The kindergarteners started the school year learning their letters and letter sounds. Then, they used drawings to represent stories. Eventually, they learned to connect letters with words and before long, they started writing out sentences with words they frequently encounter in class.
After spring break, the students dove into different writing exercises, crafting several sentences about their opinions, their spring break plans and science or social studies topics.
Their teachers — Jessica Lowe and Lindsey Gamertsfelder at Annehurst Elementary and Melissa Borger at Fouse Elementary — have been so impressed by how much their students’ writing has grown since the start of the year, they wanted to celebrate it.
All three recently hosted publishing parties in their classes, where students edited one of their writing pieces and created a book to read aloud to parents, teachers and their peers.
“The kids are writing three different genres of writing — writing more than one sentence, editing their work — that’s a big deal for the end of kindergarten,” said Dr. Tonya Salisbury, the elementary curriculum coordinator for language arts and social studies.
“I think their first-grade teachers will be very surprised and excited that they are ready to start the first grade writing.”
Salisbury said the teachers focused on the three developmental stages of writing — talking, drawing and writing — and collaborated with each other on how to apply it to their classrooms. She also credited the district’s phonics program, Fundations, and Geodes reading materials, which helped connect reading and writing as students learned to sound out words alongside spelling them.
The publishing parties are a credit to students’ hard work and what they have accomplished this year, Lowe said.
“I want them to understand that when we write, there’s a purpose to it,” she said. “And we can share what we’ve written to the world.”
During the parties, parents filled their children’s seats as they watched them stand before the crowd to read the passages they composed. Even presenting to an audience was another milestone for the students.
“Looking at some students that came in, so shy they would have never had stood up here like that,” Borger said to the crowd of parents. “So seeing them to be able to come up here, speak as loud as they can and read their writing — which is so, so hard to do — is amazing. I hope you’re proud of them.”