The Stages of Writing in Kindergarten

Kindergarten is a year of exponential growth for young students and one of those areas of growth is in writing! It’s important to understand the stages of writing in kindergarten so that we can meet students where they are and motivate them to keep practicing. After all, writing is one of the most challenging tasks we ask students to do throughout the school year and we want to support them as much as we can!

7 Stages of Writing in Kindergarten

As students learn how to write, they experience a common progression of skill development. Each stage of writing is exciting to see, since students are learning important skills that will help them become confident and independent writers in the future! Here’s a quick description of the 7 stages of writing in kindergarten: 

1. Drawing

The first stage of writing development is when students create scribbles or drawings that hold meaning. When asked about their drawing, students will be able to describe what they’ve put on the paper.

2. Pretend Writing

As students become more aware of writing and the fact that words convey meaning, they will begin to pretend write. Their drawings and scribbles will begin to look more like print, as they draw wavy lines on their paper. Students in the pretend writing stage will also be able to describe what’s on their paper, showing that they understand that those squiggly lines represent ideas.

3. Letter Strings

The next stage of writing incorporates a young student’s growing knowledge of the alphabet. They don’t incorporate letter sounds at this stage. Instead, they string together the letters they know how to write (or can easily copy) in order to create “words” that describe a picture or share a thought. In this stage, they also demonstrate understanding that letters are written from left to right on the page.

4. Copying Words

After stringing together letters into pseudo words, students will begin to copy words from a model. This will include increasingly-accurate letter formation as well as word spacing. Students may also add some invented spelling using their knowledge of consonant sounds.

5. Phonetic Spelling

As students’ phonics knowledge increases, this becomes more apparent in their writing. In the phonetic spelling stage of writing, students will begin to represent each sound in a word with a letter. Their writing becomes more and more legible as their phonetic spelling gets closer to the sounds they’re trying to represent.

6. Sentence Writing

As students become more proficient with phonetic spelling, they will begin to put words together to form sentences. They may also draw on their knowledge of high-frequency words to complete their sentences, but they will rely on phonetic spelling for unfamiliar words.

7. Conventional Spelling

The final stage of writing is conventional spelling. This is when students have become proficient in expressing themselves through writing. They are able to consistently write complete sentences with generally correct spelling.

Supporting Beginning Writers in Kindergarten

As you can see from the multiple stages of writing that students experience in kindergarten, it’s one of the most challenging tasks they’re asked to complete! It’s important that we support beginning writers as they develop their ability to express themselves in writing. Here are a few tips:

Set Realistic Expectations

A kindergartener’s writing ability will be vastly different in June than it was in September! This is why it’s important to understand the stages of writing development so you can set realistic expectations. For example, in September, you would expect a student to be able to draw a picture and describe the story or idea it represents. They might even write some letters on the page to represent beginning sounds. In June, you could expect a student to write one or more sentences on a topic that matches a picture. They will use phonetic spelling to write complete sentences with appropriate spacing and punctuation.

Differentiate Writing Practice

As you can probably guess, students progress through the stages of writing at their own pace. While it will naturally follow the progression of the curriculum, there will be students who linger a little bit longer in one stage of writing while others progress more quickly. This is when writing activities like picture writing prompts can be so helpful. You can use differentiated writing prompts with sentence starters to support a wide range of student development.

Celebrate Student Writing

There is something to celebrate in student writing at every stage! Give students the chance to share their writing with the class and celebrate what they’ve accomplished. This will keep them motivated to practice writing! I have written an entire blog post about how to celebrate student writing in kindergarten, so be sure to check it out if you’re looking for ideas!

Involve Parents and Staff

Have you ever had a parent express concerns that the work coming home with their child is full of misspelled words? Have you ever had a well-meaning volunteer or staff member spoon-feed spelling to students during independent writing time? It’s important to inform parents and staff about the stages of writing development. That way, they will be able to allow students to explore writing at their own pace. This will help students become more independent and confident writers.

Stages of Writing Printable Handout

Do you need an easy way to communicate the stages of writing with parents, volunteers, or other staff members? Be sure to grab my free stages of writing handout. This resource includes a description of each stage of writing along with an example. It also includes tips for supporting beginning writers at home as their writing skills develop throughout the year.

Just click the button below to grab your free copy of this handout!

Save These Tips for the Kindergarten Writing Stages

Be sure to save this post if you’d like to come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite board of kindergarten writing ideas. You’ll be able to quickly find these tips and resources when you’re planning writing instruction for beginning writers.