Kindergarten Writing Units Bundle | Writing Curriculum | Lesson Plans & Resources
Are you an Australian Prep teacher who wants to make your life a whole lot easier! This writing units bundle has literally everything you need to teach writing to your Kindergarten /Prep students in for the whole year! If you’re a graduate teacher, new to teaching Kindergarten/Prep, or you just want to reclaim your nights and weekends, then this resource is for you! This money-saving bundle contains 152 lessons! Each lesson slowly builds upon the previous ones, so your students have the confidence and ability to grow as writers. With detailed lesson plans, digital learning intentions and success criteria and all your resources included, you won’t need to worry about planning writing for the whole year. I’ve done it for you! Important: This is a digital resource. No physical resource will be shipped to you. You will be able to download the resource immediately after purchase. Please check out the PREVIEW here. What’s included in this bundle? In this bundle, you will get the following units: Term 1 Writing Unit Term 2 Writing Unit Term 3 Writing Unit Term 4 Writing Unit Further down I’ll show you exactly what is in each unit! In total that’s 152 lesson plans. Simply print and go! You won’t need to plan for writing for the whole year! Digital learning intentions and success criteria for every lesson - Simply display these learning intentions on your Smartboard and click the lesson you are up to from the contents page. No more trying to cram learning intentions at the top of your whiteboard! All resources included – Whether it is word banks, learning intention slips for the students’ books, or support prompts to use at the tables, you will literally have everything you need. The only thing that is not included is your students’ writing books! What kinds of lessons are included? TERM 1 WRITING UNIT OVERVIEW In the Term 1 Writing Unit, there are 32 lessons. These lessons are broken up into four categories: Illustration Lessons. It is important that students know how to draw before they can even begin writing. These 8 lessons teach your students how to draw things like boys, girls, houses, cats, dogs and more. Labelling Lessons. These 8 lessons focus on labelling parts of a picture. In these lessons, students are taught to hear and record the initial sounds in words (or perhaps in the initial and final sounds). Remaking Sentences Lessons. In these 8 lessons, students learn about the features of a sentence and remake jumbled sentences. They are also encouraged to read and write the sentences too. Writing Sentences Lessons. In these 8 lessons, students begin writing very simple sentences. They learn about features such as capital letters, spaces between words, full stops, sounding out and using words in the room. These lessons do not have matching worksheets. They are all done in their writing book. TERM 2 WRITING UNIT OVERVIEW In the Term 2 Writing Unit, there are 40 lessons. These lessons focus on these five areas: Recount Lessons. Each week (once a week), the students will practise writing a recount. Each time they do, the success criteria slowly builds on the previous lessons. This means that your students’ confidence and ability to write a recount is continually growing. Picture Prompt Lessons. Each week, students will be given a picture to colour, then write about. Pictures include animals and places. Each week, students will be able to use a variety of sentence starters to write about their picture. As the term progresses, students will be encouraged to write multiple sentences. Sentences about themselves. Each week, students will have an opportunity to write about themselves. They will write about the family, their interests, the favourite things and more. Facts Lessons. In the first half of the term, students will write facts (or informative sentences) about an animal. Using a class-made can/have/are chart, your students will become confident non-fiction writers! Events in order Lesson. In the last part of the term, students will write about events in order. Each week the success criteria builds on the previous lessons so that by the end of the term, students can use the words: First, Next, Then, Finally. TERM 3 WRITING UNIT OVERVIEW In the Term 3 Writing Unit, there are 40 lessons. Over these lessons, your students will experience: A holiday recount: The unit opens with the students writing a holiday recount. In this lesson, students are encouraged (and supported) to try to include details such as when, where, who and what. Writing questions: Over three lessons, students learn all about questions. They begin by learning how to form a question mark, then practise writing questions of their own. Writing lists: Over four lessons, students will learn about the features and uses of lists. They will then write their own lists about familiar topics. These lessons focus particularly on hearing and recording sounds in words. Writing sentences with adjectives: Over 8 lessons, students learn about adjectives and how they can improve our writing. Using supporting materials, students try describing animals and items using one or two adjectives. Writing opinions: Over 8 lessons, students learn about what opinions are and how our opinion differ from other people’s opinions. Students practise writing their opinion about familiar topics and give a reason to back up their opinion. Writing sentences using labelled pictures: Over 4 lessons, students use labelled pictures to write sentences. With a range of sentence starters provided, students are supported and encouraged to write as many sentences as they like! Book making: Over four lessons, students become authors! Students learn about the features of books such as eye-catching front covers, colourful pictures and words/sentences. At the end of the week, students celebrate each other’s books by having a book fair! Procedural writing: Over 8 lessons, students learn about procedural, or “how to” writing. After learning the features over multiple lessons, students then have a go writing their own procedural piece. As always, students have all the supports they need to be successful! TERM 4 WRITING UNIT OVERVIEW In the Term 4 Writing Unit, there are 40 lessons. Across these lessons, your students will experience: A holiday recount: The unit opens with the students writing a holiday recount. In this lesson, students are encouraged (and supported) to try to include details such as when, where, who and what. Narrative writing: Over 11 lessons, students learn all about the features of a narrative: the setting, the characters, the beginning, middle and end. After reading narrative examples that are provided in the unit, the students plan and write their own beginning, middle and end of a narrative. Each lesson slowly builds on the previous, and students are supported the whole way! Informative writing: Over eight lessons, students plan, draft and write an information book about an animal. They write about what the animal looks like, where it lives and what they eat. At the end of the eight lessons, students have a book fair where they share and celebrate their information books! Poetry: Over eight lessons, students learn about two types of poetry: colour poems and couplet poems. Across the two weeks, students plan, draft and publish a colour poem, and a couplet poem. Letter writing: Over four lessons, students will learn about the features of a letter: the opening, the body and the closing. They will draft and publish two letters for special people in their lives! End of year reflections: Over four lessons, students reflect on their year and write about their favourite parts. There is an optional front cover included in the resources. Why not turn their reflections into a memory book? What a great keepsake from their first year of schooling! Picture prompts: Over four lessons, your students will love writing sentences about picture prompts. There are different options: Christmas-themed prompts, and non-Christmas themed prompts. Choose whichever suits your students! Did someone say ‘differentiation’? We all know that in one Prep/Kindergarten classroom, there can be a huge range of abilities. Well, never fear! Each lesson can be differentiated to suit the varying needs of your class. In most lesson plans, there is a Support Prompt (which suggests a modification to the lesson for your less-able writers) and an Extending Prompt (which suggests what your top writers can do to extend themselves). Hello differentiation! There are also supporting resources that you can print off and give to your less-confident writers. I believe all students should feel success, no matter what their level. So, there’s plenty of supports you can give your students who need it. What else is awesome about this resource? There are 8 different font options. Why? Well, in Australia we have different ways we teach handwriting. Kind of crazy, but true. So, you’ll notice this resource has font options: Victorian Modern Cursive, NSW font, SA font, SA Beginner, Tas font, QLD Beginner and Sassoon Primary. I’ve also included Century Gothic font. Please note, the spelling in this resource is British/Australian spelling (e.g. colour, favourite). There are two options for the Learning Intentions PowerPoint (for each font): one where you can edit the text, one where the next is not editable. To use the editable version, you will need to install the font onto your Smartboard. Don’t worry, it’s easy. How the lessons work Each lesson plan includes the following: Learning Intention and Success Criteria: (Remember, these match the digital ones you put up on your Smartboard) Resources required: (So you can quickly see which slide you will need and which printable resources to copy for your students) Whole class lesson: This is where you can use the script (or modify it) to teach your mini lesson. Each lesson builds on the previous ones at a comfortable pace. In this part of the lesson there is lots of opportunities for student participation, teacher think-alouds and modelled writing. Independent activity: This is where students practise the skill you have taught them in the mini lesson. There are extending prompts and support prompts included as we all know, every class has a range of abilities. The differentiation is sorted for you. Reflection/Share time: This is the opportunity for students to share their work with their classmates. It’s a time to celebrate all learners, no matter their abilities. Suggested prompts are also included in the lesson plan. This resource is PERFECT for you if: You are an Australian teacher, new to teaching Prep/Kindergarten and are unsure how to teach your students how to write You are a graduate teacher, feeling a little unsure because your university didn’t teach you how to teach writing You are a seasoned teacher but you are sick of planning and want your weekends back! Important Notes: You will need PowerPoint to use the learning intentions resource. Also, the PowerPoint will need to be in slideshow mode for the animations and hyperlinks to work. Please note, the lesson plans are in PDF format so are not editable. This resource has been made with Australian teachers in mind: This resource uses Australian spelling (e.g., colour, favourite). Also, the termly units are planned out in a way that coincides with the Australian school year (January – December). This resource will not suit classrooms that don’t follow the Australian school year (Jan -Dec). Here’s what Prep teachers have said about these units. “This is such an amazing, comprehensive resource! Stephanie creates the most user friendly, engaging resources for our Prep children! Thanks again for all the time and effort you put into these plans” – Claire “Absolutely fantastic resource. It is so well thought out and easy to use. A huge timesaver for teachers and highly engaging unit for students. Thank you” - Cassie Frequently asked questions: Q: What fonts are included in this resource Victorian Modern Cursive font, NSW font, SA font, SA Beginner font, QLD Beginner font, Tas font, Sassoon Primary, Century Gothic Q: I live outside of Australia. Is this resource right for me? This resource has been made with Australian teachers in mind. It has been made to align with the Australian curriculum. It uses the British/Australian spelling of words (e.g. colour, favourite). It is also intended for schools that follow the Australian school terms (e.g. Jan – Dec). Therefore it is not suited to teachers outside of Australia. Q: How to I download the relevant font onto my Smartboard? In order for you to display the EDITABLE digital learning intentions on your Smartboard with the correct font, you will need to make sure your Smartboard has that font on it. To download a font, go to google and type the font in. E.g. Google SA font free. One of the first google results will say, “Download SA font for free”. Follow the instructions to install the font on your Smartboard. Then when you have, the font will appear correctly in the Learning Intentions PowerPoint. Note: If you want to use the non-editable version, you won’t need to do the above. Additional information Please note: This is a downloadable, digital file that you can access immediately after purchase. To open the PDF files, you will be required to have a PDF Reader such as Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer. To use the PowerPoint Learning Intentions, you will need access to PowerPoint on your computer.
