3 Reasons Why You Need a Labeling Unit in Kindergarten

If there was one piece advice I’d give to a first year kindergarten teacher is that you need to EXPLICITLY model writing in kindergarten. If you’re given curriculum that is telling students to “go off and write” in August - red flag. Sure, free writing is a great way for expression and fine motor development but if we want our students to actually know HOW to write a sentence we need to MODEL it.

Just like how we teach students to read with decoding instead of looking at the picture to guess the word. We need to TEACH them how to write. Here’s why:

1. Students are focusing JUST on letter sounds 

I would suggest doing a labeling unit AFTER your students have been exposed to all the letters sounds and are on their way towards mastery. The first month I would spend on my Illustration Unit and transition to the Labeling Unit. Students will be drawing pictures AND labeling the picture. 

By having students “go off and write” we are giving them way too many steps. They need specific time JUST to focus on labeling. Because soon, they’ll be able to copy down a sentence stem and use their label to complete a sentence. Remember, we have to go SLOW in writing if we want to go fast LATER. 

When students start to practice labeling they are spelling phonetically - meaning they are writing the sounds they HEAR not the correct spelling. This may also be called inventive spelling. When kindergarteners first start labeling, it may be just the beginning sound or they may write all of the sounds they hear. With practice, students will start to write more sounds and transition to standard spelling once they've learned the spelling rules/patterns.

2. Easily Differentiated 

Students come into kindergarten with a wide variety of skills - some have already mastered their letters/sounds and others are still working on recognizing their name. Labeling allows all students to be met where they are. Every student can draw the same object or picture but label it completely different.

Let’s say the entire class draws an apple. One student may only hear the sound /a/ and write “a”. 

Another student could draw the same apple - say the word slowly and hear three sounds /a/ /p/ /l/ and write “apl”

Another student may hear three sounds  and write three lines but only recognizes the /a/ /p/ sounds and needs assistance on how to figure out what letter to write for the /l/ sound.  

All of these situations are completely developmentally appropriate and meeting the students where they are academically.

In this drawing, the student wrote "wndo" for window but only wrote the beginning sounds for cloud and sun. Students may mix between writing all the sounds they hear and beginning sounds depending on their letter mastery and confidence.

3. Perfect introduction to sentence stems

 After your students have mastered labeling a picture, it is time for them to learn how to read and write a sentence stem. A sentence stem are high frequency words students can use to start their sentences. An easy one is “I see a ______”  

If your students drew a picture of an apple, labeled it “apl” then they can write the sentence “I see a apl” This is a great opportunity for students to explicitly learn sentence structure. By the end of the labeling unit, students will have been exposed to label, use a sentence stem, add a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence, finger spaces between the words and a period at the end.

If you are needing guidance with labeling, I have created 4 weeks of scripted lesson plans, anchor charts, directed drawings and more in my Labeling Unit! This is also in my entire year long Kindergarten Writing Units.