Creative Writing for Kindergarten
Teaching 4 and 5 Year Olds How to Express Themselves Through Writing
Creative writing for kindergarten can be a challenge; here are ideas to help budding scribes develop confidence while practicing spelling and printing in their journal.
A child in kindergarten who hasn’t mastered the basic skills of written communication can still benefit from daily journal writing activities. While not mandatory, there are even special writing journals available with blank drawing space above dotted, large-ruled lines specifically made for early writers.
Writing as a Habit
Making a daily habit of journal writing in kindergarten can help children learn look forward to opportunities to write and draw. Many parents know that children in kindergarten love to retell the events of their lives. Harnessing that natural ability and directing it toward a love of creative writing is a worthwhile pursuit.
Using Pictures
Allowing children to use pictures in their journal won’t hinder their writing ability. In kindergarten, you might want to simply require that each picture have its own title. If the child ends up writing a bunch of nonsense letters, be sure to compliment the drawing by saying “Oh your picture has so many details; tell me more about it.” You can compliment the form, shape and quality of the printing by saying "Your letters look very nice." Vague statements aren’t likely to offend a child, and you want to give praise where praise is deserved. However, if they’ve drawn their mother and you compliment them on their “beautiful goose” it might not go over very well.
Customized Writing Prompts
You can create custom writing prompts for each child by using sticky tabs and a seating chart. Whenever a child begins to tell a potentially never-ending story, write it on a sticky tab and stick it to the seating chart. When journal writing time comes, you can offer them the opportunity to tell about “the Mickey Mouse pancakes Uncle Dave made,” or “the time they stepped on a worm.”
Copywork
If a child is unsure of the spelling of a word, you can write it on a scratch paper for the child to copy into his journal. If you suspect that all of the spelling might be a problem, you can write the entire sentence on a sheet of paper to copy. If you’re working with a child who has trouble copying, an inexpensive light table can be used to create a tracing surface for forming perfect letters. If you don’t happen to have a light table (or overhead projector), you can tape both sheets of paper to a window, but the position might be uncomfortable for some children. Seeing perfectly formed letters that they have written can motivate children to continue writing.
Narration
Creating a small “book of days” is a fun project. Using a computer word processing program, children tell their story out loud while you or another adult types it out. Make complete sentences and use correct punctuation so that when the story is read back to the child it will make sense. After it has been printed out, encourage the child to make an illustration in the white space, and then it can be stored in a page protector or in a 3 ring binder. A collection of such stories can contribute to a sense of pride and encourage further written expression.
Writing About Other Subjects
The Charlotte Mason, Thomas Jefferson and Well Trained Mind methods of homeschooling encourage narrations about history and science studies. Interpreting what’s been read and studied can help train a child to pay attention to what they’re learning along the way.
Resources;
Check out the free online Teaching Writing: Children course. Appropriate for homeschoolers and teachers, this class is packed full of ideas, tips and reasons to get kids writing today.
