DEVELOPING OUR WRITING SKILLS

Kindergarten has been working hard on their writing skills! We’ve learned that writing is much more than just putting sounds down on paper to make words. It is an organized and thoughtful process. We start each week by gathering our ideas on a specific topic. The class has learned to make lists and use graphic organizers. There are usually a few students that have no idea what to write about but brainstorming lets them see that they have a lot to say. After they have a few ideas about their topic the students start to put their ideas on paper in sentence format. While I offer plenty of support in kindergarten the class is becoming quite confident at sounding out the words they want to write. Editing is the next step. I love watching the students pair up to offer constructive criticism of their partner’s work. For the most part the students are kind and give thoughtful feedback on how their partner can make his work clearer for his audience. Finally, we get to present our finished work at the end of the week! At this stage most of the papers look similar but the students are always proud of their achievements and quick to praise the work of their classmates.