Differentiating The Writing Center in a Kindergarten Classroom

Well, hello there! Today I will be sharing more information about my Differentiated Writing Center. Want to know the best part?! Every picture you’ll see here is part of a FREE download I created for you! You’ll be able to read this post, download the free preview, and implement them immediately! Pss. Even if you already have the Differentiated Writing Center you will want this download because it’s NEW!

Why a Differentiated Writing Center?

As you most likely know, my shop has a few options when it comes to writing centers. All of my writing centers are near and dear to my heart, but still we can find ourselves searching for a resource that can reach every single student in our class, no matter their level at that time. That’s when I set out to make this differentiated writing center. Each activity in the center comes with 5 LEVELS! We know of below level, on level, and above, but I give you 2 additional levels so that you are sure to reach every learner.

The Differentiated Writing Center packet offers 4 activities [Vocab It, Label It, Story It, and Sentence It]. Below I will break down each of these activities and share the 5 levels of differentiation as well! Ps. don’t forget all of the images/pages you see here in the post will be part of the free download at the bottom of the page!

Vocab It!

Learning new vocabulary words is a huge part of writing, after all what do we write about without those words? Vocab it offers many ways to expose your students vocabulary words. Each level of differentiation will help to meet your learners where they are!

Within the Differentiated Writing Center packet you will have access to 20 topics for vocab it! Each topic comes with this awesome overview poster! You can print this poster and display it in your writing center or a writing folder.

If you access the entire Differentiated Writing Center packet, you can also choose to print the posters 4 pages to 1 and place them onto a ring! The ring can be displayed in your writing center or given to individual students.

Vocab It also comes with these amazing vocabulary word cards! I have mine placed on mini rings but you could also leave them loose, or as a single sheet of paper!

Students will be able to build the words with magnetic letters, write the word independently, and/or trace the words.

Vocab it comes with 2 differentiated recording sheets. The students will have the option to trace the vocabulary word or write the word independently. Students will record these words from the vocabulary word poster or the vocabulary cards.

The final component to Vocab it is my personal favorite. The students will have access to a vocabulary mini staple book! Students will read the vocabulary word and paste the matching picture.

Label It!

The next activity in the Differentiated Writing Center packet is Label It! Label It gives 5 levels of differentiated sheets for practicing labeling.

The students have the option to trace single sounds or full words. Students will also independently record their words at the bottom of the sheets. Students will record at their own level. They can record single sounds, phonetic spelling, or the entire words.

Label it also includes a cut and paste option! This is great for those students that need a bit more hands-on and engaging approaches. The final two levels are for those students that are more independent/strong writers. Level 4 utilizes a word bank and level 5 would be completely independent.

Story It!

Story It is a very fun activity in the Differentiated Writing Center. This activity is a guided approach to answering writing prompts. Along the top of the sheet will be a writing prompt. The sheets will then offer levels of differentiation to answer that prompt. The levels will vary from illustrating an answer, tracing a simple sentence, tracing a complex sentences, tracing a story, or independently writing a story.

Sentence It!

Sentence It offers a differentiated approach to working with single sentence stories. The levels will vary from simple sentence building, tracing a sentence, cutting and pasting a sentence, copying a sentence, and independently writing a sentence.

The Differentiated Writing Center Overview

If you are a visual learner, you might also enjoy watching me go over the Differentiated Writing Center in a detailed video! You can view that video below or HERE.

Free Preview to Differentiated Writing Center

As I mentioned, EVERYTHING you saw here in the post is part of a free preview download. You can download this free preview by clicking below or HERE.

The Comprehensive Writing Center

If you love this writing center as much as I do you will want to snag the complete packet! The Differentiated Writing Center packet comes with 20 activities for Vocab It, Label It, Story It, and Sentence It! Each activity comes with 5 levels of differentiation.