It’s important to remember that writing time is actually a time of problem solving and thinking. During writing students are able to focus and mature on both problem solving and thinking! For young learners it’s highly important to give students a concrete way to problem solve during writing. There are so many awesome ways to do this! Also, more than just having a concrete way to problem solve children should also be encouraged to think out loud during writing. Thinking out loud is extremely important for students to make the connection to their writings.
When conferencing with a student during writing think about giving 2 praises and 1 prompt. We know our young writers are super proud of their work and it’s our job to commend them on that! Okay now to some strategies! I am going to list them for easy access!!
– Give them a song!
If you have a new word, sound it out.
If you have new word,
Then slowly say the word.
If you have a new word, sound it out.An alternate version to the song according to how you phrase it in your room could be ‘stretch it out.’
– Try really hard to not give the student a “go try it on your own!” response. Most likely the kiddo has tried it already and is having a hard time finding a starting point. Yes, I know there are some kiddos that will ask you how to spell each and every word. For those students say, “what’s the first sound” or “what sound do you hear next?”
-Connect stretching/sounding out words to body movement. Have students count out the sounds on their fingers or try; head, tummy, toes to find sounds. Head, tummy, toes will need some teaching about not getting out of your seat, but doing it sitting down. That is unless you want them to stand! 🙂 When stretching out a word using the body have the students wiggle and restate the word; c-a-t, wiggle cat!
– A lot of times students want to write about how they feel so make a feelings chart! It’s a lot of fun to connect the feelings chart to characters the students have read about.
The cards have small magnets so that the student can quickly grab the word and head back to their seat. In order for the cards to be placed in the correct spot I have color coded a small star to each card and the header.
This system would take a little teaching and it’s possible you wouldn’t start day 1 with this, but it’s a great system to strive for!
If you would like to grab these super cute headers and cards you can click below. The packet is for sale in my TpT store for $4.
If they can think about it – they can talk about it, and if they can talk about it they can write about it!
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1. Pip the Pup books galore [50 new pip books]
2. Vocab extension [25 vocabulary themes]
3. Infer cards [a set of 60 cards]
4. Phonics magnetic word builders [a set of 250 cards]
5. Ela task cards
6. Math task cards
7. KinderJumpstart
8. Instant theme: fairy tales
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Love this!!
AHHHH!!!! I LOVE the song and your packet! I will definitely be purchasing soon!!!!
Jessica
Thanks ladies! 🙂
What a fabulous idea and a great product!!!!!
I love the song!!! I also like how you had the words on magnets so that students could take them back to their seats. Great idea!
Amy
Mrs. Lattin's Kindergarten
Love this!! Great ideas!
Jackie
Crazy Daze in First Grade
What a great idea! even first graders could benefit from this!
I love this! I'm adding it to my wish list!
~Jenna
Diving Into Learning
I love the title for this! I hear this every day! Thanks so much for making this!
dede
A Series of First Grade Events
What size cookie sheet is that?
It's an oil drip pan from the auto store 🙂