Even before beginning school, many children show interest in learning how to write. This emergent writing can be seen as they create markings and symbols on a page, imitating what they have seen older children or adults do. As children become older, their writing progresses from forming letters, to writing words, to creating sentences, and eventually to developing paragraphs.
Letter Formation
In kindergarten, children begin learning how to form letters correctly. Letters can be introduced in a logical sequence, grouping together those that require similar pathways. Writing Printables provides many worksheets to help teach children how to print letters correctly. They include models, instructions, guided practice, and independent practice. There are also posters available, which can be put on a wall or bulletin board or placed on a child’s table or desk to reference. When children are ready to move from printing to handwriting, there are also worksheets available that focus on cursive writing.
Writing Words
As children learn how to correctly form letters, they can also begin writing words. When printing, children will need guidance around how to space their letters correctly. It’s not unusual for beginning writers to crowd their letters together or to leave too much space in between them. They can also benefit from lines on the page to help guide their writing. Otherwise, it’s common to see words being written on an upward or downward slope.
For children who are learning cursive, they will need to practice properly linking letters together. Cursive Writing Printables provides pages for children to practice both individual letters and writing words in cursive.
Writing Sentences
In kindergarten, children can begin writing simple sentences. Ideally, you want children to write about the things they know. When they are working hard to learn the mechanics of writing, you don’t want them struggling to generate ideas or writing about topics they have little or no experience with. When children are learning to write, they are giving consideration to so many things: holding their pencil properly, forming letters, determining spelling, leaving spaces, and using punctuation. Asking them to write about an unfamiliar topic is not the best idea!
Journal writing is beneficial for developing writers because of its versatility. Beginning writers can start with a simple sentence and a picture. Or, if they are not yet ready for sentences, encourage them to simply label their picture with one or two words. As children’s writing progresses, they can start creating sentences and eventually, paragraphs.
Writing worksheets provides other ideas for children’s writing. Sentence building worksheets give early writers a short list of words that they must order correctly to form a sentence. Animal writing pages provide children with sentence starters so they can write about their favorite animals. As children progress in their writing, there are worksheets that provide them with key vocabulary to use in a descriptive narrative. There are also activities that give children the opportunity to write about their opinions. There are lots of options available to keep children motivated and interested in practising their writing.
