So, the start of school year has been wonderful! Your have settled in quite nicely into their classroom. You feel comfortable and no longer have anxiety about your little one being away from home. Well, today your student just finished their first writing activity and you look at the squiggly lines and circles and you start thinking, “Oh No”! I know, their writing looks confusing at this point. However, This isn’t writing but just a bunch of mismatched letters that don’t that have no meaning. In a child’s mind they are associating these the lines and squiggles that they write sounds in words. Keep in mind that young children are still learning the letters of the alphabet, sounds and how to write these letters. Well, I’m here to tell you that squiggles, lines, circles and other unidentifiable lines are perfectly normal for you kindergartener and is totally representative of what their writing should look like in kindergarten.
Young children progress through different stages of writing developmentally. Generally in pre-k and kindergarten emergent writing skills will start to develop. Students in this stage start to explore writing utensils like pencils, markers, and crayons and begin writing usually by lines, circles and squiggles on the paper. The children are actually developing their idea or concept of printed words. Later, you will be able to engage your students in activities that require them to label pictures, sentence frames, and writing sentences when given a topic. Teachers, please don’t panic. Writing is a skill that develops over time. Be patient, your child’s squiggles, circles and unidentifiable lines will turn into words and sentences that you can understand!
