How to Teach Labeling during Kindergarten Writer’s Workshop

When I first started teaching kindergarten I felt as though I was constantly floundering, keeping my head just above water and just barely getting my students to the writing level that was expected. I was handed a curriculum that went from “Here’s how to write the letter Aa” to “Now your students will go off and write in their journals independently”. I was overwhelmed and so were my students. Sound familiar? 

So I created my own curriculum designed to take you and your students step by step through the entire year, cultivating little creative, and independent writers. My Illustration Unit is the first step of creating a classroom full of authors, you can read all about it here! 

This Labeling Unit is the next, most important step. It helps to build a strong foundation of writing for your students and leads them towards independent writing. The goal by the end of this unit is for students to be able to draw a picture, label, and then use a sentence stem to copy the words and one label from their picture. Students will learn about sentence structure and have the opportunity to work on using finger spaces, punctuation, and a capital letter. 

How does this look in the classroom? 

The unit starts with the basics, discussing what a label is and why they are important. Throughout the first few lessons, your students will have the opportunity to engage in labeling by labeling objects around the classroom, pictures, and even YOU! These lessons are a blast as students focus on finding just the first sound in words. 

Next, you’ll move into adding more sounds into the label. Remember, in kindergarten writing phonetic spelling (where students write the sounds they hear not necessarily the correct letters) is exactly what you are looking for! You may end up with a picture of a duck labeled “dk” because those are the only sounds they hear right now, and that is perfect! The next handful of lessons focus on this skill by having students label their illustrations. 

As students grasp this concept and master this skill, you’ll begin introducing other concepts such as using an alphabet strip (I use their name tags) to find the correct letter and writing using sentence stems. Your writers will also be introduced to using capital letters, punctuation, and finger spaces. 

Each lesson in this 4-week unit is strategically organized to amp up your writer’s workshop time and make it a productive, engaging, and useful chunk of the day! You’ll briefly introduce the topic for the day (sometimes by reading mentor texts, other times by relating it to student's lives, and sometimes with an engaging activity), and then your students will have the opportunity to practice the objective by doing their own illustrations and labeling or writing. Finally, your authors will be given the chance to share their work with a peer. 

My philosophy for teaching writing in the primary ages is always, teach it slow! My units are built with a couple of key things in mind. One key is what is developmentally appropriate for young students. They will learn best with engaging activities, modeled writing, and ample opportunities to practice. Another key is that they will learn better in small chunks. Take it one day at a time. Do not try and teach your students every part of sentence writing in one day, it will end in many tears. Instead, I break up sentence writing and we discuss creating a sentence using a sentence stem one day, adding spaces another, and so on until your sentence is complete. 

What is included in the unit? 

When you grab this unit you will be gaining access to 19 scripted plans for easy print-and-go lessons to use during your writer's workshop time. All the materials needed are listed at the top of each lesson plan and I also include a list of mentor texts that exemplify the unit objectives. 

You’ll find a large variety of anchor charts, as well as 16 different directed drawing options. These provide your students with illustration practice and then give them opportunities to label and write about their drawings. Of course, you will also have access to worksheets for your students to practice writing labels and using sentence stems. 

Kindergarten parents are always excited to learn about what their children are doing in school. I have provided you with 3 different parent letters; one to send at the beginning of the unit, one for the end, and one written using phonetic spelling to send home and explain phonetic spelling to families. 

You can see a full list of everything included here! 

How do I know if my students are ready for this unit? 

Keep in mind that although each lesson is scripted, you know your students best and should adjust as needed. Meet students where they are developmentally! Some students may need you to write out a sentence stem in highlighter for them to copy, others may not be able to draw, label, and write all in one sitting. I have included many differentiated options and hope that you will take the liberty to adjust the lessons to fit the needs of your classroom. 

With that being said, if your students are struggling with drawing detailed illustrations, stop this unit and go back to my Illustration Unit! Spend a week or two practicing drawing and I promise your students will reap the benefits. If you are noticing your entire class is struggling to identify the first sound of a word, they are not ready for this unit. I highly recommend going back and spending more time working on letter sounds during reading and phonics time. 

If you are feeling good about getting started with this unit and loving my resources, you can grab the year-long Kindergarten Writing Bundle here. Following the Labeling Unit I recommend moving right along to the Narrative Writing Unit where your students will learn about writing stories with a beginning, middle, and end. Then drawing illustrations to match. 

You can see all of my developmentally appropriate, kindergarten writer’s workshop materials here!