Change is Hard

I think this might be a metaphor for much of what is happening in our world right now, but I am talking about changing our writing.  Editing and revision is very hard for kindergarten kids.  The physical task of writing is so laborious for some that even mentioning the idea of adding to, deleting from, or (horrors) REWRITING can bring on tears and anxiety.

For our Change the World writing, I am emphasizing that your children are writing for an audience. Whether they are making a poster for the hallway to encourage kids to be safe or writing a letter to the principal about changing something, it is important that their audience can read it, that the letters are formed correctly, and there are spaces between words.  We wouldn't send a letter to our Governor with scratch outs and messy writing, so we won't send messy letters home to mom or dad either!

Here is an example I used for our lesson yesterday.  Sami wrote to the principal.  It was perfectly legible, but the greeting was where the date should be and there were some things scribbled out.  She re-wrote the letter to make it neater and to get her message across more clearly.  After I showed this example, everyone else was much more willing to revise their work.

Dear Ms. Rouelle, I have noticed people running in the hall so we are making signs to keep people safe.

Watch out, because some of your children have moved on from our classroom and our school to trying to change things at home.  There MAY be some letters or posters coming your way!