How Writing Intensive Is Kindergarten?

[Freeman]

I am curious to know how much kindergarteners are expected to write on a daily basis. TIA!

[QueeTheBean]

FWIW, by the second half of the year, my kids were writing in journals every day. The range of ability was great--some kids just drew pictures and wrote basically jibberish, while others were writing legible sentences (I volunteered in the classrooms & was able to observe . . .)

[Evan&Anna's_Mom]

It probably depends a lot on the school. At this point in the year my K DD is writing single words for things like phonics worksheets, and short paragraphs for journal entries and free writing exercises. She probably writes about the equivilent of 1-2 short (2-3 sentence) paragraphs during most days.

She successfully wrote 2 sentence thank you notes for all of her birthday presents last month. This wasn't a school assignment of course, but a good measure of what she is comfortable doing at this point.

[karne]

In my ds's kindy they write quite a bit, but I use the term pretty loosely. There are some children who have the fine motor control as well as the interest and ability to do their journal writing as well as other writing throughout the day. For others, this is a very early phase in in writing development for them, so they produce less written work. I don't see that as a big issue however. It seems, at least in this kindy, that the end result is less important than the process, so that the idea is that the kids are engaged, to their ability, in some form of writing every day.

[KyleAnn]

In ds's class they do quite a bit...lots of one word answers on worksheets, short sentences. As previously mentioned, for him it is just about the practice-they are not "graded" on it.

[octobermom]

A lot...

Deanna

[lisac77]

Originally Posted by octobermom

A lot...

Deanna

Yeah, it does seem like a lot, IMO. DS's writing is very poor, so I've been working with him at home using the Handwriting Without Tears program, and it is fantastic. He is doing so well.

He just didn't take any interest in writing as a very young child, and didn't learn in Pre-K, so went in to K where there was an expectation (and a standard set by the majority of the class) that everyone could already write, so they started doing writing activites immediately. This led to DS inventing ways to write the letters (laboriously and incorrectly) and his letter formation has suffered for it. Now that we are correcting these bad habits his writing has improved dramatically.

[Freeman]

Originally Posted by lisac77

Yeah, it does seem like a lot, IMO. DS's writing is very poor, so I've been working with him at home using the Handwriting Without Tears program, and it is fantastic. He is doing so well.

Lisac77, I have heard good things about Handwriting Without Tears. I have looked for it before on ebay, but it mainly seemed to be sold in bits and pieces. Did you buy the whole set, complete with wooden letters and magnetic board, etc.? Which workbooks came with it? Do you think that all of the components are necessary to get the full effect? Thanks!

If I send ds to kind. next year, he will prob. be the youngest in his class. The only thing that really concerns me about this (at this point, at least!) is his writing -- (well, and the fact that are many who are "redshirted," but that's a subject for another post). He generally forms letters correctly but is not the neatest & not the best about "staying in the lines." Do most kindergarteners have neat writing, or is there room for improvement?

[MichaelsSahm]

My son writes in his journal everyday, they do alot of writing worksheets. Its amazing how much my DS's handwriting has improved from 7 months. He used to write all Capital letters, now he writes how he is supposed to and has a very good handwriting.

[meemee]

in my dd's school they were given teh opportunity to write but they didnt have to do much like they have to in first grade. she would maybe write a 3 word sentence and then draw lots. somedays she would not even write. while it was expected of her, she wasnt forced to. she needed writing to do her homework.

compared to first grade K was a lark at those kind of things. now in first grade my dd has a write at home journal and her handwriting is terrible on days she is forcing herself to write.

[joycenjackiesmom]

In my daughters K class they write various amounts everyday, including journal writing, handwriting practice, reading responses and writing about science/social studies. She is also expected to write in a home journal twice each weekend. By the end of the year the goal is that each child will be able to write three sentences on a topic with some high frequency words spelled correctly, three letter short vowel words spelled correctly and some "sparkle" words (aka adjectives). I think I remembered all of the points of her goal--things have really changed in the same school since my 10 year old was in K!

[Polliwog]

Don't worry. Most high quality preschools don't even have the children write on lined paper. Maybe at the end of the year as a transition. Learning to write between the lines is a kindergarten task in most places. My son can only write the letters in his name at this point.

Chris will turn five six weeks before our new kindergarten cutoff. It was just moved from October 16 to August 31st. That will make him one of the youngest as well. I'm kind of worried about it but being able to write letters and numbers doesn't bother me. I'm a former teacher and really the social and self-help skills are way more important to kindergarten teachers than academics.

[straighthaircurly]

Originally Posted by Freeman

If I send ds to kind. next year, he will prob. be the youngest in his class. The only thing that really concerns me about this (at this point, at least!) is his writing -- (well, and the fact that are many who are "redshirted," but that's a subject for another post). He generally forms letters correctly but is not the neatest & not the best about "staying in the lines." Do most kindergarteners have neat writing, or is there room for improvement?

I volunteer in my DS's classroom. About half the kids could do a little writing when they started the year (2 could write quite well and a couple couldn't write anything). The first half of the year they had lots of "journal" time where they drew pictures and were encouraged to try writing some letters or words. At the same time they were doing some sand writing, playing with the wood pieces from Handwriting Without Tears, and doing some practice worksheets for writing letters. My son has a lot of fine motor issues (had some OT in the past) and writing is hard work for him. He is given lots of time and encouragement and is not graded on his writing. They just do work sampling thru the year to monitor progress. Many of the kids do not have legible writing. However, redshirting is not very common in this school district so pretty much the whole class was 5yo at the start of the year.

Have you observed a class yet in the school your child will attend?