creative writing for kindergarteners

creative writing for kindergarteners

Creative Writing Activities for Kindergarteners

1. Introduction

Most of the lessons are fun and contain an element of hands-on art and/or craft. Simple books for Kindergarteners are mentioned in the references. All the lessons are based around the writing process. The main focus of the activity is when the students are asked to complete a creative writing task after the art has been done. After several attempts of finding a way to get students to write, I’ve discovered that they all will write if it is in response to something they’ve done. They all love a chance to be creative when it comes to an art activity; hence, this is what the writing is based on. All the activities connect to one another. For example, in a sequencing activity, the students will be asked to write a sentence or two to explain their picture. This sentence writing then leads into the following lesson on writing instructions. Instructions lead into how to create their own choice of animal and so on.

Welcome to Creative Writing Activities for Kindergarteners – a note to teachers. Discover the hands-on art and imaginations within your students through the stimulating lessons provided in this “Teacher/Student Guide”. Each lesson is planned with ten minutes in mind but may be extended to fit your students’ needs. All the lessons that follow have been used in the classroom. This is a great way to apply writing and enhance listening and comprehension skills with your kinesthetic learners. (And aren’t all the kids kinesthetic learners at 5 or 6!).

2. Developing Imagination and Creativity

Read-alouds should become a regular part of your writing process in the classroom. To aid in the development of voice and style, ask children to bring in a favorite picture book. Have them practice reading the book at home and then plan to share it with the class. Afterward, lead a class discussion about what makes a good story. Help your students make connections between the features of a good story and the elements of the books they are reading. Since a picture is worth a 1000 words, “reading” a wordless picture book can promote lively debate about the content of the book and can also challenge children to come up with their own text for the story. A book such as Peter Spier’s Rain would be an excellent choice. His books are full of detail and often tell several stories at once. This allows children to continue to work with the same book on different occasions with different results. One opportunity could be used to teach descriptive words by having children recount the most interesting picture on the page, while another time children could summarize the story portrayed by the sequence of illustrations.

3. Building Vocabulary and Language Skills

Stahl and Fairbanks presented a list of 10 words to children using various prereading activities such as having children discuss the words, take a picture walk, and make predictions. Next, children were randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control group. For the experimental group, the teacher read a story to the children, stopping at the targeted word in the story to provide a child-friendly explanation of the word. Then the teacher led the children in generating a child-friendly description of the word and several examples of the word. This process was repeated for each of the 10 words.

Because vocabulary knowledge is critical to reading comprehension, and many children begin kindergarten with a limited vocabulary base, it is important to ensure systematic vocabulary instruction in kindergarten. The goal of vocabulary instruction is to help children understand the words they hear and read and to begin using them in their speaking and writing. There is a robust body of research demonstrating that vocabulary can be taught, and indeed, it is taught in the early grades through read-alouds, with words from texts being explained, providing children with descriptions or explanations, and engaging children in both oral and written word learning activities. A study by Stahl and Fairbanks (1986) with second and third graders provides a clear example of the type of direct word learning activities that are beneficial at the K-2 level.

Young children are learning language and literacy skills at a quick pace. For many children, kindergarten is their first introduction to the world of schooling and literacy. While some children have literacy experiences in their homes, many do not, and it is important to give all children a rich language and literacy education, taking into consideration the natural curiosity of young children and an understanding of how young children learn.

4. Exploring Different Writing Styles

Illustrating stories – Draw or paste pictures to describe events in a story or write dialogue to match the illustrations. Use a photo – A picture can “spark” a story. Provide a child with a picture, preferably a photograph. (Ask your relatives to save their magazines and give them to you). Have the child write a story about the picture they see. Emulate an author – Read a particular author’s books (e.g. Eric Carle) and then try writing a story in the same style. This is a good way to learn more about a particular type of writing, by emulating an author you admire. Stop and Go – Sit in front of a simple stopwatch and write for three minutes – say, on a topic like “what I like to do on the weekend.” When the beeper goes off, the child must stop, even if in mid-sentence. Then reset the stopwatch for three more minutes. But now they must edit what they’ve written so far, polishing it to read as smoothly and correctly as possible. When the beeper sounds again, they go back to writing. Do this back-and-forth editing several times on the same piece. This is a very low-pressure way to introduce editing. Use a different medium – Experiment with writing the same story on a computer, with a word processor, and writing by hand. Ask your child what the differences were. Which did they like best and why?

5. Sharing and Celebrating Stories

Young children enjoy illustrating stories and the drawings add another dimension to the retelling. When a story is well known each picture provides a cue to what follows and the child can use the book to tell or retell a story in his own words. This is a valuable comprehension activity for the child and an excellent means of understanding what young children are endeavoring to express in their writing. Anecdotes related to the story can be recorded on the page or you may wish to scribe a dictated sentence beneath each picture.

Dramatic readings can be videoed and sent to a friend or relative. The relative could video a return reading. This provides much enjoyment and extended contact with the story.

Ask the writer to read his story to you. Then you read it to him. After numerous readings older children are able to memorize their stories and tell them as if they were reading from the page.

But the sharing isn’t just reading the story to somebody else. Displaying the writing, valuing it as something important, involves many more language experiences. Here are a few suggestions to make story sharing time a special time.

Now that you have many wonderful, done or undone, pieces of writing it’s time to share them with somebody else. Often secret stories are the best and the writer is shy about showing others what he has written. Encourage him to share it with at least one other person even if it’s only one of the family. Choose a special time for the sharing such as bedtime, Friday evenings, Sunday afternoons, whenever suits your family best.