Kindergarten Writing + FREE Writing Checklist

Teaching writing in kindergarten starts on day one and is a major focus every day. Writing involves a variety of different skills: letter identification, sounds, letter formation, fine motor and handwriting, sentence structure, and more. And because it is so complex, it is important to be consistent with how you teach it, the time devoted to it, the structure of your writing workshop, and how you edit/review students’ writing.

A couple years ago, I began using a simple writing checklist that my students are able to successfully use themselves. There are five points to our writing: beginning with a capital (we normally use the term uppercase), using finger spaces (we start in the beginning of the year with two finger spaces, and some move to one once they become strong writers), sounding out words, ending with punctuation, and having a detailed picture. When we review our writing, we use our fingers to count and see if we have all five points.

This writing checklist is a part of all of my Kindergarten Writing resources including my Personal Word Wall that I use in the classroom digitally (and my students have a hard copy they keep at home). I LOVE how my journals, my Personal Word Wall, and my Writing Checklist flow seamlessly together and allow for my students to write (mostly) independently.

And you can get my Pencil Writing Checklist for FREE below! It’s a large-format poster in the shape of a pencil for easy access in the primary classroom. It also has picture supports for students learning to read. It also includes small bookmarks for students to keep in their writing folders or at home.