Kindergarten Writing

     Writing by my Kindergarten class is better this year.  January is always the month I start writing with the students, because after they learn the ABC's and beginning reading, they are ready to take it another step, they begin writing.
     I tried a new routine.  January I started each day with a morning message.  Together as a class we decode the message.  Then the students get out their notebooks and write a message.  If they have no ideas about what to write, or I should say how to write, they can copy mine, but I encourage individuality. 

     Each day three children get to read their message.  As their turn rolls around their writing becomes more reflective.  We have only been doing this for about 15 days, but the students have settled into the morning routine.  Here is a list of some of the things the students have written:  "Why do I have to listen to everybody?", "I have a new puppy," "I am sad today because my Uncle Tommy is going to die," "I follow the arrows around my coo-coo clock," "I lost two teeth last night," "I love to make snow angels," and many other sentences.  I was quite amazed at what the students could produce when given a chance.

     During regular writing time we learned about winter, then did a shared writing sentence each day about winter.  The students returned to their desk each day and wrote the sentence we had written together, working on spaces between words, punctuation, capitalization, and where to look to find their "word wall" words.  After three weeks of this I let them loose to write their own page about winter.
     Teaching Kindergarten children to write is laborious and tedious, but Friday was payday.  I was absolutely stunned as my Kindergarten class wrote sentence after sentence about winter.  We are now ready to do independent writing.  I was ecstatic.  I am excited to see where their writing will be by May.
     When children reflect back on their writing they reflect on their own lives.  Thinking and reflecting becomes a natural part of writing.
     When John was asked to write about winter it made me laugh.  His paper said, "Winter is not fun.  For a week Santa is fun.  I like him.  I hope he comes again."
     Let children be themselves.  Give them the tools to unlock their own imagination.  Give them the gift of writing.