My favorite subject to teach kids about is opinion writing. But, it’s an all-out struggle. Rightly so, five-year-old kids had never previously put their ideas on paper before entering our programs.
Teachers frequently believe that kindergarten students should begin writing their opinions during the second semester of the school year. I disagree.
Opinion writing for kids in kindergarten is often the best way to get students motivated to use that pencil and paper quickly.
Get started with writing immediately.
Of course, students need to know how to hold their pencils. Once students grab their pencils and begin writing, it is very hard to change their grip.
So, the pencil grip should be modeled by pinching the bottom of the pencil with the pointer finger and the thumb and the rest of the fingers should support those two fingers.
For students who grab the pencil with their whole fists or students with other awkward grips (I have seen them all) purchase or borrow a pencil grip from another teacher.
Students should write for twenty minutes a day. “How is this possible?” you ask. Read on.
Teach Skills in Context.
There are certain skills students need to write a sentence. First, they need to have knowledge of the sounds of letters.
Having an alphabet chart and a sight word or word wall gives students the tools they need to develop confidence while writing.
Practicing handwriting together while modeling how to write the letters in the words “I like you “accomplishes two goals. Students are learning how to form letters while they learn to write and spell a word.
I like to teach the sight word like by singing the spelling of the word like. One of my favorite YouTube channels to go to is Heidi Sight Word Songs.
In the beginning weeks, I model how to write short sentences that contain sight words such as I like you and I like mom.
Later on, they can expand to more than just the topic sentence.
Teach Mini Lessons
Before I start my journal writing each day, I teach a mini-lesson. This is sometimes referred to as shared writing. It is a huge help to get students to write and express ideas.
Each day, I model something that the students want to write about. Usually, I choose one or two skills to focus on each day.
Skills can be:
- Capitalization
- End punctuation
- Topic sentence
- Sight word spelling
- Stretching out words
- Word spaces
I write this on a whiteboard easel. Students help me sound out words and correct mistakes.
We also use this visual ? to support students’ writing
You can download the 5 Star Writing Self Assessment Editable ? here.
Great Partner:
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