Setting Up Your Kindergarten Writing Center
Teaching writing to kids is hard! Especially when you have such a wide range of abilities in your classroom. Some kids come to kindergarten knowing how to write a complete sentence while others are still learning how to write their name. When I first started teaching writing in kindergarten, I wasn’t sure where to begin! It was my least favorite subject to teach because I didn’t feel like I was doing it right.
I knew was that my students needed lots of practice writing, so I created themed word cards for them to use every month. The word cards included sight words we learned as well as seasonal words for each month. The great thing about this center was I could leave it up all year long and my students knew exactly how to use it.
Setting up the writing center:
To set up our writing center, I choose a spot in our room that was dedicated to writing. I made sure to include different writing tools to get my students excited about writing like markers, colored pencils, pencil grips, etc. I also found using trays to organize the writing paper and buckets to organize supplies helped a lot.
Before I put the word cards in our writing center, I introduced it to my class as a whole group first. I had my students come up and build a sentence using the word cards, then we read the sentence together. I found this really helped to ensure that my students used the word cards correctly and know exactly what to do.
Using the word cards in our Kindergarten writing center:
After I introduced the word cards to the whole group, I moved it over to our writing center. I set up a pocket chart for my students to use and placed a tub full of laminated word cards.
I have my students work in groups to two to build and write sentences. I have found that having my students work in partners works best. It reduces the amount of noise in each center, but also gives them some assistance in case anyone needs help.
Working on Writing
After they build the sentences, they use the writing page to write the sentences. I provide 4 different writing pages for my students to use to differentiate the work.
- Students trace the sight word and copy the picture word from the word cards.
- Students write the sight word and opt the picture word from the word cards.
- Students trace the sight word and choose picture words from the word cards to complete each sentence.
- Students write the sight word and choose picture words from the word cards to complete each sentence.
Word Cards for the Whole Year
As I mentioned before, each month you can switch out the word cards. The following themes are included:
Fall Kindergarten Writing Center
- Back to School
- Apples
- Halloween
- Fire Safety
- Thanksgiving
Writing Center Fall Word Cards
Winter Kindergarten Writing Center
- Christmas
- Hanukkah
- New Year
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Winter
- Valentine’s Day
- Chinese New Year
- Groundhog Day
- Presidents’ Day
- Dental Health
Writing Center Winter Word Cards
- St. Patrick’s Day
- Weather
- Spring
- Easter
- Earth Day
- Farm
- Garden
- Insects
- Mother’s Day
- Cinco de Mayo
Writing Center Spring Word Cards
- Beach/Shore
- Pool
- Sea Animals
- 4th of July
- Camping
- Father’s Day
- Baseball
- BBQ
- Picnic
- Zoo Animals
Writing Center Summer Word Cards
My students love using these every month and I have definitely seen an improvement in their writing, as well as their sentence structure! You can purchase these word cards in my shop by clicking on the image below. Save over 20% on the bundle of all the themes!
