Writing
Dear Parents,
Writing in kindergarten takes the form of scribble writing, random letters with no relationship to the sounds, beginning sounds, and invented spellings. You might see just a picture with no attempt at writing. You might see a picture with lots of little squiggles. ~~~~ You might see a picture with lots of letters that do not seem to have any relationship to the picture or the story told by your child. Some children may write a whole string of letters and if you listen to the story you will see that the first sound of each word is there. ( mmgmatb = my mom gave me a teddy bear.) Other children may be writing all the sounds they hear and attempting vowels.
All the different kinds of writing are praised and accepted. The children are at different levels of writing development. I model writing all the time and show them they can put down the sounds they hear. Even though they may know the sounds, they may not be ready to advance to the next step of putting them down while writing. They will, however, progress to this step and then to invented spellings when they are ready. We are looking for fluency in Kindergarten. We want the children to feel comfortable as writers and to write stories in a logical sequence with a beginning, middle and end. Fluency is our main goal......not correct spelling. If a child gets too hung up on whether he/she is spelling something correctly, he/she will not produce rich, wonderful stories. The stories would be short, and would include only the words the child is sure he/she can spell correctly.
Parents become concerned when we say that in Kindergarten we are not concerned with spelling. They fear we are causing the children to learn incorrect spellings for words. Research has shown that children will learn to spell conventionally when they are ready. It will mean more when the writing comes from the child and he/she discovers through reading and writing the changes needed to achieve more conventional spelling. Even now I have children who have said, “I hear the f-l-w-r in flower, but I see on our poem that there is an o and an e in the word too.” They now add the o and e when writing that word. They are more aware of print and are looking to find other words they use to see what letters might not be in their spellings.
As time goes on some children will be able to put down the sounds that they hear when I stretch a word by saying it slowly for them. I do not spell words for them, but I will say them slowly for them to hear the sounds. If I spelled everything for them they would not make attempts themselves. This happens when the child is ready. Most will not begin doing this until Jan. Please do not be upset if your child is still using random letters or even some scribble writing at that point. He/she will make the next developmental jump when he/she feels comfortable. Please help by praising all efforts by your child. I do not pretend to be able to read their scribble writing or random letters. I tell them they have written the story and I am proud of their writing. They need to read it to me so we can both enjoy it. Often they forget what they wrote. I tell them it is their story and they can change it if they want to. They may tell you a ten minute story to go with the few letters they have written!
Some of the writing activities involve partial writing by me and fill ins by your child. This is to give them something to hang onto when reading it at home. For example: First a _______, then a ________. The children first write the name of a baby animal, then the name of the mature animal. They know that they wrote, for example: First a kitten, then a cat. It may look like one of the following:
First a ~~ , then a ~~.
First a bjktt then a csc.
First a k~~, then a k~~.
First a ktn, then a cat.
The children get a great deal of satisfaction out of being able to read it to you. They know what it says because they heard the same frame read by every child. Only the blanks changed and the child knows what they are because he/she drew them. Papers like these should be praised for the efforts of the child. Please do not tell him/her that it is wrong and needs to be fixed. That happened to one little girl a few years ago. She was so sad and embarrassed to give it to me with her hard work crossed out and the conventional spellings put in their place. I promised the little girl I would let parents know about our Kindergarten writing so her Mom would know how hard she had worked and how well she had done. She felt a lot better when she realized Mom just didn’t know how we do writing in Kindergarten and that now Mom would know how hard she had worked.
It is very exciting to watch the children develop their writing skills. To see children who began using all scribble writing or no writing at all begin to use random letters, then beginning sounds, and finally attempt to write all the sounds they hear when they write, is wonderful. The best day is when I can read their writing (and with practice you will be able to also). Their faces beam with pride at their accomplishment. Please help by praising their efforts and allowing them the time to develop confidence as a writer. A dear friend of mine gave me this advice which I pass along to you:
“Kindness and love is patience. Be patient and allow them to grow at their own pace."
If you have any questions about the writing we are doing, please feel free to come and see me.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Kathy Gage