Writing with Children

Shared writing is modeling the correct way to write.

Purposes?

Learn to read

Model correct writing

Talking through writing

Model mistakes in writing

During the second half of Kindergarten the writing of the morning message changes from Writing For children to Writing With children. This is modeled in The Teacher's Guide to Four Blocks, pg 82&83. Be sure to work on these skills:

What I say, I can write

Stretching out words and listening for sounds of letters

Capitalization

Punctuation

Spelling of High Frequency Words

Finding Interesting words in other places

Rhyming Words

Stressing words that begin alike

As the year progresses the teacher should do less work and the children should be doing more!

"YOUNG CHILDREN NEED TO BE SHOWN HOW TO WRITE, AND THEN BE ALLOWED TO PRACTICE THIS SKILL DAILY!"

Interactive Charts provide children with opportunities to manipulate text and interact with print. Charts help children transfer oral language skills to written language skills.

Steps to Using Interactive Charts

Write a poem, song, sentence, or finger play on sentence strips, one strip per sentence. (Four lines is an appropriate length for Kindergarten)
Place these sentence strips in a pocket chart on lined chart paper.
Choose a part of the sentence strip for the children to manipulate. For example, rhyming words, names, numbers, etc.

For more information and some examples of Interactive Charts are found in The Teacher's Guide to Building Blocks pgs 84-88.