Writing

Next week, we will begin "Work on Writing."  Students will begin independence in writing.  They are writing in their own journals.  We will work on building stamina during writing each day.   I have taught them that there are 4 different ways of writing that they might be using:

• Marks on the paper that seem to be scribbles.  We do NOT call it scribbling, we call it, "writing."  This is the earliest form of writing.  Remember when your child was learning to talk?  If your child said, "Dada," you didn't correct your child and say, "No, it's Daddy."  You were thrilled that he/she was learning to speak!  Remember how you felt?  We need to applaud writing in that manner, also!  Give your child time to learn how to use the letters and grammar of English.
• Random Letters-These students know that letters on a page mean something.  They're still working on figuring out why certain letters are used.
• Phonemic Spelling-Children write down the sounds they hear.  They don't usually hear all the sounds in the words during kindergarten, by the way.  Vowel sounds and digraphs (th) are the most difficult.  They might write "I wt tu v zu." for "I went to the zoo."
• Conventional Writing-  "I went to the zoo."  This stage is our goal.  Writing like this takes time and a lot of practice.  Most students start writing like this more towards second grade.

At this time, we want students to know writing is fun!  We want them to take risks!  We want them to try to write down what they want to say.  We don't want to limit them to only the words they can spell!  That would be boring writing (ie.  I like mom.  I like dad...)  We want them to use their imaginations and use invented spelling (ie.  "The huge dog was scary! instead of "The dog is big.")

Demonstrate writing at home.  Do it together!  Make lists for the store  Make a card for grandparents.  Show how you write an address on an envelope when you mail a bill, etc...

Have fun writing!  :)