Tips for Teaching Writing Without a Curriculum

Teaching young students how to write can be challenging, but it can be even more difficult when you don’t have access to a writing curriculum. In this post, I’m sharing tips and resources for teaching writing without a curriculum.

The Challenges of Teaching Writing in Kindergarten

Learning how to write is one of the most difficult things we ask young kindergarten students to do. They have to apply everything they have learned about letters along with their still-developing fine motor skills in order to be able to write. There are a few specific reasons why teaching writing can be such a challenge, particularly without a curriculum.

• Limited Time – With so many new academic skills to teach in a week, it can be a challenge to find time for direct instruction in writing. However, the writing components of an ELA curriculum often lack the explicit instruction that young kindergarten students need.

• Wide Range of Skills – One kindergarten classroom can have a range of writing skills, from students who are still struggling to hold a pencil to students who can already write a simple paragraph. It can be challenging to find writing practice activities that meet the needs of all of the learners in the classroom. 

• Lack of Motivation – It’s no surprise that young kindergarten students might be reluctant to practice writing. When they don’t feel like writers, they are less likely to want to practice writing. Instead, they may demonstrate task avoidance or other disruptive behavior when it’s time to put pencil to paper.

With so many challenges, it can feel almost impossible to teach writing without a curriculum. That’s why I wanted to share some tips to help you teach this important skill to your kindergarteners even if you don’t have access to a full writing curriculum.

How to Teach Writing Without a Curriculum

The key to teaching writing in kindergarten is to start with the basics and build block by block. You can’t jump from letter sounds to full paragraphs; there are a whole lot of skills in between.

Once your students have been able to practice using a writing utensil and are able to form letters of the alphabet, it’s time to systematically move through writing instruction. 

1. Keep Lessons Short

Before we dive into specific skills to address with your writing instruction, it’s important to remember that this instruction should be given in short, bite-sized lessons. As I mentioned earlier, writing is not a simple task for young students, which often means their engagement and stamina are limited. However you decide to teach and practice writing, be sure that the lessons are a developmentally appropriate length of time.

2. Start with Labeling

After learning how to write individual letters, the logical next step for students is to move on to writing single words at a time. When students can focus on the sounds in individual words, it’s much more approachable for them. Labeling is one way that students can learn how to convey meaning through written text. 

When it comes to helping young kindergarten students feel like writers, a quick win like this can be very motivating! Writing labels is an excellent way to help students feel successful and become more confident in their writing skills. They can focus on one word at a time, and there is a clear visual cue to help them see that the word holds meaning for that picture.

3. Move On to Listing

The next writing concept that students need to understand is that multiple words can work together for the same purpose. These words aren’t yet being put together in sentences. Instead, students will create lists of words that go together.

Not only does this help students understand that a group of words can convey meaning (a precursor to sentences), but it also helps students build stamina. Writing lists is a great way to encourage students to write multiple words at a time. 

4. Write Sentences

Once students have had a chance to build their stamina and write multiple words at a time, they can practice writing sentences. First, students need to learn that a sentence is a group of words that tells us something. Then you can teach them about the subject and predicate of a sentence with kid-friendly explanations. (I like to use “naming part” and “telling part” to describe them.)

Students also need to learn about the conventions of a sentence, like capitalization, spacing, ending punctuation, and spelling. As students put all of these skills together, they will learn how to express themselves with complete sentences. 

5. Continue to Build Independence

The final part of teaching writing in kindergarten without a curriculum is to provide multiple opportunities for students to practice the skills they’re developing. When possible, provide differentiated writing instruction in order to best support all of the students in your classroom.

Picture writing prompts are an excellent tool for differentiated writing practice that you can use all year long. These pictures prompts are perfect for motivating students to practice writing, since each page includes an engaging picture that gives students an idea for their sentence. 

There are also versions that include sentence frames and traceable sentence starters that can best support other students in your class.

Printable Writing Activities for Kindergarten

I have put together a bundle of writing activities that will help you teach writing in a systematic and approachable way. Whether you’re looking for a writing curriculum or a supplement to your school’s ELA curriculum, this bundle includes low-prep and highly engaging to give all of your students the support they need to build a strong foundation in writing.

If you’d like to take a closer look at everything included in this bundle of writing activities, just click below to find it in the Teaching Exceptional Kinders shop or on TPT.

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