbles and pictures) to emergent writing, where their message is readable by most adults."
What will my kindergartner learn about spelling?
Your kindergartner will begin to learn about spelling by connecting the sounds she hears in words to the letters they represent. She will be introduced to all of the letters of the alphabet early in the year. Then throughout the year, the teacher will focus on one letter at a time and its sound. Your kindergartner will learn the sounds associated with the letters of her name. She will do activities to increase awareness of the sounds of the alphabet, such as making a collage of cut-out magazine pictures that begin with a particular letter.
Invented spelling
In kindergarten, children are encouraged to spell words the way they sound, which is called invented or inventive spelling. For example, your child may spell the word cat by writing ct. Children usually start writing with consonants and beginning sounds first because these sounds are more distinct than vowels and ending sounds.
When children use invented spelling, they are showing their knowledge of the sounds letters make. Research shows that letting children use invented spelling as they begin to write allows them to focus on the purpose of writing: communication. As they learn the rules of spelling, they begin to apply them and make the transition to conventional spelling.
By the end of kindergarten your child will have learned to spell:
- Consonant-vowel-consonant words such as bat and fan
- His own name
What will my kindergartner learn about handwriting?
Since kindergartners' fine-motor skills are still developing, they are first introduced to handwriting through a variety of tactile (how it feels) approaches. Typical activities may include writing letters in fingerpaint, in a box of salt or in sand. They may also write letters in mid-air with their fingers and trace the letters at the blackboard or on paper.
In kindergarten students learn how to hold a pencil correctly. They usually begin to learn how to form letters by writing the letters in their names. They will practice writing upper- and lower-case letters of the alphabet, learning how to correctly shape and space them. They may learn how to write a letter as they learn the sound it makes. Kindergartners learn that we write from left to right and from top to bottom.
Putting it all together
In addition to the mechanics of letters and sounds, kindergartners learn why people write. Teachers read different types of writing aloud and discuss with the class why the author wrote it. Teachers also show students how they use writing throughout the day for a variety of purposes: labeling a graph in math, writing a thank-you note to a class visitor, recording the results of a science project. The teacher will provide simple opportunities for students to use writing for real-life purposes.
Many classes begin the morning with a shared writing activity in which the class brainstorms a sentence or two to write about the day. The teacher usually writes the sentences on a white board or on chart paper while the class follows along and gives suggestions. As he writes, the teacher might model how to sound out a word or when to use a capital letter. As an extension to this activity, other skills can be addressed such as punctuation, prefixes and suffixes.
Many kindergartners also write in journals each day. At the beginning of the year, some students will draw pictures or write random letters. But by the end of kindergarten, most students use invented spelling to write short sentences that tell a story or describe their experiences.
What to Look for When You Visit
- Alphabet charts prominently displayed in the classroom
- Name labels on students' desks and cubbies
- Word labels on objects in the classroom, such as the door, a chair and a desk
- Alphabet cards with matching pictures for each letter
- Examples of shared writing on chart paper around the room
- Charts where children can add words they know based on the letter or subjects they are currently learning
- An array of writing tools such as crayons, markers, stamps, stickers, types of paper such as notepads and cards
Updated February 2008
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