Kindergarten Writing Standards
When you think of writing in kindergarten, we think the students will be learning letter formations and learning to write their numbers. Kindergarten students do learn to write their letters and numbers correctly, but writing in kindergarten is a whole lot more complex than that. Kindergarten students are required to write complete sentences by the end of the first nine weeks. In fact, most kindergarten students will be able to write 3-5 sentences about a topic by the end of the school year.
How does a kindergarten student learn to write sentences?
Teacher model
The teacher usually models the writing for the first two nine weeks. Your child’s teacher will teach capitalization, spacing and end punctuation while demonstrating proper letter formation. The teacher will write first and have the student copy the sentences.
Practice daily
The students might write in a daily journal to help build stamina and letter formations. The teacher might have sentences on the board for the students to copy. Students should also practice their sight words daily. This will help the student to write better sentences because Kindergarten students will write sentences using mostly their sight words.
Sound out words
Kindergarten students need to know that it is okay to sound out words and write what they hear. We call this phonetical spelling. This is where the student writes a word the way they hear it. Kindergarten students need to know it is okay to spell a word wrong because they are learning.
Example: park-parc pizza-pisa
Start with simple sentences at first
An example of this would be: I like dogs. When the students are comfortable with writing the simple sentences, then the teacher should move to descriptive sentences, such as I like big, fluffy dogs.
The most important thing to remember is that the students need modeling. The teacher needs to show the students how to write the correct way. Once the students learn the conventions of writing, let them write about what they want. By the fourth nine weeks, they should be able to write about a topic by themselves. Make writing fun and enjoyable to them.
Fun Writing Ideas:
Write with gel pens instead of pencils.
Write around the room. Let the students walk around the room and write the words they see.
Have the students use sticky notes and write sight words they find in their books.
Use shaped paper.
Kindergarten Writing Standards:
Opinion Writing: tell the topic or name of a book, state opinion or preference; use drawing, dictating, and writing to complete an opinion piece.
Informational Writing: name what they are writing about; use drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative texts; supply some information about the topic..
Narrative Writing: use drawing, dictating and writing to narrate a single event of several loosely linked events; tell about the events in the order in which they occurred; provide a reaction to what happened
Possible Accommodations for Students with Exceptionalities:
The teacher may write the sentence in highlighter and the student will trace.
The teacher might also shorten the assignment.
The student might use special paper to help with letter formation.
Students might use special pencil grips.
5 STAR Writing
Capital letter at beginning of sentence.
Punctuation at the end of the sentence.
Finger spaces between the words.
Use sight words.
Sound out your words.
If you are concerned that your child is struggling to meet these writing standards, reach out to your child’s teacher and ask to schedule a parent/teacher conference in order to discuss their progress and evidence of learning. If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to use via email at leslie@collaborativecorner.org.
Additional blogs about kindergarten reading and math standards can be found here and here.
Leslie Haynes, B.Ed
Inclusion Teacher, Parent Advocate, and Special Olympics Coach
leslie@collaborativecorner.org