Writing Center Activities for Kindergarten

Get kindergartners excited about writing practice. Set up a writing center in your Kindergarten classroom that students can use to practice their skills. Spark your young learner's interest with a desk area that is stocked with pencils and other writing instruments in various sizes and colors. Provide assorted paper and envelopes with letter-shaped stickers. Include alphabet posters, white boards with dry-erase markers, and letter stampers to add interest to the writing center.

Letter Writing

Make a mailbox for the writing center. Paint a shoe box blue, or cover it in blue construction paper and cut an envelope sized slit in the lid. Set the mail box in the writing center and tell your class that when they visit the center, they will have the opportunity to choose paper and an envelope to write a letter to another class member. Post a list of class names on a wall near the writing center desk. When children visit the center, they choose a name to write on the envelope, then write a letter to that person. Help your kindergartners with spelling and letter formation as you rotate among the centers at center-time in your classroom. Provide a list of short, common phrases used in correspondence. Include "how are you" and "I am fine." Remind letter writers to sign their name at the bottom of the letter, then fold it and put it in an envelope. Ask the children to drop their letter into the mailbox before they leave the writing center.

Story Composition

Fold standard computer copy paper in half, then staple the folded end to create a book for each student. Place the folded paper books in a basket on the writing center desk. Tell your class that when they visit the writing center, they will be able to write a story in a book. Provide writing prompts---suggestions for story plots---verbally to the class. Suggest writing a story about a trip to the zoo or about a visit from a special friend. Place a list of words the children may need help spelling on the wall near the writing desk and be sure you or an assistant is available to help at the center. Place crayons and markers in the center so the children can illustrate their stories and draw a picture on the cover.

Transcribing Activity

Write a poem on a piece of construction paper and hang it on a wall near the desk in the writing center. Choose a familiar nursery rhyme or stanza from an often-sung classroom song. Copy the same poem onto lined writing paper for each member of your kindergarten class. Make sure the poem covers only the top half of the lined paper, and that there is room below for your students' writing. Let the children copy the words to the poem, then decorate their paper with stickers that correspond with the poems theme.