writing websites for kindergarten

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Wonderful Websites, Games, and Learning Activities for Kindergartners

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It’s fun to be five! Here is our list of favorite kindergarten websites and activities that kids can enjoy at home with their families. We’ve gathered together learning links and fun activities that will help kids build skills in literacy, math, science, and social studies—plus some that are just for enjoyment.

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Reading & Language Arts Activities

One of the very best things parents can do with their children at home is read, read, read! This title, Do Not Lick This Book , by Iden Ben-Barak is a great one for teaching hygiene rules! For more awesome books on topics from feelings and emotions to math, science and everything in between, check out our picks for 50 Great Books for Kindergarten . For free e-book options you can download to your home device, check out this  round-up of sources for free e-books .

Listen to read-alouds.

Research shows that listening to fluent readers read aloud is one of the ways to build better readers. And lucky for us, many of our favorite authors are offering online read-alouds and activities on social media. Some of the big names include Mac Barnett, Oliver Jeffers, and Peter Reynolds. For more, check out our Big List of Children’s Authors Doing Online Read-Alouds and Activities.

In addition, Audible is offering free audiobooks for kids during school closures. Treat your little one to a classic like Winnie the Pooh.

Write stories.

For kindergartners who are beginning writers, K12Reader has a great list of writing prompts five- and six-years-olds will enjoy. Find subjects from spiders to favorite books and favorite foods. Pre-writers can dictate their writing to an adult or tell a story aloud.

Do word work games.

Check out the website IXL for word work activities that are the just right for kindergartners. There are tons of activities—from identifying letters to learning vowel sounds and sight words.

Do hands-on activities.

Try some of these fun alphabet activities that reinforce letter learning, like practicing letter formation with shaving cream on a cookie sheet, going on an alphabet scavenger hunt, and drawing pictures from letters.

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Math Activities

Play counting games..

Games and hands-on activities are an excellent way to engage young learners in math learning. Try the fun stack cup activity shown above to practice counting skills. For 16 more ideas, check out our kindergarten math games  roundup.

Learn to play cards.

A simple deck of playing cards can provide many ways to practice math skills. You can use them for number identification (play a memory game), sequencing (put cards in numerical order), addition (add cards together to race to 20), and more. Check out more ideas here .

Read a book about numbers.

 Stories are a great way to introduce and reinforce math concepts for young learners. Learn about big numbers with this book, Billions of Bricks: A Counting Book About Building  by Kurt Cyrus. For more titles, check out our list of Picture Books About Math .

Play favorite board games.

There are a large variety of board games that teach kids basic math concepts, from Sorry! to Quirkle to one of our favorites, Sum Swamp .

Practice addition and counting skills.

While hands-on learning and math games are the best way to learn math, there is also a place for worksheets to give kids practice working independently. Check out the free printables for kindergartners available from   Education.com .

There are also loads of websites that provide math lessons and games. Check out this list of math websites .

Learn all about animals.

What could be more fun than peeking in on animals in their natural habitat? Make like a junior zoologist and check out this list of nature webcams .

Do science experiments together.

We think there’s no such thing as “too young” to conduct science experiments! Try making rainbow clouds, homemade paper or monster toothpaste. Explore the concepts of magnetism, buoyancy, and absorption. For these ideas and more, click here .

Dig deeper.

PBS has a seemingly endless list of fascinating science resources to dive into including images, videos and interactive lessons from PBS Learning Media , all sorted by topic and grade level from frogs and owls to the sun and the moon.

Read about science.

Fire up your little one’s imagination with these fascinating reads chosen by teachers.

Take a virtual field trip.

Maybe you can’t go out to the zoo or the Natural History Museum, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the learning. Many places are offering virtual tours, from aquariums, and planetariums to great science museums around the world … Check out our picks for best virtual field trips.

Social Studies Activities

Start with the basics..

According to an article in Family Education , “In the earliest years of school, the social studies curriculum is oriented toward the family and the neighborhood, social relationships, and what might be called civic responsibilities.” There are lots of simple activities you can do at home like teaching your child their address and phone number, the names of all the people in your family, and features of your neighborhood.

Read folk tales.

Folk tales are a great tool to learn about history and cultures and there are so many great books and videos to choose from. From The Little Red Hen and Henny Penny to the Anansi the Spider and How Dragons Came to Be , your child will love these meaningful stories.

Tune in to Brainpop Jr..

  Brainpop Jr. is offering free access for families impacted by school closures.  It is an amazing resource that offers fun, engaging videos, games and quizzes across the curriculum. Check out their social studies units, including communities, citizenship, and American history, here .

Find your place in the world.

Explore Google Maps and find your home, school, city, and your child’s favorite ice cream shop. Or think big and explore the world’s most detailed globe with Google Earth !

Learn about your culture.

Talk with your child about your family’s roots and where your ancestors come from. What holidays do you celebrate? What rituals are important to you? Are there crafts or clothing that represent your culture? FaceTime a friend who has a different cultural background and ask them about their traditions.

Just for Fun Activities

Do yoga together..

Build healthy habits alongside your kids. Learn the basics of breathing, postures, and stretches with this fun video.

Cook with your kids.

Food Network has lots of yummy recipes and ideas. Videos show step by step directions. Get inspired by the kids on Chopped Junior and who knows, maybe your child will be a TV chef themselves one day!

Create with yarn.

Kids loving making projects with yarn. It’s inexpensive and not very messy. Plus, working with yarn helps kids develop their fine motor skills. Check out the clever ideas in this blog, 10 Yarn Crafts for Kids . Make yarn monsters, wrap up a few yarn sticks, make paper roll owls, and more.

Get outside.

Be sure to get plenty of sunshine and fresh air each day (taking social distancing into account, of course). Try sidewalk chalk murals, collect natural items for a nature collage, or even hold a toy car carwash. Check out these outdoor activities and 47 more   here  .

Make your own modeling compounds.

Kindergartners love playing with ooey, gooey, squishy stuff. Here are recipes for DIY kinetic sand , homemade slime , plus 8 different types of play dough !

For more creative inspiration, here are 40 Kindergarten Art Projects That Inspire Creativity in Every Student.

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Writing Games for Kindergarten

Writing is one of the most critical skills for a child. It helps build language fluency and enhances a kid’s ability to express themselves simultaneously. If you are wondering how to build kindergartener's writing skills, then SplashLearn's interactive writing games are here for you!

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Handwriting Games

Tracing Big Letters With Standing & Curvy Lines - B, D, & P Game

Practice tracing big letters with standing & curvy lines - B, D, & P.

Tracing Big Letters With Sleeping & Slanting Lines - A, V, W, X, Y & Z Game

Practice tracing big letters with sleeping & slanting lines - A, V, W, X, Y & Z.

Learn to Trace the Letter A Game

Introduce your child to writing by learning to trace the letter A.

Tracing Small Letters With Standing & Curvy Lines - a, d & q Game

Practice tracing small letters with standing and curvy lines - a, d and q.

Writing Sight Words Games

Learn to Write the Sight Words: play, funny & many Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: play, funny & many.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: his, down, baby, want & three Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: his, down, baby, want & three.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: brown, their, our, now & ride Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: brown, their, our, now & ride.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: like, the & likes Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: like, the & likes.

All Writing Games

Tracing Small Letters With Standing & Curvy Lines - b & p Game

Enhance your language skills by tracing small letters with standing & curvy lines - b & p.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: you, look, pretty, said & ball Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: you, look, pretty, said & ball.

Trace the Letter B Game

Introduce your child to writing by learning to trace the letter B.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: yes, four, there, her & came Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: yes, four, there, her & came.

Tracing Big Letters With Curvy Lines - C, O & S Game

Practice tracing big letters with curvy lines - C, O & S.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: were, garden, ate, please & help Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: were, garden, ate, please & help.

Tracing Small Letters With Curvy Lines - c, o, & s Game

Practice tracing small letters with curvy lines - c, o, & s.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: too, white, give, did & get Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: too, white, give, did & get.

Learn to Trace the Letter C Game

Introduce your child to writing by learning to trace the letter C.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: buy, for, yellow & not Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: buy, for, yellow & not.

Learn to Trace the Letter D Game

Introduce your child to writing by learning to trace the letter D.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: small, black, put, blue & went Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: small, black, put, blue & went.

Tracing Big Letters With Standing & Sleeping Lines - E, F, H, I, L & T Game

Practice tracing big letters with standing & sleeping lines - E, F, H, I, L & T.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: day, out, school, new & him Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: day, out, school, new & him.

Tracing Small Letters With Curvy & Sleeping Lines - e Game

Have fun tracing small letters with curvy & sleeping lines - e.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: and, where & find Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: and, where & find.

Trace the Letter E Game

Introduce your child to writing by learning to trace the letter E.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: time, good, ran, away & them Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: time, good, ran, away & them.

Tracing Small Letters With Standing, Sleeping & Curvy Lines - f, h, m, n & r Game

Practice tracing small letters with standing, sleeping & curvy lines - f, h, m, n & r.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: this, they, are & here Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: this, they, are & here.

Learn to Trace the Letter F Game

Introduce your child to writing by learning to trace the letter F.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: and, see & what Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: and, see & what.

Tracing Big Letters With Standing, Sleeping & Curvy Lines - G Game

Enjoy tracing big letters with standing, sleeping & curvy lines - G.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: jump, eat & she Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: jump, eat & she.

Tracing Small Letters With Standing & Curvy Lines - g Game

Have fun tracing small letters with curvy & standing lines - g.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: from, was, under & can Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: from, was, under & can.

Learn to Trace the Letter G Game

Introduce your child to writing by learning to trace the letter G.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: one, that, saw & two Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: one, that, saw & two.

Learn to Trace the Letter H Game

Introduce your child to writing by learning to trace the letter H.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: make, water & run Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: make, water & run.

Tracing Small Letters With Standing & Sleeping Lines - i, l & t Game

Practice tracing small letters with standing and sleeping lines - i, l and t.

Learn to Write the Sight Words: have, has, all & come Game

Children must learn to write the sight words: have, has, all & come.

Learn to Trace the Letter I Game

Introduce your child to writing by learning to trace the letter I.

Tracing Big Letters With Standing, Sleeping & Curvy Lines - J Game

Enjoy tracing big letters with standing, sleeping & curvy lines - J.

Tracing Small Letters With Standing & Curvy Lines - u & j Game

Kids will trace small letters with standing & curvy lines - u & j.

Trace the Letter J Game

Introduce your child to writing by learning to trace the letter J.

Tracing Big Letters With Standing & Curvy Lines - K, M & N Game

Practice tracing big letters with standing & curvy lines - K, M & N.

Tracing Small Letters With Standing & Curvy Lines - k Game

Have fun tracing small letters with curvy & standing lines - k.

Trace the Letter K Game

Introduce your child to writing by learning to trace the letter K.

Trace the Letter L Game

Introduce your child to writing by learning to trace the letter L.

Kindergarteners can be anywhere between 5-6 years. By this time, a kid can mostly say at least a few sight words and narrate their own stories. Kids are excellent and highly creative with their tales and daily nuances of life.

It is the time when they must be introduced to writing. A kindergartener must be able to write simple sentences before their formal schooling begins.

Early writing skills are fundamental in boosting the literacy skills of your little ones. It provides them a platform to express themselves and speak up their mind. Idea formation, motor skills development, understanding print, handwriting recognition, and many more are the fine areas that the kids need to achieve.

Do not stress out on any of these, as SplashLearn has fun writing games that will make the entire writing experience a cakewalk. We are here with some of the easy peasy yet educational games that will help build up the writing set up for your first-time learners.

Have Fun with Writing Games for Kindergarteners  

Kindergarten is the year to be creative and innovative, and the same is reflected in the games.

When you want to build upon your child's writing, it is important to first focus on their reading and speaking skills. Take up a simple, colorful book and ask the kids to read them aloud. After the reading session is over, you should tell them to share their thoughts. For a kindergartener, broadly, there are three types of writing - narrative, informative and creative. The narrative is their way of telling the story, whereas informative is them sharing the information about the story's details. And finally, creative is them weaving their own story or even filling the dots in between.

At this stage, young learners are enthusiastic writers. They draw a great degree of fun and enjoyment out of their writing. The first writing lesson that a kindergartener needs to learn is the alphabet. They can also practice with both uppercase and lowercase letters. After the alphabet, they can start with simple 2-3 letter words.

The best way to encourage a child to write is to let them write more and more. Stress on them designing and writing greetings for any festivals or even special occasions in the family. Ask them to prepare the grocery list.

SplashLearn has unique colorful games that will help understand the concepts of steeping, slanting, and curvy lines along with examples. Sight words are essential while practicing writing, and a complete sight word game is dedicated to the same. It helps young learners identify sight words, sounds, spellings and then write them themselves .

Hello Friends: Say Yes to Early Writing with Writing Games for Kindergarteners

Spellings take time to get perfect for a kindergartener. So, no need to be too strict with them. Just give them some space and time to enjoy their writing. Let them explore the world and understand things and then reflect on the same.

The best way to help a kid learn is to let them make mistakes and then learn from them. Don't ever try to be too critical with your kid. Rather laugh with them at their mistakes and let them learn on their own. Be light-hearted and kind while dealing with kindergarteners.

Kindergartener needs to have a healthy learning environment around them. Try to provide a good teaching experience so that they are curious to learn and understand things.

Kids love to imitate their parents and teachers. So, make sure that you set forth a healthy example for them.

Keep Learning with Writing Games For Kindergarteners on SplashLearn  

SplashLearn is your one-stop solution for any of your kid's reading or writing woes. With a vast array of resources for every grade, you name it, and you get it at SplashLearn . 

So, what are you waiting for? Beat your baby teaching blues today with SplashLearn; after all, learning is fun, and let it be one of the most memorable experiences of your's and your kindergartener's life.

Is there something we missed out? Write to us at [email protected] with your feedback and comments. We love to hear from you and improve the learning experience for your kids

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Home » Literacy Lines » Teaching Writing in Kindergarten

Teaching Writing in Kindergarten

I just read another good blog post from Tim Shanahan , this one about how to teach writing in kindergarten…. on the same day that our new Keys to Early Writing book is going to the printer! So, I thought I’d devote this entry to kindergarten writing instruction.

You might be asking this question: Do young children in kindergarten even have the skills to be able to write? Part of the answer is how you define writing . If you substitute the word composing , it’s easy to see that the answer is yes! Kindergarteners definitely have the ability to compose, even if they can’t yet read or write letters.

One thing we point out in our Keys to Early Writing training is the difference between transcription skills and writing/composing skills. Transcription skills include spelling and handwriting, tasks for which students should become fluent by the time they leave grade 3. For reading, when students become fluent in decoding/word recognition, there is more cognitive energy available to focus on making meaning. It’s similar to writing – when students become fluent in transcription skills, it frees them to focus on determining what they want to say and how they want to say it. However, with both reading and writing, this doesn’t mean that students have to learn to decode, spell and write letters before we can teach them comprehension and compose. The Common Core writing standards recognize this. The opinion, informational, and narrative writing standards all begin in Kindergarten as shown below.

Kindergarten Common Core Writing Standards:

• # 1 Opinion Writing : tell the topic or name of a book, state opinion or preference; use drawing, dictating, and writing to complete an opinion piece
• # 2: Informational Writing : name what they are writing about; use drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative texts; supply some information about the topic
• # 3: Narrative Writing : use drawing, dictating and writing to narrate a single event of several loosely linked events; tell about the events in the order in which they occurred; provide a reaction to what happened

Notice that the standards include drawing and dictating as an alternative to actual writing. Students enter kindergarten with a very wide range of skills – some can’t name the letters and do not know how to match sounds to letters, while others can independently apply basic reading and writing skills. Also, learning of these basic skills is highly accelerated in this grade. There is a big difference between the skills they have at the start of the school year and the end.

Drawing is a critical stage in early writing – it is a form of rehearsal for writing. The act of drawing and the picture itself provide a supportive scaffolding within which students can construct a piece of writing. Lucy Calkins (1994) notes that by using just a single word with a picture, a student is able to convey a story because most of the meaning is carried by the picture. Here’s what she has to say about kindergarten and grade 1 drawing:

“First drawings “hold the world still” – they tend to be a collection of objects placed on the page. Then students enter action by using lines, dots, arrows or something similar to show that the characters are interacting with each other in their settings. In these grades, students can convey their meaning more easily through drawing than through print because their word writing is limited.”

Young children often have a lot more to say than their drawings can capture. This is where the help of an adult comes in. When teachers ask students to explain the opinion, information, or narrative they are trying to convey in their drawing, and then transcribe (i.e., write down) their responses, the students are able to connect their composing to print.

Oral Rehearsal

Shanahan emphasizes the value of dictating throughout his blog post. Here’s some of what he suggests:

“I have always begun children’s writing with oral composition… Oral writing tends to be easier for young kids than writing by hand is and it helps them to gain the concept of writing—which very quickly bears fruit in guiding them into creating their own writing by hand. In kindergarten, I would usually start language experience out on a whole class basis. The first step is a shared experience… some hands-on activity or observational event in which everyone is engaged. Then gather kids around a chart and ask them to tell about the experience. Some of this can be “turn and talk,” some of it might be students responding individually to teacher questions. The idea is to help kids see that language allows them to relive experiences and to think about them.

Now that you have them buzzing, tell them that you want to write an article about the experience. Ask who has something they would like to say about the experience. Then help that child construct a sentence about it. This might be simply transcribing what was said, or it might be helping the child to expand a thought and then transcribing. Print the students’ ideas to get 4 or 5 sentences. I continue with this kind of thing regularly until students are able to do it easily…By the time you are done with language experience approach, the children should have a clear idea of the nature of book sentences, that print (the ABCs) is used to record one’s words, that print moves from left-to-right and from top-to-bottom. They should know the difference between pictures and writing, too.”

I’ll be sharing more from Keys to Early Writing in some upcoming blog posts. You may find some of the free templates and printables from the book helpful. Click here to access them.

Click here to learn more about Keys to Early Writing .

Calkins, L. M. (1994).  The art of teaching writing.  Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

• Joan Sedita

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It was interesting when Shanahan talked about how oral writing tends to be easier for young kids than writing by hand. My husband and I want to find a great kindergarten program for our daughter to give her the best possible start on her formal education this fall. Asking about oral writing should help us find a knowledgeable kindergarten teacher, so thanks for sharing the idea!

I am most captivated when you wrote that the students can connect their composing to print when teachers request students to write down the opinion, information, or narrative they are trying to express in their drawing. I think that is a very good way to enhance not just the drawing skills of a child but also their writing skills. This made me convinced more that planning to enroll my son in kindergarten is a smart move.

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57+ Kindergarten Websites That Tie into Classroom Lessons

Here’s the list of Kindergarten websites I use most often during the school year. Notice that many of the headings are links to more websites under that theme:

• Coloring Books

Critical Thinking

Digital citizenship.

• Bullying –a read-along book
• Cybersmart Hero
• Hector’s World–Cyberbullying

Keyboarding

• Learn to Type—Big Brown Bear
• Turtle Diary –audio prompts as well as visual for learning keyboarding
• Shapes –YouTube video
• Create Music
• Kindergarten Links—Science, etc .
• Ocean Currents—video from NASA
• Peeps and the Big Wide World- -for youngers
• Clocks—set the time–BBC
• Time clocks

Words/Writing

• Writing games

Miscellaneous

• ‘I love you’ in languages Afrikaans to Zulu
• Counting Money
• Edugames—drag-and-drop puzzles
• Internet4Classrooms–Kindergarten links
• KinderSite—lots of kindergarten websites
• Toy Theatre –digital games that teach
• ZooWhiz- -collection of math, reading word skills and literacy games/learning with a zoo theme–requires registration (free)

Do you have any to add?

http://eepurl.com/chNlYb 

Jacqui Murray  has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a  K-12 technology curriculum ,  K-8 keyboard curriculum,   K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum . She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an  Amazon Vine Voice , CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, and author of the tech thrillers,  To Hunt a Sub  and  Twenty-four Days . You can find her resources at  Structured Learning.

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Wow! That’s a list. Thank you.

There’s something there for every need! Thanks, Norah.

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We are a group of dedicated technology teachers with tons of experience in teaching K-18 t ech, unraveling its problems, and making it exciting for kids (and adults). We blog here, teach online grad school classes, provide curricula (like K-12 Technology curriculum ,  K-8 keyboard curriculum,   K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum ). Jacqui Murray (the face of AATT) also authors tech thrillers,  To Hunt a Sub  and  Twenty-four Days . You can find our resources at  Structured Learning.

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• Recognizing letter names and sounds
• Recognizing lowercase and uppercase letters
• Identifying vowels and consonants
• Tracing letters and numbers
• Understanding that written words are separated by spaces
• Putting the letters of the alphabet in order
• Matching letter sounds to beginning word sounds
• Counting syllables
• Reading common high-frequency sight words
• Recognizing rhyming words
• Recognizing consonant digraphs and blends
• Spelling common words
• Engaging in wordplay
• Understanding and contributing to a short narrative
• Identifying the basic parts of a storybook (front cover, title page, title, author, illustrator, back cover)
• Identifying the main character and basic plot of a story
• Answering questions about the key details of a story
• Talking about likes, dislikes, and favorites
• Creating and illustrating a story
• Counting to 10
• Counting to 100
• Adding up to 10
• Subtracting up to 10
• Counting by base-10 blocks
• Skip-counting by 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s, and 10s up to 100
• Recognizing written numbers from one to ten
• Answering the question "How many?"
• Sorting by number
• Ordering by number
• Tracing numbers
• Sorting and organizing coins and bills
• Recognizing shapes and patterns
• Recognizing number bonds
• Solving "more" and "less" word problems
• Comparing numbers using greater than, less than, and equal to symbols
• Comparing the length of two objects
• Comparing the size of two objects
• Completing a pattern
• Estimating numbers
• Completing a number grid
• Recognizing the numbers on a set of dice
• Recognizing shapes
• Identifying shapes
• Counting the number of sides and corners a shape hass
• Painting and coloring
• Illustrating a story
• Identifying musical instruments
• Expressing themselves through art and design
• Recognizing and naming colors
• Identifying the five senses
• Naming and ordering the seasons
• Naming and ordering the months of the year
• Identifying food groups
• Sorting money
• Picking the right clothes for the weather
• Identifying technological tools
• Using a mouse, trackpad, or touchscreen
• Using a keyboard

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Starfall activities are research-based and align with state learning objectives for English language arts and mathematics. Its emphasis on phonemic awareness, systematic sequential phonics, and common sight words in conjunction with audiovisual interactivity is especially effective for teaching emergent readers, children of all ages with special needs or learning difficulties, as well as ELL (ESL) students. It is widely used in schools and homeschools.

Starfall’s low-cost membership program expands the free content to include additional animated songs, mathematics activities, and reading. Membership supports the production of new books, educational games, and movies.

‘+50 Awesome Reading and Writing Websites to Keep Kids Learning at Home

by Rachael Moshman

Many parents all around the world have suddenly become homeschool teachers – or at least tutors – due to the COVID-19 crisis. Language arts, which include reading, writing, listening and speaking, may seem daunting if it’s been a long time since you’ve conjugated a sentence or written an expository essay. It’s an important area of study because these skills carry over to learning math, social studies, science and everything else – inside the classroom and throughout life. Don’t stress though, there are lots of online language arts resources available to help!

For Early Learners

1. PBS  lets kids have storytime with their favorite characters. 

2. Reading Rockets  is filled with info to teach parents how to introduce little ones to language arts. It also has fun activity ideas.

3. E-Learning for Kids  has fun games on letter recognition, sounds, parts of a book and more.

4. That Bald Chick  offers free printables, including ABC crafts and sight words. 

5. ABC Mouse  is currently free and has fun language arts games and puzzles.

6. Free Children Stories  doesn’t require downloads or evening signing in. This a great option to try new stories. 

7. ABC Ya!  has fun letter games.

8. Funbrain, Jr.  has games, stories, and printables. 

9. Oxford Owl  offers free children’s audiobook downloads. 

10. Starfall  is filled with games to teach letter recognition and other early reading skills. 

11. Storyline Online  offers free videos of celebrities reading children’s books. 

For Elementary School

12. The International Children’s Digital Library   offers free access to high-quality books from around the world in different languages.

13. Grammar Bytes  is filled with fun grammar games, activities and videos.

14. StoryJumper  allows kids to write, illustrate, publish and record audio for their own books.

15. Amazon Inspire  offers teachers and parents a place to gather and share resources, lesson plans, activities, etc. 

16. Free printable sight word worksheets  can be colored or turned into fun games.

17. Fun Fonix  has printable phonics games and worksheets. 

18. Plain and Not So Plain  offers spelling lists and handwriting practice sheets. 

19. Scholastic  has free online books and activities to keep kids reading. 

20. Story Bird  has over 700 challenges to inspire kids to write short stories.

21. Scholastic  offers tons of fun activities, videos, and lesson plans.

22. Kahoot  lets you play fun language arts learning games as a family.

23. Spelling Shed  has fun, interactive spelling activities. 

24. Read Works platform and materials are completely free. It has great content, curriculum, and tools to power teaching and learning from Kindergarten to 12th Grade

For Middle School 

25. Libby  allows you to read library books on a phone or tablet.

26. Common Lit  is a free database of passages to practice reading comprehension. 

27. Soft Scho o ls  offers free printable language arts word searches, quizzes and worksheets.

28. Lit2go  is a collection of stories and poems in mp3 format. Kids can download and listen while going on a walk, gardening or doing chores.

29. NaNoWriMo  will help young writers pen their own books in 30 days. 

30. Crash Course  offers fun and extremely informative videos on literacy and writing.

31. One Community  offers curricula in all areas of language arts, including listening and speaking.

32. Worksheetworks  has free grammar printables. 

33. J ournal Buddies   offers a month’s worth of writing prompts.

34. No Red Ink  teaches grammar and writing based on each student’s current skill level and interests. 

35. Read Write Think  has lesson plans, printables, activities and projects for all areas of language arts from k-12.

36. Khan Academy  offers grammar lessons, activities and quizzes aligned with educational standards.

37. Read Works platform and materials are completely free. It has great content, curriculum, and tools to power teaching and learning from Kindergarten to 12th Grade

For High School 

38. Hippocampus  has videos in language arts, literature, grammar and writing. 

39. Project Gutenberg  has over 60,000 free ebooks.

40. Open Culture  has thousands of free audiobooks.

41. Literacy Web  from the University of Connecticut is a great resource for lesson plans and videos. 

42. Poetry Foundation  has a vast collection of poetry with info and discussion. 

43. All in One High School  offers its “easy peasy” curriculum free. It breaks it down by subject daily with exercises, printables, links to resources and videos.

44. Curriki  has an expository writing lesson plan, as well as info on grammar and literature. 

45. SAT Prep  is a productive way to spend hours at home.

46. Turn It In  guides high school students to write strong, original essays. 

47. The University of North Carolina’s Writing Center  has tips and tools for every aspect of writing.

48. Common Lit  has essay passages and comprehension questions. 

49. Purdue Owl   is a great resource for correctly formatting essays. This is a good time for high school students to become familiar with MLA, APA, etc. before heading to college.

50. Good Reads  offers reviews of thousands of books. Have kids pick a book to read and then post their own review.

51. English Grammar Online has a great variety of lessons for teaching English as a foreign language, but it also offers great games and activities that can be used at home or in the classroom.

Reading is a powerful skill. It provides knowledge, helps us formulate our thoughts, expands vocabulary, develops critical thinking skills and enhances creativity. It’s also entertaining and a great way to pass time while in quarantine. Maybe your child will use this time to develop a love of reading. Or perhaps they’ll discover a passion for writing and become a bestselling author one day. These language arts online resources will help them build the skills they need to succeed when they return to traditional classrooms. 

Also check out:

• 40 Science Websites to Keep Kids Engaged and Entertained at Home
• The Best Online Math Resources for All Grade Levels
• These FREE Online Resources Can Help Continue Kids’ Learning From Home
• +100 Totally FREE At-Home Learning Printables Made By Teachers For All

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How to Teach Writing in Kindergarten – Writing Strategies in K

Susan Jones August 13, 2022 Leave a Comment

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Wondering what writing strategies work best in kindergarten classrooms? In this post, I share three of my favorite writing strategies for kindergarten! These three tips will help your youngest students feel confident writing and sharing their ideas. I also wrote a post about three big ideas to keep in mind when teaching writing in kindergarten, so you can check it out here if you’re interested: ( read things to keep in mind when teaching writing to kindergarten ) .

Before I dive in, I wanted to let you know you can watch or listen to all this information in video format below:

Tip #1: Say It First

When we say our stories aloud, it gives students ideas to write about and they can “hold” their idea in their minds before they draw/write. In kindergarten, you will see many of your students writing stories while relying on dictation or illustration. This is developmental and we always praise our students’ work, regardless of how much they are physically writing. Saying our ideas aloud is often used as a pre-writing strategy, and students tend to benefit from telling stories orally first before moving on to drawing and writing. 

Note: If you are interested in other prewriting strategies, I made a video all about them that you can check out here ( prewriting tips for k-2 ) .

You can practice this in your classroom by modeling it for your students. Any time you are going to write or draw something on the board, make sure you narrate it first so your students can register that this is the first step of writing. It also makes a great partner activity because your students can flush out ideas and organize their thoughts as they tell stories to each other. They can ask questions and work through ideas so they will have a clear narrative when they move on to draw their illustrations or write their story. 

Tip #2: Add to the Illustrations 

In the same way that saying your story out loud helps with the writing process, so does adding to your illustrations. A great way to get your students to write more and make their stories longer when they reach that step is to have them add to their illustrations first. There are many different ways students can add more to their illustrations, but below are some of my favorites to have my kindergarten students add to their work:

Add labels to the illustration 

This exercise is great because it adds to the illustration but also allows your students to practice their letters and words by sounding out what they hear and, to the best of their ability , writing it on the page. I always encourage my kindergarten students to write even just one letter to label things in their illustrations.

Add character emotions and actions 

The anchor chart below is an excellent resource for going over character emotions and what we can add to our illustrations to show how a character feels in our story. You can also add different elements to show movement, such as action lines to show that a character is running or a ball is flying through the air. You’d be surprised how only a few small lines on a picture can bring a whole new narrative to a story. 

Add background and setting details

Ask your students questions about what time of day it is, whether it is night or day, or if they are outside or inside, etc., and have them add to their illustrations to show these background and setting details.

Add speech and thought bubbles

Speech bubbles are another way to add a lot to a story through illustrations. However, many kindergarteners may not be at the level yet to add words to a speech bubble. This is a great opportunity for them to go for it and practice with inventive spelling, or they can even just draw another picture inside the thought bubble. They can still add to their story without even having to use any words yet. 

Tip #3: Model Everything

I mean it. Model everything . Every single day when you are teaching a mini-lesson, model it first for your class to show them exactly what it is going to look like before having them try it out.

I like to model writing in two different ways: 

By writing it in front of the class 

Write the whole piece either on the whiteboard or on a piece of chart paper in front of the class and go through the whole process with them. You want to model exactly what you expect your students to be doing when it is their turn, and you want to give them at least one clear way to get the job done.

Using mentor texts

If you find a book or text that clearly demonstrates a skill that you want to work on, you can use a mentor text as a reference to show your class. For example, if you tell your class to add background details to their illustrations, there are plenty of picture books you can show them and point out how the clouds or the color of the sky do a great job of describing the setting. 

So there are three of my best tips for teaching writing to kindergarten students! To recap: #1 is to have students say their ideas aloud BEFORE writing or drawing. #2 is to add details to the illustrations (this will give students more ideas to add to their stories). #3 is to model, model, model! Explicit instruction is necessary for our youngest students so they know what their writing should look and sound like!

Do you have other writing strategies you love using to help build successful writers in kindergarten? Let me know them in the comments!

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Welcome to Susan Jones Teaching. When it comes to the primary grades, learning *All Things* in the K-2 world has been my passion for many years! I just finished my M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction and love sharing all the latest and greatest strategies I learn with you through this blog and my YouTube channel! I hope you'll enjoy learning along with me :)

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70 Easy Writing Workshop Mini-Lesson Ideas for Kindergarten

Are you looking for some new writing workshop mini-lesson ideas to give your Kindergarten students an exciting start to their writing block? If so, look no further! In this post, we’re going over 70 of the best mini-lessons that will not only help your students develop important writing skills and boost their confidence as writers but also make every single day in writing workshop shine.

The Challenges of Writing Workshop in Kindergarten

Teaching kindergarten writing can be a challenging task that requires patience, creativity, and flexibility. Young children are still developing their fine motor skills, learning the alphabet, and trying to understand how words are formed. Not to mention, they may not have developed the attention span needed for longer writing assignments.

As a teacher, it can be tempting to focus solely on grammar and punctuation, but it’s important to also encourage kids to use their imagination and express themselves through their writing. Providing a supportive and positive learning environment can help young writers develop their skills and gain confidence in their abilities.

Through trial and error, I’ve found the flexibility of using mini-lessons is what works best in the kindergarten classroom. Being able to pivot and take each class’s academic skills into consideration is what matters most.

A writing workshop mini-lesson can be tailored to each class and mini-lessons can be revisited. I’ve compiled a comprehensive list of common mini-lessons that you can find below!

Writing Workshop Mini-Lessons About Letter Formation and Phonics

Learning to read and write is an incredibly important skill for young learners. That’s why mini-lessons about letter formation and phonics can make all the difference.

These bite-sized lessons can help children grasp the basics of the language and set them up for success as they continue to develop their reading and writing skills.

Whether it’s learning about the different parts of a letter or how sounds come together to form words, these lessons provide a solid foundation that will serve students well as they progress through their educational journey.

Much of the beginning of the school year writing workshop time is focused on these key skills. If students can’t form letters properly or isolate sounds within a word they won’t be able to make the leap to sentences.

Learn more about how I move through the writing workshop stages and how I adjust each year depending on my student’s abilities.

Language Skills and Sentence Structure

As young learners begin to acquire language skills, it’s important to teach them the basic rules of capitalization and punctuation.

Kindergarten teachers play a crucial role in laying the foundation for their student’s future success in reading and writing.

Mini-lessons that focus on these important language skills can go a long way in building strong writing foundations.

There are many small things about writing that we take for granted but taking the time to slow down and give a writing workshop mini-lesson on how to move down to another line and other basic skills is so valuable.

Every year will be different. With some classes you are lucky to get through capitalization and end marks and with others you’ll be able to expand sentences with adjectives and verbs. Just take your students as they come and help them grow from where they are at.

Supporting Illustrations and Writing Confidence

For young students, illustrations can be the perfect tool for teaching various topics such as colors, counting, and animal names. Using visual aids in the classroom can make learning easier, more effective, and enjoyable for the children.

With writing workshop mini-lessons about illustrations, your students can learn how to appreciate and interpret different types of illustrations found in books and other materials. These mini-lessons can be short and simple but have long-term benefits, which include enhancing creativity, imagination, and critical thinking skills.

One of the biggest challenges when teaching about illustrations is helping students with their time management skills. Some students can spend their entire writing workshop time on illustrations, while others don’t take enough time to add details to their writing.

It might be helpful for you if you have a class that struggles with illustrations (either spending too much time or too little time) to set a timer for illustration time, and then move on to writing time.

Instilling a growth mindset in writing is essential for building a foundation of confidence . Mini-lessons about writing confidence can help students become more comfortable with expressing themselves on paper.

By learning about techniques like brainstorming, drafting, and revising, these students can gain a sense of control over their writing, leading to increased success. These mini-lessons also encourage students to take risks and approach writing with a less critical view of their work, allowing them to see every attempt as an opportunity to grow and improve.

Writing Workshop Organization and Structure

When you first begin writing workshops it’s important to spend a couple of days a week talking about rules and organization during your mini-lessons.

It’s imperative that you start teaching your students how to independently access the things they need to be successful during the writing workshop.

Students need to know what voice levels are appropriate and what they do when they run into problems. The more prep work you do with them the easier it will be to start writing conferences.

You’ll be able to conduct individual writing conferences and focus on the growth of each child without worrying about the rest of your students working independently.

Would you like a free copy of this writing workshop mini-lesson idea list? Just fill out the information below to get access!

If you are looking for ways to scaffold your student’s writing check out my Beginning Writing Skills resource that helps students gain writing confidence!

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Teaching Ideas and Resources

The Easiest Writing Center Ideas for Kindergarten

In this blog post: Thinking about setting up a writing center in your classroom? Find the best Kindergarten writing center ideas and activities for here.

The writing center has long been one of my favorite literacy centers for Kindergarten. It’s easy to set up, easy(ish) to manage, and students absolutely LOVE going there!

If you aren’t yet convinced on the benefits of having a writing center in Kindergarten – or maybe you’re just looking for ideas to help it run more efficiently – this blog post is for you.

I’ll give you my best tips for setting up a writing center in Kindergarten , as well as ideas for differentiated writing center activities you students will love.

Kindergarten writing center set up

When choosing the best Kindergarten writing center set up for you, consider how much space you have and what will work best in that space .

Will you have a designated table for students to work at?

Or would drawers where students can choose an activity and sit anywhere work better?

When considering how to display your writing center vocabulary cards, there are a few ways you can do this.

1. Use a pocket chart

Using a pocket chart for your writing center vocabulary cards display is probably my favorite method. The vocabulary cards are easy to see, easily accessible to students, and easy for me to change out.

We’re ALL about making life easier around here!

Each month of my Ultimate Writing Center for Kindergarten has 4-7 themes included. You can display vocabulary from all of those themes at once in a large pocket chart, or only put out one theme at a time and swap them out more often.

2. Clothespins and a string

Another option for your writing center vocabulary words is to use string and clothespins to display them.

This is cute and still relatively easy to change out, although objectively more work that using a pocket chart.

3. Binder rings

For even less space, you can hole punch the vocabulary cards and place them on a binder ring for students to flip through.

Just throw them in a basket or hang on hooks for easy storage.

The downside to this method is that the vocabulary words are not as easily accessible to every student. If the ring is already being used, other students cannot look up the word they need. Students will also spend more time searching for the word that they need to write.

Organizing your writing center activities

Once you decide how to set up your vocabulary words, you will need to decide how to organize your Kindergarten writing center activities. This will impact how many writing center activities you can put out for students at one time.

Some writing center organization ideas include:

• Stackable paper trays – I love these because it’s easy to add more and easy to see what’s on each tray. The downside is that they aren’t as sturdy and can fall.
• Sterilite drawers – These are sturdier and easy to use, but they do take up more space. If you want to specify which writing center activities each group completes, these are easy to color code.
• 10 drawer cart – You can place this cart next to your writing center for easy access, and I love that it holds so many writing center activities.
• File folder pocket charts – This takes up some wall space, but saves you actual classroom space. It’s also easy to color code by groups if needed.

Writing center activities for Kindergarten

Now that you have the best organizational writing center ideas for Kindergarten, it’s time to think about what writing center activities you want to have.

My Ultimate Writing Center for Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd Grade includes 15-16 differentiated writing center activities each month.

Let’s take a closer look at some of those activities to hopefully give you some ideas for you Kindergarten writing center.

Writing Beginning Sounds

If your students are not yet ready to write full words, one idea for your Kindergarten writing center is to have them label and write beginning sounds.

These I Can Write Beginning Sounds pages are differentiated, so you can decide if students will trace the beginning sound or write it on their own.

Stretch and Write Words

If your students are ready to write more than just the beginning sound, you can let them try stretching and writing words.

Of course, students have the vocabulary words as support, but if a student is relying on those, I like to encourage them to try stretching out the word and writing it on their own, and then checking their answer with the cards.

Writing a List

If your students are ready to write words with even LESS support, they can try creating a list.

For your students just getting started with writing, this might just be a list of their favorite words on the vocabulary wall. 😉 But eventually these can become themed lists around a topic.

Another Kindergarten writing center idea to practice writing words is labeling. For these labeling worksheets, students will either trace or write the vocabulary words.

Students can find and copy the words from the vocabulary wall, but you’ll probably find students stretching out and labeling the words on their own once they are used to doing that in their own writing.

I love that this writing center activity naturally differentiates itself!

Handwriting Practice

Handwriting practice worksheets are a great writing center option for Kindergarteners who are not yet able to write full stories (and honestly, is probably also needed by those who can!).

You can change up this writing center activity by sometimes having students copy letters, spin and trace letters, spin and write letters, roll and trace letters, roll and write letters, and more.

You can also have reusable handwriting practice activities in dry erase pockets or laminated.

Writing Sentences

One of my favorite writing center ideas for Kindergarten is writing sentences. This is a little more scaffolded than just writing a story, but allows students to build those writing skills.

Of course, if your students need a little more support in writing sentences, you can use the trace and copy version. This allows students to trace a sentence and then copy it.

Building Sentences

If your students need more support in what is needed to write a sentence, building sentences is a great writing center activity.

Students will choose a subject card and a verb card to make their sentence. Then, they will rewrite the sentence and illustrate it.

You can get some hilarious sentences through this, and it is always a hit with students! Download this writing center activity for free here:

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Kindergarten Making Sentences Center

Your students will LOVE building and writing simple sentences with this free Kindergarten making sentences activity.

Finish the Sentence

In Kindergarten, we spend a lot of time on sentence work! If you need more writing center ideas that involve sentences, look no further than Finish the Sentence.

For this writing center activity, students will finish the sentence with either a vocabulary word card or any word that they can stretch and write.

This give students a little more freedom than the Writing Sentences activity, but is still supportive.

Creating Pattern Books

Pattern books may not be the best for reading, but they are wonderful for our beginning writers. Students love feeling successful in being able to create a whole book, and the simple sight word sentences makes it possible for them to read.

For these one page books, students will either write the matching vocabulary words or choose their own words to fill in each page.

Then, they can cut out and staple the pages to create their own mini books.

Story Starters

Do you have students who are ready to write, but they just struggle to get started? These writing center story starters are a great way to spark ideas in our little writers.

The story starter prompts are differentiated, so you can choose whether students are writing a sentence or a story. There is also the option to have an editing checklist at the bottom for students to edit and revise their writing.

Writing letters and cards

Nothing inspires students to write like being able to write letters and cards to their family and friends!

You can even extend this writing center activity more by having a classroom mailbox and making it a student job to deliver the mail each day or week.

Mix and Fix Sentences

This writing center activity works on sentence structure, writing sentences, and comprehension. Students will unscramble the words and glue them in order.

Then, they will rewrite the sentence and illustrate it.

If your students are ready for a decodable sentences version without pictures, you can find decodable sentences mix and fix worksheets here .

Kindergarten Writing Center for the Year

Now that you’re full of ideas for setting up your Kindergarten writing center, check out my Ultimate Writing Center for the Year!

This writing center includes all of the activities shown above, plus more. Every writing activity is easy to print and go, and includes options to make differentiation easy.

Grab the Ultimate Writing Center for Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd Grade here!

Looking for more blog posts on setting up your literacy centers in Kindergarten? Check these out:

• Setting Up Your Writing Center
• Setting Up Your Classroom Library
• Setting Up Your Basket Centers
• Setting Up Your Classroom Sensory Bin

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Reader Interactions

July 2, 2023 at 2:51 pm

Hello! I have a question. I love the build it activity! I teach a sped classroom with students functioning between PreK to 1st grade levels. The majority of my students do not understand how to form sentences so I will be using your build it activity. Where do you go from the build it activity? What do you teach next? Do you have a skill sequence that you follow? Is it posted somewhere or will you send it to me? Thank you for your help.

July 2, 2023 at 4:35 pm

Hi Alicia! If you send me an email at [email protected] I’d be happy to talk more with you about sentences!

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