Kindergarten Writing

Writing in Kindergarten begins on the very first day of school. Children are asked to draw a picture of what they did in the summer and write about it. This may seem daunting to some, but we help each student write at his or her level of expertise and work to develop writing skills. These levels are described below.

Stages of Writing Development

These stages represent a way of looking at writing development in children. All stages overlap and children progress and reach writing stages at many different ages. The development of early writing skills is another aspect of your child's emergent literacy development. Regardless of which stage your child is in, writing development can be enhanced writing on a regular basis. Children should never be discouraged from exploring writing , whether it be scribbling, letter strings, invented spelling, or conventional spelling.

Stage Examples

Preliterate: Drawing

  • uses drawing to stand for writing
  • believes that drawings / writing is communication of a purposeful message
  • read their drawings as if there were writing on them

Preliterate: Scribbling

  • scribbles but intends it as writing

  • scribbling resembles writing

  • holds and uses pencil like an adult

Early Emergent: Letter-like forms

  • shapes in writing actually resemble letters
  • shapes are not actually letters
  • look like poorly formed letters, but are unique creations

Emergent: Random-letters or letter strings

  • uses letter sequences perhaps learned from his/her name
  • may write the same letters in many ways long strings of letters in random order

Transitional: Writing Via Invented Spelling

· creates own spelling when conventional spelling is not known

one letter may represent an entire syllable · words may overlay

· may not use proper spacing

· as writing matures, more words are spelled

Fluency: Conventional spelling

· usually resembles adult writing

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