Starting the Year Off with Developmentally Appropriate Reading AND Writing in Kindergarten!

It is the beginning of the year in kindergarten. A lot is going on. You’ve got kids crying, a few ignoring all instruction, other ones sitting quietly trying to listen, and a few that are becoming very frustrated with those that are not sitting quietly (if ya know, ya know). And your district is telling you that by the third day of school, you need to start curriculum.

Welp…. I just gave myself a bit of anxiety there. 

I am going to stop doing that now and give you a super cool, super easy way you can start curriculum (just like your district says you need to) right away, without all the overwhelm and chaos that comes with it. 

I’ve created THREE separate curriculums that not only align perfectly with each other but are developmentally appropriate and built to grow with your kinders. 

Already heard enough?? Grab all three in this big bundle right here. 

Okay, so what are these three magic curriculums anyway?? 

You can’t really get your students going with reading or writing if they don’t have a good foundation and knowledge of letters. My Alphabet Curriculum is a 26-day unit that will walk your students through each letter. For every letter, students will learn the sound and formation, and then work on recognizing it as a beginning sound. Each lesson is developmentally appropriate and engaging, allowing students to practice through multiple different modes, from creating a craft to reading a poem, to coloring and reading a decodable. 

A year's worth of writing curriculum is also included in the bundle! My writing curriculum will walk you and your students through the very beginning of writing, illustrating, and drawing, all the way to the end of the year where students will be able to write their own poetry. The units build on each other and give students ample practice with both fine motor and phonics. 

Finally, you’ll find my reading curriculum included in this bundle. As with all of my resources, these are developmentally appropriate lessons built to extend your student's knowledge throughout the year. You’ll start the year off building the basics with concepts of print and move on to retelling stories and sequential order eventually making your way to poetry. 

One important note: My reading curriculum is currently a GROWING bundle. I have the first two units completed and you will gain access to the others as I finish and release them, you’ll just need to hop on and re-download. 

This seems like a lot to do, how would you manage it in the classroom? 

First of all, you are correct, teaching all of these things in Kindergarten, no matter what, is a lot to manage. With that being said, I’ve been in your shoes and created these units with YOU in mind. 

All three of these curriculums include daily lesson plans with minimal prep involved. Many are print-and-go type lessons. I suggest printing off the lesson plans and putting them in some kind of binder, or saving them on your computer if you're a paperless kinda person so that you can grab the binder and go each day. 

On each daily lesson, you’ll find an explanation of the lesson goal, the materials you will need, basic, scripted, whole group talking points, and student activity. Any anchor charts you need will be found when you download the file, along with any worksheets or activities students may need. I do my best to keep it simple and straightforward, teachers don’t need any more chaos in their lives! 

You can read more about using my writing curriculums in the classroom here, and all about my alphabet curriculum here! 

How much will I need to adjust to get this all done throughout the school year? 

I’ve done my best to align all three curriculums so that you can teach each, meet the common core standards, and not be too stressed about squeezing it all in! 

Each unit is about a month long. You’ll find that the reading units align very well, nearly directly, with the writing units. Each unit is about one month long, some are shorter. This allows you to adjust for things like teacher work days, holiday breaks, and hopefully (cross your fingers) a snow day here and there. 

You can see the full scope and sequence in the preview here. 

What makes these different from other kindergarten curriculums?

Short answer: a whole bunch! 

Longer answer: These are made with TEACHERS in mind and to be DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE for kindergarten learners. 

• I will never tell you to have your students “go off and write”, the units build so that eventually, your students will be able to do this successfully. They will have all the tools they need to do so. 
• The lessons are easy to follow and easy to adjust. You know your classroom best, adjust as needed. 
• Writing and Reading are fully aligned to make learning as simple as possible. 
• These lessons are engaging and filled with opportunities for your students to practice their skills.  

If you are ready to leap, you can grab the full bundle here!! If you want to look at my other resources, check out my TpT page, here.